For the first time ever, the majority of households now have two full-time, working parents—and they’re feeling the pressure, especially this time of year.
Summer is particularly challenging for working parents, experts say, as school routines and childcare are upended by the summer break. And the stress is bound to trickle into the workplace.
“Summer is unique for working parents, especially for those of school-age children, because the reliability of full-day care often suddenly disappears,” says Sadie Funk, national director of The Best Place for Working Parents.
When school hours and after-school programs are on hold for the summer, working parents have to be in a mode Funk calls “the great hustle,” exacerbated by summer camps that usually start later and end earlier than typical school days, and many of which don’t run all five days of a work week. Working parents are often piecing together both care and work on a week-by-week basis as they navigate “stress and logistical complexity,” Funk says.
Employers have a key role to play in helping them manage both, and it all comes down to a word that’s risen to the top of the HR lexicon: flexibility.
Funk says access to flexibility—both where and how employees work—is essential to supporting working parents through the summer.
Allowing for more remote or hybrid options, for instance, “can be a real game-changer for working parents, enabling them to handle drop-offs and pickups without stress, adjust their work schedule as needed and still get everything done while being present for their kids,” she says.
And there are positive impacts on the workplace, as well. Funk points to research that finds three-quarters of employees who have access to remote work say they’re engaged and are nearly one-third less likely than their counterparts to be on the job hunt.
At the same time, those who say their workplaces are flexible view the employer as 123 times more supportive. And, unsurprisingly, given the disproportionate impact of childcare on working women, two-thirds of women with access to flexibility plan to remain in their job for at least three years, which is triple the rate for those who don’t.
This time of year, Summer Fridays, which empower employees to disconnect for part of the day, are a low-investment, big-return form of flexibility. Funk says the simple, seasonal policy shift gives working parents valuable peace of mind.
“In turn,” she adds, “this can foster stronger loyalty and engagement.”
A shifting benefits landscape
Other benefits investments that carry significant weight during the summer are dependent care FSAs and childcare assistance, both of which can boost employee financial and mental health.
Yet, pushing for such investments now may be a challenge, as many organizations are instead eyeing benefits rollbacks, with a particular target on family-friendly benefits. For instance, both Deloitte and Zoom recently axed paid family leave and other high-value benefits.
“As some organizations scale back benefits such as PTO or parental leave,” Funk says, “it becomes even more critical to take a thoughtful, data-driven approach to workforce support.”
Before any benefit rollback or policy shifts like a return-to-office mandate, she emphasizes the need for employee surveys, which can provide insights on employee sentiment and inform solutions to balance cost reduction with long-term talent investment.
Ensure HR’s finger is on the pulse of what employees say they do and don’t want from their benefits package and use that to tell that story, and the potential ROI, of benefits expansion or trimming to the C-suite, Funk says.
“This approach not only improves employee support but can also help control costs by identifying and reducing investment in underutilized or low-impact benefits, while prioritizing those that deliver the greatest value to employees and the business.”
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