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How to Work with Parents During Back-to-School Season

During the summer, parents are busy shuffling their kids to and from activities, shipping them off to summer camp or loading the family into the car and heading to the beach.

After Labor Day, the chaos and fun of summer gives way to the stress and structure of school. The stress that students feel during back-to-school days often weighs on the rest of the family, particularly the parents.

Company leaders and supervisors can help employees with school-age kids maintain their focus and productivity by showing support and offering added flexibility. Here are a few ways you can help your employees’ changeover to the school year.

Collaborate on schedule flexibility

Be conscious of working parents’ many obligations and work with them to help maintain a mutually beneficial work-life balance. Some workers might want to start their day later so they can drop their kids off at daycare or take them to the bus. Other employees might need to leave early for a soccer game or a chorus concert.

In addition to offering some schedule flexibility, keep lines of communication open so you can see if the modified schedule is allowing workers to meet their professional obligations, as well as their personal ones. You might be surprised to find that employees’ modified schedules work out better for everyone, or that some employees find their original schedule was better after all.

Permit remote work

Thanks to technology, remote work isn’t just for certain specialized positions anymore. According to a recent survey by FlexJobs and WorldatWork, 85-percent of employers have set up remote working arrangements on an as-needed basis.

Telecommuting arrangements are invaluable for employees who want to manage parental responsibilities. Telecommuting is vital benefit for parents with very young children, as they can spend precious time at home with little ones who demand attention around the clock.

Furthermore, telecommuting has been shown to significantly reduce unscheduled absences.

Use wellness initiatives

In addition to fall being the start of the school year, it also kicks off cold and flu season. Less daylight and more harsh weather means fewer workers could be getting exercise.

Wellness initiatives can help parents stay healthy during this time of year, when they are pent up inside and their kids are regularly bringing home viruses. Gym membership discounts, flu shots and other wellness perks can head off the ill effects of the season, keeping stressed employees healthy and productive.

Respect time off

While your employees may have all the vacation time they need, their workload or the company culture may discourage them from using that.

Be sure that all employees can take this time they have earned without seeing work pile up in their absence or being browbeaten upon their return. If the workload truly is too much for someone to take time off, then you may have a staffing issue on your hands.

At Career Concepts, we support parents at all levels of our client companies by providing these employers with sufficient staffing levels and managed services to tackle various administrative issues. Please contact us today to find out how we can help your company succeed this fall.

Blog published date

Sep 14, 2017
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