Schools are back in session, with remote, in-person, and hybrid models. Parents and other caregivers are trying to juggle reduced bus schedules, alternate school day regimes, limited school lunches, curtailed childcare availability, and other logistical headaches. U.S. Department of Labor statistics tell us that 41 percent of workers between the ages of 20 and 54 have a child at home, and that about one-third of the workforce is made up of single parents. What can employers do to help?
I’m not talking about what state or federal law may require as far as paid or unpaid leave, (For that, check out this month’s Ask the Lawyers!) but rather about practical suggestions that employers might use to help working parents.
In our Managing Within the Law workshops, we tell our students to be consistent, applying company policies uniformly to everyone. But, in a pandemic, it may be necessary to be more flexible. Here are a few ideas:
- Varying work schedules. While children are remote learning, parents may find it easier to do most of their work very early in the morning or in the evening, and it may not matter to the employer if they are working at 10 a.m. or 10 p.m., as long as the work gets done. (Don’t forget to track hours to ensure that all hours worked are paid.)
- Compressed work weeks. The employee works 10 or 12 hours three or four days a week. (Watch out in states, such as California, which require overtime pay if the employee works more than 8 hours a day.)
- Shift swaps. This may allow employees to work when a spouse or other family member is available to care for the children.
- Job sharing. Discussed in an August, 2020 article in the New York Times, this option, popular in Europe but little used here, allows workers to collect partial unemployment benefits while working reduced hours. This avoids layoffs and enables workers to keep their skills sharp while waiting for business to improve.
- Connections. Allow employees to use email, Slack, or other company communication tools to connect with coworkers who may be able to help with childcare by sharing nannies, forming remote school “pods”, or finding colleagues who have teenagers available for babysitting duty.
- EAP. We all know that the COVID-19 pandemic has placed an enormous amount of stress on everyone, not just working parents. There are employees who suffered the death of a family member without being able to say goodbye and without the closure of a funeral. There are employees who have struggled with their sobriety because their in-person AA or NA meetings were cancelled. There are employees who have assumed responsibility for the grocery shopping, errand running, and transportation needs of an elderly or disabled family member who cannot risk going out in public. Remind your workforce of the employee assistance resources that your organization provides.
- Be understanding and compassionate. Employers who can do that will have a more engaged workforce, through these tough times and afterwards.
What this means to you: Even experienced manager and supervisors are facing new challenges and opportunities since their teams have transitioned to remote work. Our new Managing Remotely webinar prepares managers to meet those challenges and opportunities, showing the pitfalls of electronic communication, how to spot potential legal issues and resolve them quickly, and how to run effective online meetings.
Our web classes have all the advantages of live training – because they are live and instructor-led – without the cost, time and travel of the traditional classroom. To find out more about our national HR training programs or to book a workshop, please call 800-458-2778 or email training@fairmeasures.com.
Updated 09-08-2020
Information here is correct at the time it is posted. Case decisions cited here may be reversed. Please do not rely on this information without consulting an attorney first.