As working parents have come under increasing pressures, from the cost of living to limited access to childcare, more employers have increased their strategic focus on the wellbeing of this group.
Alistair Dornan, organisational wellbeing director at Gallagher, is clear that this is because employers want to retain working parents in the workforce.
He also predicted that there will be even more developments in this area of support in the next 12 to 18 months.
Jump in strategic support
Already, the proportion of employers with wellbeing strategies aimed at working parents has increased dramatically.
In 2022 just 15 percent of UK employers had such a strategy. This had jumped to 81 percent by 2023, according to Gallagher’s recent Organisational and Career Wellbeing Strategy report.
Dornan said the shift can be explained in part by the fact that employers are now chasing a highly skilled, more mobile, more agile workforce, with more transferable skills.
“People are upping sticks and moving in their droves to new markets. And it’s incumbent upon every leader to do something about it, and support for working parents is one of those areas.”
Dornan added that employers that fail to get to grips with supporting working parents “will find they are no longer relevant”.
Nothing fluffy about non-financial
Demand for benefits like hybrid working and flexible working has grown alongside a greater understanding of the value it gives employees.
“If we go back two or three years, non-financial benefits were just thrust upon the organisation with the assumption that they will be doing good.
“I’m now seeing a change in leadership’s use of those non-financial benefits to be much more thoughtful, really intentional, about how they deliver them for employees. Wellbeing is probably one of the greatest examples of that.”
He said that wellbeing and non-monetary benefits are part and parcel of the work environment, whether that is for people working from home or in the office.
“Those benefits, those intangibles, can help to drive a greater sense of community, reinforce the culture and be a really good attraction tool.”
Key life stages
Non-monetary benefits need to move away from the fluffier wellbeing solutions, he said, to focus on how they can help people at key times in their life, having children being one of them.
“We lose so much talent, particularly female talent, at those critical points in your career, for example, when people have kids. We lose too many brilliant people because we just make it difficult for parents.”
As well as more wellbeing strategies aimed at working parents, Dornan said his team are now seeing a significant number of organisations lean in on the menopause story, for example, because of the number of people leaving the workforce.
Employers have clocked the number of incredibly talented women that exit the workforce because of parental leave inadequacy, menopause inadequacy, and a lack of support at key points, he said.
“Yes, it costs money that’s not financially beneficial if we’re not giving people cash, but having adequate support tools for women at those key points makes a huge difference.”
Benefits evolution
With major culture shifts already underway, Dornan expects more to come particularly for working parents.
“I think we’re going to see three real developments in this space. The first, organisations, somebody, has to lean in and support parents with the often unachievable costs of childcare.
“Every time we’ve talked about parental support with clients and organisations, often one of the parents is working full time just to put the kids into nursery. If we want to retain incredible talent in the workplace, we’ve got to solve that. So support with the costs really, really matters.”
‘Not right now’
He says the second development will be around career support. Using the example of retaining talented women in the workplace, Dornan highlighted the concept of ‘not right now’.
“So, an employee in [the middle of building] their career has other priorities, so when it comes to taking on more they can say ‘I am interested, but not right now’. They can say ‘I want to come back to my career with you as my employer’.”
This approach would work with people going through different life stages, particularly women.
“Seeing that codified in policy could really help. As an initiative it doesn’t cost anything, but it makes it okay for people to say I don’t want to drive my career right now.”
The path back
The third development centres on people who have left the workplace.
Dornan said it was crucial to create the pathways for them to come back into the workforce.
“It can be daunting if you’ve had five, six, seven, eight years out looking after children to have the confidence to come back, particularly with the pace of change.
“Just 18 months ago, nobody was talking to AI. Could you imagine if you’re on maternity leave, or paternity leave and you’re coming back in now?”
