During the school year, many working parents find themselves juggling the demands of their careers with the needs and schedules of their children, be it school itself or the myriad extracurricular activities that tend to fill the calendar starting in September.
Spread too thin, working parents can quickly experience stress, anxiety, or burnout. It’s a very real concern, as one-third of the U.S. workforce has a child under age 14 in their household.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to support working parents and caregivers throughout the year without sacrificing high patient care standards or losing good workers. This requires a thoughtful, holistic approach that prioritizes people’s well-being. At the same time, it helps your company stay strong and healthy.
- Research has shown that 80 percent of working parents would be prevented from quitting their jobs if their employers better considered their work/life balance needs. And a strong majority of managers believe that one such consideration – flexible working hours – significantly improves productivity.
The Value of Family-Friendly Benefits
It costs more than $300,000 to raise a child, and working parents need to devote an average of two hours a day to caring for their children on top of their outside-the-home jobs. You can ease the burden considerably by providing family-friendly benefit packages tailored to the unique needs of every individual in your workforce.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to benefits. Instead, focus on supporting working parents (as well as others) during each stage of their lives and personal situations.
Relevant benefit offerings that resonate with working parents tend to include:
- Robust, affordable healthcare plans, as well as flexible spending accounts (FSAs), which can be used to help pay for daycare and other needs, as well as out-of-pocket medical costs.
- Progressive paid time off.
- Mental health support via an employee assistance program (EAP) or access to counseling and related resources to ease stress and anxiety.
- Paid parental leave.
- Education assistance and scholarships for employees and/or their children to pursue their academic interests and career goals.
- On-site daycare is particularly valuable in hospitals and similar clinical settings, where centers cater to workers on all shifts.
- Personalized care plans and resources for every stage of growing a family, including discounted rates at fertility clinics and adoption and surrogacy agencies, as well as prescription ordering and home delivery.
Managers Need to Be Fully On Board
Be sure your managers and senior leaders show a genuine interest in employees’ personal lives as naturally and often as possible. Even something as simple as a manager asking how someone’s child is doing at school can make a positive difference. It sends an important signal of support and camaraderie.
Happier healthcare workers make for better healthcare workers. And better healthcare workers make for better patient outcomes. For more tips on how to best support your employees – working parents or otherwise – or to find the best-allied nursing and other healthcare professionals you need to round out your winning team – contact AlliedUP Co-Op today.
