Flexibility is key, says Robert Half director as new research finds 36 per cent of working parents are putting in longer hours compared to a year ago
As the summer ends and families prepare for the new school year, working parents face a unique set of challenges in maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Director and workplace expert at Robert Half, Tara Parry has seen firsthand the struggles that this group navigates during this transitional time.
As a working parent herself, she highlights some of her own challenges. She also points to some findings recently released by Robert Half’s workplace survey. She says the recent survey and the main highlight sheds light on the experiences of working parents, providing quantifiable data to support what many already know anecdotally.
"Any working parent will tell you that they eat, sleep and live but that we don't always quantify it so it's just nice to see some quantifiable data on it. I think that just helps educate the broader public at large about what it's like to be a working parent this time of year,” says Parry.
The data from the research reveals that 36 per cent of working parents are putting in longer hours this year compared to a year ago, a 7-point increase over the national average of 29 per cent. "More than one of three parents are working longer hours and are still trying to parent," she noted. Additionally, within that cohort, 70 per cent of working parents say the perk they value the most at work is a flexible work schedule.
“Flexibility can cover a lot of different things depending on the circumstance or the context," says Parry. "It's just about being amenable to what works but what they value most is trust and understanding. Often with employment and with time comes more trust. If time and tenure equal trust, this is the time of year where [parents] are really trying to take advantage of that.”
This emphasis on trust and understanding reflects the intense guilt that many working parents also feel, asserts Parry, as she points to it being one important aspect that isn’t often discussed. “It’s the amount of guilt that parents carry, and it’s guilt of not doing a good enough job at work, [including] guilt of not being present enough for your kids when they might need you. It's a constant tension between those levels of guilt."
Employers who can provide flexibility stand to benefit among their employees. Simple accommodations like allowing parents to adjust their start and end times, working in windows throughout the day, or taking time off during critical transition periods can go a long way and are just some of the things Parry highlights as part of her findings. Additionally, offering benefits like paid parental leave or caregiver leave can provide a crucial safety net to working parents.
“Flexibility tends to be at the top of the list of things employers can do to fill in the blank here. Whether it's how to attract Gen Z workers, how to prevent burnout in the workspace or how to attract working parents, flexibility is always at the top.”
Parry asserts that that flexibility means different things to different people. For some, that's more vacation time, resulting in employers offering unlimited vacation. Of course, with the exception being being employees can’t take more than three weeks at a time, or certain blackout periods during the year, Parry explains, “but you can take as much time as you want if you're getting the work done.”
However, she’s quick to point to other research Robert Half released that surrounds productivity and burnout. As she puts it, there's an “interesting relationship” currently happening where productivity is up, but so are the number of working hours that people are working. She asserts it’s important to not conflate the two things.
“Productivity might be up, but is it because people are working longer hours? When you go home with your computer [or phone] in your pocket every day, you never really leave. You’re never really present for work, but you're also then not present for your family either,” she says. “Does that help or hinder productivity?”
For working parents, Parry believes they’re constantly running that battle of being present at work as well as investing time for the kids, “and trying to not be on your screen when you're with your kids."
In the end, employers should take a hard look at their resourcing practices, considering the long-term costs of understaffing versus the investment in additional headcount. While it might mean employers have to add an additional head count, and despite there being a cost associated with that, organizations should consider what the long-term payoff for it is, Parry notes. As opposed to managing the margin by an extra 1 per cent because they’ve managed that headcount.
She also reminds employees to understand what benefits they’re eligible for and how to access them, so it empowers them to make decisions.
“One of the biggest things you can do is just communicate effectively,” says Parry. “Communication with your upline leadership about what you're going through and what you need, I think, is probably step one and a real baseline. We have to stop asking employers to constantly be reinventing themselves just to keep people when sometimes the job is what it is.”
