Empowering Working Families in Your Organisation

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Working families come in all shapes and sizes – each with their own unique story. Whether your people are parents, carers, pet owners, or all three, supporting them in the workplace is key to creating a thriving and inclusive environment.

With 13 million parents and 3 million unpaid carers currently working in the UK, it’s highly likely that some are part of your organisation. But how can you prioritise and satisfy their needs to benefit both your staff and your business’s success?

Read on as we identify these needs and what you can do to support them.

The Impact of Working Family Dynamics

As a parent, childcare is a big concern. That’s because parents are not only tasked with finding care that suits their schedules and reflects their values, but also sourcing options that are affordable enough to warrant staying in work.

Unfortunately for many lower income families, the cost of childcare consumes their salary to such a degree that quitting their job makes more financial sense.  

In fact, the Working Family Index found some respondents whose hourly childcare fees would have exceeded their hourly salary - forcing them to leave employment and provide the care themselves. When you factor in families with multiple young children, this can quickly become a problem for a significant portion of the workforce.  

But that’s not to say that childcare doesn’t pose challenges for those who can manage financially. As a parent, your schedule needs to revolve around your children during school holidays and after work. This creates an issue where staff are still ‘working’ even when they aren’t at work, often leading to burnout, fatigue, and a consequential impact on performance and engagement.

Man with baby with solid fill

Research finds that two-thirds of working parents meet the criteria for parental burnout

For new parents facing the end of maternity leave, it can be daunting to decide how they’ll juggle their new lifestyle. If the support isn’t sufficient, many employees may not return to their previous roles.

Less than a quarter (24%) of women go back to fulltime employment after having children, and 79% of that demographic leave their jobs due to the challenges of juggling work while caring for a newborn.  

When it comes to workers who provide unpaid care for older or disabled relatives, 62% said that they had no choice in taking on the role – and an estimated 600 leave their jobs every day to fulfil that role.

Providing unpaid care while holding down employment can take a huge toll on staff, often:

Negatively impacting their mental & physical health

Hindering their job performance and ability to work

Damaging their finances and savings

How Lack of Working Family Support Can Harm Your Business

Failing to provide effective support for working families can be detrimental to your organisation. Not only do you risk short term impacts such as a distracted workforce or spikes in annual leave during school holidays, but it can also hurt the wider success of your business.   

Ineffective support can force at least one member of many working families to leave their job – elevating your turnover rates and making it harder for you to attract talented workers who have (or are thinking of starting) a family.

While your entire workforce won’t be made up of caregivers, the effects of their stress can seep out and impact the wider team. Other employees may have to pick up more tasks to account for care-related burnout, or work longer hours to cover for parents during school holidays. This creates a domino effect of overstretched workers who are unable to bring their most productive, engaged and present selves to work.

Solutions to Support Working Families 

Supporting working families should go beyond a blanket approach. To truly make a difference to the lives of their people, employers need to offer a variety of benefits that cater to the mental, physical and financial needs of their workforce.

By providing flexible support options, you can help employees manage their unique family responsibilities, whatever they may be, and foster a workplace where every family feels empowered.

How We Can Help

We offer a range of benefits designed to champion all areas of wellbeing for your working families. This comprehensive support includes:

Family Care: Family Care connects your staff to a network of care providers, support helplines and a care budget to contribute to unexpected costs, enabling them to be both physically and emotionally present at work.

Family Pay: Our Family Pay childcare salary sacrifice benefit helps ease financial strain by enabling employees to spread childcare costs in manageable chunks.

Employee Assistance Programme & Your Care: From day-to-day challenges at home to dealing with stress at work, Vivup’s Employee Assistance Programme and Your Care platform helps staff address issues before they make an impact via confidential counselling services, expert resources, self-help tools, and more.  

To learn more about how we can help you create an environment where working families feel equipped to thrive, visit vivup.co.uk today.