18: Supporting Parenthood: Employee Engagement Strategies (Part 1)

Parents with a child under the age of 18 make up about 40% of the total labor force in the U.S. and around 80% of workers will at some point become a parent over the course of their working life. Working parents are a critical demographic for employers—they are not only desirable employees in terms of experience and expertise, but they also bring a unique perspective and a host of valuable soft skills to their jobs and to the workplace.?

What can organisations do to successfully attract and retain working parents? We had a chat with Jessica W. , Ph.D., Executive Coach and Assistant Professor at the Child Study Center, 耶鲁大学 , who shared some practical tips and insights that employers can use to support working parents within their organisations better (you can watch the full discussion here).

Parents are not a monolith

It’s important to understand that working parents are not a monolith, that every individual will have their own needs depending on their situation, and that most of what we know about motivating people in general can also be applied to working parents (for example, the three big drivers of workplace satisfaction: a sense of purpose, autonomy, and relationships). The following are a few interventions and insights from Jessica to consider:?

1. Put work fulfilment at the forefront

The opportunity cost often feels higher for working parents. There’s a sense that, now that they’re parents, if they're going to be spending time away from their families, it has to be worth it, and not just financially but in a much deeper way. Most really want to feel like their work matters, so having a job that delivers a sense of purpose is important.

2. Design flexibility into the job

This is the degree of control that employees have over their ability to make decisions in their jobs. Most people want more flexibility in their work and there’s data to show that it’s particularly important to working parents, and working moms most especially. The tricky thing for organizations is that flexibility could mean different things to different people. To some, it’s working from home or flexible hours, and for others it’s a shortened work week. One best practice that Jessica suggests is to have some sort of list of flexible accommodations that your organization is willing to make, and then give employees and their managers some leeway to decide which policies are most helpful to them or feasible, given their specific jobs.

3. Make information easily accessible

Make your policies and benefits public. This can either be putting them on your website or including them in a packet of information you give to people during the interview. Many people who are considering starting a family or who are already parents are afraid to ask about company policies or benefits related to this at the interview stage because they’re afraid of what that will signal to their potential employer.?

In the U.S., employees typically don’t announce their pregnancies until the beginning of the second trimester, and as a result, the company may not know for several weeks. It would be helpful to the parent-to-be to have the information that they need, when they need it, so make sure to have your company policies and benefits for parents updated and in an accessible place such as the company wiki or website.

4. The co-worker connection

When they’re job searching, working parents pay a lot of attention to who their colleagues will be. Working moms in particular really want to see if there are other working moms who will be their co-workers or managers before joining a company; this also signals if there is a pathway for advancement for working parents within the company.?

5. It pays to be transparent

People who are not parents or who don’t want to be parents are paying attention to their organization’s parental leave policies as a proxy for how they treat and care about their employees. Even though they may never use these parental leave policies or child care benefits, it signals to them that people are recognized as human beings at this organization and not just as workers.

Part 2 in our next issue!

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?? What we’re reading/listening to this week:

A Cup of Ambition by Jessica W. Ph.D.

A Cup of Ambition is a weekly newsletter by Jessica Wilen for high-achieving moms who value having a meaningful career AND being an involved parent. You can read/subscribe to it here.

About Attuned

Attuned is a psychology-backed, AI-driven platform that shows companies what really matters to their employees by measuring and visualizing the values and intrinsic motivations that drive each person. This allows busy managers to get to know their teams quicker, identify blind spots at-a-glance, and communicate more effectively. The result: increased engagement, productivity and innovation, more Psychological Safety, and ultimately happier organizations.

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