Every year, parents face the same struggle: balancing childcare costs against time away from work to look after their children. Understandably, it’s often an emotionally charged decision, as parents can feel guilty, anxious, or overwhelmed by the competing demands of work and family.
Recently, the decision has become even more difficult and stressful, given the accompanying financial burden. According to children’s charity Coram, childcare costs have risen 6% this year, with the average annual cost of a full-time nursery place for a child under the age of two now a staggering £15,709.
The Government has made some steps to address soaring costs. Most recently, introducing a new childcare initiative allowing eligible parents to receive 30 hours free childcare a week for three to four-year-olds.
But for many, this is simply not enough to ease financial pressures. Parents are therefore increasingly turning to their employers for support with their childcare costs. Proprietary data from Perkbox Vivup revealed that its users increased their use of employer-provided children’s entertainment vouchers by 21%, during this year’s summer holiday.
An unavoidable consequence of this worsening financial burden is the drop in wellbeing of parents in the workplace. And without adequate employer support, many working parents will simply choose to exit the workforce, leaving employers at risk of a talent drain. Worse yet, women are seven times more likely than men to leave the labour market due to caring responsibilities, a key driver of the gender pay gap.
What solutions look like can be varied, whether it be crafting dedicated spaces for parents or tailored rewards and benefits to employee assistance programmes, for example. But ultimately, the result must be employers providing meaningful support to parents.
Inclusive and supportive culture
With over a quarter of the UK’s workforce estimated to be parents, it’s likely that many of an organisation’s workforce will be trying to balance their jobs with caring responsibilities.
Creating a culture that accommodates for such responsibilities is critical. For instance, employers should encourage parents to adjust their work schedules to better align with their family needs. This can include flexible start and end times, compressed workweeks, or the option to work from home.
Formalising flexible working arrangements can also be a useful tool, as if parents move between teams, roles or managers, it ensures that any allowances made for their caring responsibilities travel with them.
Wellbeing support
Parenthood can bring immense happiness, but it can also come with significant emotional and financial stress.
Implementing an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) service to support employee’s emotional wellbeing is critical. And if one already exists, re-promote it regularly, so employees know where to go, should they need additional support.
Organisations can also establish a “parents’ network”, to create a dedicated forum for those with caring responsibilities to support each other and share practical tips.
Simplifying existing benefits offering
Many employers already offer a number of benefits that will support parents. However, such policies are often buried in an employment contract or scattered across a number of initiatives.
Offering access to all forms of family care from a single point, goes a long way to ensuring that parents have access to the full range of support on offer – and encourages people to take up the offering. Our Family Care platform, for example, ensures that employees have access to the care support they need, when they need it, from a wide range of trusted providers.
Personalised rewards
Often overlooked, the provision of tailored rewards can offer parents financial support, whilst also supporting a diverse and inclusive workforce.
Offering a range of flexible rewards, from children’s entertainment vouchers to supermarket discounts, means employees can choose the perks and benefits that fit with their unique personal financial situation and the distinct challenges they are facing, no matter what their caring responsibilities might be.
This implicitly emphasises the value of each worker as an individual, rather than rolling out blanket benefit offerings that may be completely unsuited to some.
It takes a village…
As the old proverb goes, “it takes a village to raise a child”, and employers have a significant role to play – especially amid a period of rising costs. Ultimately, by offering meaningful support to parents, businesses will enhance the employee value proposition, and at the same time improve their ability to attract and retain top talent.
