When dad’s are supported at work, everyone wins
Any parent will tell you that those first few weeks of adjusting to a new family dynamic on little sleep is both physically and emotionally taxing. But balancing work and family isn’t easy for either parent: while women are still too often expected to shoulder the bulk of caregiving responsibilities at home at the expense of their career advancement, men face equally taxing pressures that are often over looked.
In 2014, the Australian Human Rights Commission found that 75 per cent of dads wanted to take additional leave to care for their kids, but more than half of them didn’t because they couldn’t afford it. In a more recent, global report, it was also found that most fathers want to be more involved in their children’s lives and invested in their family relationships, but are unable to do so because of a lack of supportive gender and social norms, policies and structures within their workplace.
Providing both parents with equal opportunity to share parenting responsibilities without financial burden would make a significant difference for young families; but it could also be a giant leap towards improving women’s participation in the workforce, and allowing fathers to take a more active role in the raising of their children. But it’s a big, cultural shift that requires active engagement on all levels for it to have an impact.
Here’s seven practical ways employers can support men to share the unpaid care work, be more engaged fathers and promote gender equality.
1. Grant flexible work arrangements to all staff
Flexible work arrangements support men’s caregiving role by giving them greater freedom to determine when and where to fulfil their job responsibilities. This allows them to respond to the needs of their family and provide an equal share of caregiving responsibilities, while still meeting their workplace commitments.
“When I was in the office five days a week, I wouldn’t see much of my kids to be honest. Now I am able to spend time with them in the morning before they go to school and again in the afternoon. Without the daily commute, I can work around those two pockets of time with my kids,” said Ventia Commercial Manager, Jason McCallum.
2. Provide childcare support to fathers too
Supporting fathers, either financially or by setting up workplace childcare facilities, allows men to take on an equal share of caregiving and family responsibilities, especially when childcare hours coincide with work hours or for single parent households. By facilitating childcare arrangements, this also results in lower absenteeism and stress.
3. Offer paternity and parental leave, and incentivise fathers to take it
Providing paid paternity leave and encouraging men to use it enhances gender equality at home and may reduce the barriers to parenthood. It can have positive effects on children’s development by allowing fathers to bond and be more engaged with their kids, and helping build men’s confidence around parenting.
If your organisation is in a position to offer fathers and partners more than the current two weeks ‘partner pay’ before returning to work, you won’t regret it! You may instead be open to individual negotiations on how to best support them.
4. Ensure men know about available family policies and how to use them
Men are not always willing to ask about available family policies and parental benefits due to social norms that don’t envision them within a caregiving role. Ensuring that male employees know what supportive arrangements are available and how they can utilise them will help encourage more men – and their entire families – to receive the benefits of such policies.
5. Create a workplace culture that values men as fathers and caregivers
Social norms, roles and stereotypes that place men in the breadwinner role and do not value their contributions as caregivers can limit men’s confidence and capacity to be engaged fathers and partners. Workplaces can help address that by ensuring zero tolerance for discrimination against fathers, and by taking measures such as creating a peer-support network for working fathers.
6. Encourage senior male staff to lead by example
Many men don’t take parental leave because they fear it will have a negative impact on their career, or because they are the primary income earner of the family. Male managers can help address this by being role models: their taking paternity leave and using other parental benefits normalises these choices for all male employees.
7. Recognise the benefits to employees and the company
Many of the skills developed by parenthood – leadership, ability to adapt to change, time management – can be transferred to the workplace. By recognising these skills as valuable and investing in both male and female parents and caregivers, businesses can benefit from a more productive and skilled labour force with greater employee retention.
As a society, we’re getting better at accommodating the needs of women in the workplace when it comes to parenting responsibilities; but for true equality to ever be reached, the same consideration needs to be given to a father (or partner). Family-friendly workplace policies can make a big difference in expanding choices for both men and women, removing pressure around decisions of if and when to have children, and allowing everyone to fulfil their full potential at work and at home, to the benefit of the entire economy and society.
Happy Father’s Day!
Working Parents Connect partner with a wide range of family-friendly employers across all industry sectors (including startups, SME’s, charities and large corporates) and offer bespoke recruitment services, job advertising and marketing opportunities to support talent attraction, diversity & inclusion and recruitment strategies.
To find out how Working Parents Connect can help promote your family-friendly policies and connect you with a highly-skilled, experienced and often overlooked market, contact us here.