During the pandemic the term "working parent" has taken on a whole new meaning. People working from home have had to deal with personal responsibilities in parallel with professional ones much more intensively. The emotional toll of having to worry about their job, their children's education, plus the health and well-being of their families is now enormous. Nevertheless, there are quite creative ways in which companies on a limited budget can offer special support to employees with children. Here are three you might try.
1. Crowdsourcing
After more than 200 Transfix employees started working remotely this spring, their teams began using the #Transfixparents Slack channel to share ideas, useful articles and other resources to help parents juggle childcare and professional responsibilities. The channel also created a place for venting feelings and storytelling for mental relaxation. Slack and other tools have generally proved useful for providing a reminder of the company's existing benefits and advantages for employees.
2. Accept their own plans
More and more companies are introducing flexible working hours. This change allows employees to work according to a schedule they define themselves, so they can take care of children and family throughout the day. For example, specifically with the aforementioned Slack tool, you can easily implement a system of schedules that lets the whole team know who is in family care mode and thus may react more slowly.
Some companies have also tried to change the times of some regular meetings which are difficult for parents to make, particularly if held in the early morning hours. Many working parents are concerned about not being able to perform well enough, plus the impact balancing job and family will have on their work. So at this time it is good to communicate with employees as necessary to redefine their goals and clearly reveal expectations so to avoid a sense of frustration or fear.
3. Offer cheap but meaningful benefits
Shipstation, an Austin-based shipping software company, has begun offering its nearly 300 employees a new benefit: a prepaid food delivery service from a select supplier whom it does not have to pay for shipping of its orders. At the same time, the company considers the children themselves who are at home, preparing various programmes for them to have fun and keep busy: for example, an online magic show, various themed webinars and virtual lunches with film heroes, etc.
What cheap but creative ways and activities have you introduced at your company for working parents with children? Share your good practice!
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