Maternity leave and paternity leave are great. Sometimes it’s required, if your employee qualifies for FMLA, and sometimes it’s something your company does to help retain great employees. Offering support for nursing mothers is also great. Daycare subsidies or onsite daycare is also a huge perk. But what about parents (usually mothers, but more and more fathers) who return to the workforce? What supports do you have in place to help make your company a great place for people with children (not just babies) to work?
Joanne Lipman, the author of “That’s What She Said: What Men and Women Need to Know About Working Together” has an article in the Harvard Business Review about the supports parents need when they return to the workforce after taking a few years off to raise the children. She writes:
When it comes to working families, employers and politicians tend to focus on new mothers and fathers. Yet parents who leave the workforce when their kids are young but later want to reenter it might be corporate America’s greatest untapped resource. With unemployment rates near historic lows and companies bemoaning labor shortages, it’s time to tap into this talent pool.
To keep reading, click here: Harvard Gives 5 Ways to Be Family-Friendly (and None of Them Involve Maternity/Paternity Leave)
Great points! Family friendly workplaces help co-workers face challenges for family members of all ages…babies, school age children, teenagers, young adults, and eventually aging parents. The call to be a supportive family member can come at any age, at any time, for any marital status.
Great starting point to develop effective childcare programs whether employers funded or a government funded system. Children are a minimum of 18 years disruption effect on any career path. To nurture and keep high functioning employees, this should be a necessary investment and not just for high income earners but all wage earners.