2019 National Working Families Report release

Our partners Parents at Work have today released their 2019 National Working Families Report with the aim to better understand what working parents need from workplaces and government to best combine work with caring responsibilities.

“The survey revealed 62 per cent of parents and carers report difficulties looking after their own physical and mental health as they try to balance competing work and family pressures”

One-third of parents surveyed reported that work and family responsibilities contributed to stress and tension in the relationship with their partners and with their children with Parents At Work CEO, Emma Walsh, stating “the majority of working parents reported difficulty striking the right balance between their work and family commitments”. These are findings that are mirrored through our work at Working Parents Connect with a high proportion of parents looking to move from their job immediately to seek better workplace flexibility and in turn, better work-life integration.

Emma Walsh explains in the report “that most individuals reported that their job helped them feel personally fulfilled but highlighted the need for more support to better manage the pressures of work and care demands. Top priorities included a need for more flexibility over when and where they worked, reduction in job pressure and overall workload and help with care services such as having access to child care at work, or being offered child care rebates from their employer”.

Such findings heighten the importance of our work and support the need for a niche recruitment platform such as ours, specifically connecting parents with flexible and family-friendly employers. It also places huge value on our Support Services directory where we directly connect parents with a range of providers and businesses that can best support them with the career and family juggle.

We need to really listen to these statistics and findings, and collectively make significant changes to the way we support and cater for working parents.

Working Parents Connect is a formal and proud supporter of the 2019 National Working Families Report and we look forward to the full release in December.