在美国,缺乏平易近人、可靠的儿童保育系统一直是父母所面临的挑战。新冠疫情所带来的巨变则将这个问题变成了一个严重的危机。Catalyst-CNBC最近对全美1000名职场父母的调查发现他们存在普遍的担忧和工作不安全感,超过一半(57%)的职场父母称,他们认为为人父母的职责与职场工作相互冲突。
学校开学时间、远程学习和突然关闭的接连发生已经干扰了职场父母的日常生活,由其是母亲的生活,因为她们面临着前所未有的精神健康、身体健康和经济挑战。数据显示,一些女性甚至打算在可预见的未来辞去工作。如果雇主不解决这些问题,它们可能会不断地丢失宝贵的人才,并承担往往更高的新员工聘请和培训成本。
显而易见,企业领袖对此置之不理会付出很大的代价。我们的调查显示,我们应该让更多的雇主为其雇员加强并提供有意义的支持。那些拥有儿童保育和父母支持项目的公司必须围绕这些项目加强沟通,从而确保雇员能够安心地享受这些福利。
以下是我们的调查发现:
超过三分之一的父母并未意识到其雇主提供这类方案,或公司是否存在这类方案。
近半数(49%)的职场母亲和39%的职场父亲称,他们并未意识到雇主提供了任何儿童保育福利。
五分之二(42%)的父母担心,利用公司给他们提供的这些福利会给其工作带来风险,超过三分之一的父母担心,如果自己向公司提出类似要求的话会丢掉工作。
当前,企业领袖必须为雇员推出果敢、具体的解决方案。那些长期以来处于领军地位的企业要付出更多的努力。例如,美国银行扩大了儿童保育支付补贴金的范围,只要孩子在2020年年底之前未满12岁,其父母均可以领取。公司还提供儿童托管报销(而不仅仅是部分补贴,或按照雇员税前收入对独立的托管补贴账户设置上限)。
在Catalyst,我们丰富了现有的病假、弹性工时和弹性休假政策的种类,以便为雇员提供支持。雇员可以将其工作时长降至每周3天(21小时),薪资也会随之降低,但不会影响其福利、可请假的时长或年终分红。雇员能够提出无薪休假或间歇性休假请求。
引领儿童托管的5个方式
我们有必要让更多的雇主前瞻性地度过这场危机,并帮助各大机构重新思考疫情期间以及之后雇员工作的形式。以下是我们的一些建议:
采用灵活工时。考虑所有员工的灵活工时或灵活请假问题,包括无子女员工,且不设置惩罚。灵活性并非仅仅是日常或每周的问题,而是横跨一个雇员一生的灵活性,从儿童托管到老年人护理,以及期间的种种事宜。
来自于顶层的投入。加强雇员对政策的采用,例如由机构最高级别领导发布灵活工作制度并对其表示支持。经理们能够以这些政策为准绳,调整其团队的工作量,以确保雇员在工作方面可以按照自己的能力行事。
进行创新。制定不同的方案,为更加创新、灵活的儿童托管模式提供支持。例如,可以是对已经成为家庭一员的儿童保育工提供支持;在工作期间的受监管日托;或甚至为那些居住较近的员工提供创新的员工共享儿童护理项目。
重新思考公司的办公空间。对可用的办公室空间进行评估,看是否有可能在公司内部设立儿童托管区。与当地社区、非营利性教育机构和儿童托管机构合作,看看这个空间是否在重新返修后安全地扩大可用的儿童托管服务。
打造更好的居家办公室。提升对居家办公科技的支持:如果必要的话,与技术供应商探讨是否能够让雇员选择为其兼职居家办公室添置更好的设备。随之而来的商用办公空间成本的降低以及有助于生产力的可靠技术将值回票价。
新冠疫情在我们的文化中打下了深深的不平等烙印。那些致力于多元化以及保留顶级人才的雇主们必须推出创新的解决方案和政策,来确保所有人都能够参与职场。工作的未来取决于此,而且我们的挑战和机会就是打造适合每个雇员的职场,即便在疫情危机过后亦是如此。(财富中文网)
洛林•哈里顿是Catalyst公司的总裁兼首席执行官。
译者:冯丰
审校:夏林
马萨诸塞州托儿所入托时间。
在美国,缺乏平易近人、可靠的儿童保育系统一直是父母所面临的挑战。新冠疫情所带来的巨变则将这个问题变成了一个严重的危机。Catalyst-CNBC最近对全美1000名职场父母的调查发现他们存在普遍的担忧和工作不安全感,超过一半(57%)的职场父母称,他们认为为人父母的职责与职场工作相互冲突。
学校开学时间、远程学习和突然关闭的接连发生已经干扰了职场父母的日常生活,由其是母亲的生活,因为她们面临着前所未有的精神健康、身体健康和经济挑战。数据显示,一些女性甚至打算在可预见的未来辞去工作。如果雇主不解决这些问题,它们可能会不断地丢失宝贵的人才,并承担往往更高的新员工聘请和培训成本。
显而易见,企业领袖对此置之不理会付出很大的代价。我们的调查显示,我们应该让更多的雇主为其雇员加强并提供有意义的支持。那些拥有儿童保育和父母支持项目的公司必须围绕这些项目加强沟通,从而确保雇员能够安心地享受这些福利。
以下是我们的调查发现:
超过三分之一的父母并未意识到其雇主提供这类方案,或公司是否存在这类方案。
近半数(49%)的职场母亲和39%的职场父亲称,他们并未意识到雇主提供了任何儿童保育福利。
五分之二(42%)的父母担心,利用公司给他们提供的这些福利会给其工作带来风险,超过三分之一的父母担心,如果自己向公司提出类似要求的话会丢掉工作。
当前,企业领袖必须为雇员推出果敢、具体的解决方案。那些长期以来处于领军地位的企业要付出更多的努力。例如,美国银行扩大了儿童保育支付补贴金的范围,只要孩子在2020年年底之前未满12岁,其父母均可以领取。公司还提供儿童托管报销(而不仅仅是部分补贴,或按照雇员税前收入对独立的托管补贴账户设置上限)。
在Catalyst,我们丰富了现有的病假、弹性工时和弹性休假政策的种类,以便为雇员提供支持。雇员可以将其工作时长降至每周3天(21小时),薪资也会随之降低,但不会影响其福利、可请假的时长或年终分红。雇员能够提出无薪休假或间歇性休假请求。
引领儿童托管的5个方式
我们有必要让更多的雇主前瞻性地度过这场危机,并帮助各大机构重新思考疫情期间以及之后雇员工作的形式。以下是我们的一些建议:
采用灵活工时。考虑所有员工的灵活工时或灵活请假问题,包括无子女员工,且不设置惩罚。灵活性并非仅仅是日常或每周的问题,而是横跨一个雇员一生的灵活性,从儿童托管到老年人护理,以及期间的种种事宜。
来自于顶层的投入。加强雇员对政策的采用,例如由机构最高级别领导发布灵活工作制度并对其表示支持。经理们能够以这些政策为准绳,调整其团队的工作量,以确保雇员在工作方面可以按照自己的能力行事。
进行创新。制定不同的方案,为更加创新、灵活的儿童托管模式提供支持。例如,可以是对已经成为家庭一员的儿童保育工提供支持;在工作期间的受监管日托;或甚至为那些居住较近的员工提供创新的员工共享儿童护理项目。
重新思考公司的办公空间。对可用的办公室空间进行评估,看是否有可能在公司内部设立儿童托管区。与当地社区、非营利性教育机构和儿童托管机构合作,看看这个空间是否在重新返修后安全地扩大可用的儿童托管服务。
打造更好的居家办公室。提升对居家办公科技的支持:如果必要的话,与技术供应商探讨是否能够让雇员选择为其兼职居家办公室添置更好的设备。随之而来的商用办公空间成本的降低以及有助于生产力的可靠技术将值回票价。
新冠疫情在我们的文化中打下了深深的不平等烙印。那些致力于多元化以及保留顶级人才的雇主们必须推出创新的解决方案和政策,来确保所有人都能够参与职场。工作的未来取决于此,而且我们的挑战和机会就是打造适合每个雇员的职场,即便在疫情危机过后亦是如此。(财富中文网)
洛林•哈里顿是Catalyst公司的总裁兼首席执行官。
译者:冯丰
审校:夏林
The lack of an affordable, reliable childcare system in the U.S. has long been a challenge for parents. The upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic has turned it into an acute crisis. A recent Catalyst-CNBC survey of 1,000 working parents across the United States found widespread fear and job insecurity; more than half (57%) of working parents said they believe being a parent is a strike against them in the workplace.
Hybrid school schedules, remote learning, and abrupt closures have disrupted daily life for working parents, especially mothers, who are facing unprecedented mental health, physical health, and financial challenges, too. Data suggests some women are even dropping out of the workforce for the foreseeable future. If employers don’t address these issues, they risk continuing to lose valuable talent and bearing the often-higher cost of hiring and training new people.
Corporate leaders simply can’t afford to sit on the sidelines. Our survey indicates that more employers need to step up and provide meaningful support for their employees. And those that do have childcare and parental support programs must do a better job of communicating about these programs and making sure employees feel comfortable availing themselves of these benefits.
Here’s what we found:
• More than a third of parents say they are not aware of plans their employers have in place for parents, or whether these plans exist at all in their company.
• Nearly half (49%) of working mothers and 39% of working fathers say they are not aware of any employer-funded childcare benefits.
• Four in 10 parents fear it would be a risk to their employment to take advantage of the offerings or benefits available to them through their workplace (42%), and over a third (39%) worry that their employment will be terminated if they ask for them.
Corporate leaders must adopt bold, tangible solutions for employees now. Companies that have long been leaders need to go even further. For example, Bank of America has extended backup childcare payments for parents of children as old as 12 until the end of 2020. It’s also providing daily childcare reimbursements (instead of only partially subsidizing them, or capping dependent care assistance accounts from an employee’s pretax dollars).
At Catalyst, we’ve expanded our existing sick leave, flextime, and flex leave policy options to support employees. We’re enabling employees to reduce their hours to three days per week (21 hours) with a reduced salary, but with no impact to benefits, time-off accruals, or annual bonuses. Employees can also request an unpaid leave or intermittent leave.
5 ways to lead on childcare
More employers need to proactively lead through this crisis and help organizations rethink how work gets done during the pandemic and beyond. Some recommendations include:
Adopting flextime. Consider flextime or flex leave for all, including employees without dependent children, with no career penalty. Flexibility is not just about the day-to-day or week-to-week juggle; it is flexibility across the lifetime of an employee—from childcare to eldercare, and everything in between.
Commitment from the top. Reinforce employee adoption of policies like flexible work with support and communication from the very highest levels of the organization’s leadership. Managers can both model these policies and adjust their team’s workloads to ensure employees can manage to their specific capacities.
Embracing innovation. Develop programs that support more innovative and flexible models of childcare. For example, this could include support for childcare workers who become part of a family’s social pod; at-work, supervised day care; or even innovative worker-share childcare programs for employees who live close to one another.
Rethinking your physical space. Conduct an audit of available office space options for on-site childcare. Work with your local community and educational nonprofits and childcare agencies—can this space be repurposed to safely scale up the amount of childcare available?
Building better home offices. Increase support for at-home technology: Negotiate with technology suppliers so employees can choose to better equip their part-time home offices if necessary. The tradeoff in the cost of commercial office space and reliable technology that aids productivity is worth it.
COVID-19 has laid bare deep inequities in our culture. Employers committed to diversity and retaining top talent must develop innovative solutions and policies to ensure that everyone can participate in the workplace. The future of work is here, and our challenge and opportunity is to create workplaces that work for everyone, even beyond the crisis of the moment.
Lorraine Hariton is the president and CEO of Catalyst.