Is your company a family friendly workplace?

by · Published · Updated

Imagine if you have a potential lead assigned to you but on the same day you got a call from the school that your child has to be picked up immediately or any other potential scenario where you are out of leave to apply, how would you handle the situation? In the 21st century, almost both of the parents or single parents are employed in the working industry hence it is almost impossible to expect employees to have a distinctly compartmentalized professional life and personal life. 

 

As more and more organizations have become aware, they have started to implement family-friendly policies in their organization to provide a better working place for their employees. A family-friendly organization reduces the tension between work and family, at the same time fostering the loyalty of the employees, and also can be profitable by boosting productivity. 

 

Employers cannot expect the employees to focus 100% on their daytime job as this is the time where school, tuition, after school projects, curricular happens and it most likely will interfere with the traditional office working time of 9am-5pm. Their children are a big part of their life hence if they were to work for a family-friendly workplace, there might be a greater sense of loyalty towards the company and in the long-term, a lesser turnover rate. 

 

Some of the family-friendly options may include: 

  • Paid Family Leave/parental leave
  • Flexible schedule
  • Onsite daycare

 

1. Paid family leave/ parental leave

Currently, there are many companies that offer paid parental leave to their employees. Employers can provide a variety of paid, family-related leave options for the employees in order for them to be fully committed when either completing their assigned task at work and/or when spending time with the family. 

 

2.  Flexible schedule 

A flexible schedule is definitely “the way” to create a family-friendly workplace. Allowing employees to clock in and leave earlier would be preferred for most parents as they might have to fetch their children or any other possible family-related errands. Flexible schedules also include allowing employees to work remotely when they are not needed in the office, job sharing, teleworking and so forth. Nonetheless, this does vary depending on the job scope or position that the person is in charge. 

 

3. Onsite daycare/childcare 

Daycare is essential for most of the working parents. It is impossible for them to leave their child home alone all day. Child care assistance can come in many forms. There may be many employers who may not have the budget to have in-house daycare assistance for their employees who are not able to leave their child on that particular day and are not able to take leave. As such, the company might be able to have partnerships with daycare centres that is able to provide such services. However, this might be more applicable for larger organizations to afford such benefits for the employees. 

 

You may also like...