If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that alternate work arrangements are valuable! Many companies who offered work-at-home for employees have decided to continue this arrangement in some form for the foreseeable future. Working from home, and other more flexible work options, are helpful for a wide range of employees, but especially those with children. And if your top performers also happen to be parents, you can help your company retain them with a few strategies for flexible work practices.
Three flexible work practices that help with employee retention
If faced with taking care of their family or holding onto their job, many people with children may opt-out of a workplace that doesn’t offer flexible work practices. But you can cut your hard-working, child-raising employees a break when you offer the following:
- If it works, keep it going. It may be a smart move to continue allowing work-at-home if it was a good fit for your company. If this includes full or partial work-at-home arrangements, your employees will thank you. Working from home makes it much easier to keep up with kids—whether they’re also home, at school, or in daycare. Parents can spend break time getting meals together, picking up, dropping off, putting kids down for naps, or getting them off the school bus. As every parent will tell you, every extra minute helps.
- Be open-minded about hours. It also helps to offer scheduling that doesn’t follow the standard 9-5, which isn’t always the best option for parents with young or school-age children. Flexible scheduling that helps employees to work around other parts of their day will help them maintain productivity and continue to get work done. Otherwise, they may decide their job is too stressful to maintain alongside childcare.
- Limit meetings. These can be a drain on valuable work hours when employees can spend more time producing, rather than talking at a meeting. So if a meeting can be just as easily handled by an email, opt for that mode of communication. Also, if you have regular team or project meetings, try to cut down on frequency. When you need to have meetings, keep them efficient by circulating an agenda beforehand, moving through content, and discouraging excessive idle chatter.
Need Suggestions?
Your recruiter is a staffing expert and can help you figure out other ways to retain employees. This can include making the best matches for your company and open job opportunities. And if you’re in the Atlanta area, let Snelling Georgia Group help. To learn more, contact us today!
