Do you know the only nation from its peer group that does not have guaranteed paid maternity leave in place is the US?
41 countries have mandated maternity leave. Therefore, it would be a good time for the USA to also start assisting working parents.
Business Should Be Supporting Parents
There are a few states that have started thinking about this issue and are trying to solve them on their own. However, only 19% of employees actually get provided with paid family leave in the USA. This situation adds to the huge decline of the birth rate in the US.
In this business blog post, we have ways employees can adapt to basic maternity leave policies and support parents as much as they can. Let us view the family-friendly policies workplace should have in place to assist in gender balance and support.
Drop The Nine To Five
The fact is that children, and surprisingly it seems like the school’s systems also do not know what a nine to five job is. Have you ever come across a school that works with the usual work hours of parents?
Working parents require a lot of flexibility from their workplace, including a few days of the week where they can work remotely.
Employers should provide parents with the flexibility to be there for their child’s school play, events and look after them from home when they do not feel well. Employers should have empathy towards the responsibility of working parents.
Remote Working
Employees should get shown empathy. However, it does not mean that parents should get less accounted for or responsible for getting their tasks completed. Similarly, it also means not making parents feel guilty for having a family and adding to the population of the country.
Many parents prefer remote working. Why? Because it does not require them to spend more time traveling and can spend those hours with their family or to get their work done. Moreover, working from home can be less stressful for them.
There are many advantages to allowing your employees to work from home some days a week, especially if they have young families.
Support Breastfeeding
Many new mothers have to think about many things when returning to work after having a baby. The main thing they worry about is figuring out how they can pump in the office on top of other baby-related worries of leaving them.
Some of the pumpings are about scheduling. However, most of the time, and worry is about where they can pump and store the milk. It is something employees should not worry about because employers get required to give them a private area for them to pump.
In a perfect workplace, a new mom should not even have to worry or address such an issue, as it should get covered. A business should simply ensure their office has a room for mothers and let all employees know about it, so they know if they ever need it.
Embrace All Families
There are many categories that get legally protected, meaning companies cannot discriminate against a person based on their age, sex, sexual orientation, or disability. However, this does not mean that all families are likely to get treated equally.
Organizations can make some changes to ensure families- no matter if they are adoptive or foster- should maternity and paternity leave.
Many companies have policies in place for adoptive parents, especially if they are adopting infants. Some are working around for foster parents, so they can adjust and settle with their new baby.
Offer Childcare Support
There is a huge lack of enough childcare structure in the USA for children needing daycare or after-school programs. The programs that are in place are expensive and extremely poorly managed. This situation is the main reason for many families relying on one person to work because daycare for the child would take up the whole of the second income, not making much difference for them.
Many companies are beginning to realize this issue and provide their employees with various childcare options like backup daycare services and childcare subsidies. This makes it easy for parents to get affordable daycare to support their child when the babysitter is sick or cannot come in for some reason.
In Conclusion
For many years, businesses dodged putting family-friendly practices in place. Why? Because mothers would get expected to stay at home with their children for a few years after giving birth, especially if they were working before that. However, such practices and presumptions are not in place as much as they were before.
In the USA, paid maternity and paternity leave should become a must. In 40 countries, this practice is in place and is putting the USA in the last position. Let us be honest, for a wealthy nation that is not a good position to be in.
Moreover, businesses can now stand up to such practices. They can make adjustments in their offices to modernize and invest in their workplace to encourage loyalty and retention.
Also read: Do You Have a Poverty Mentality?