Working parents are under more pressure than they’ve ever been. In fact, many are questioning whether being a working parent can work at all. This is clearly a huge burden for parents – and it’s also extremely bad news for employers.
Parents are vital to the workforce. Many have had to juggle homeschooling and childcare with their work over the last year, with a cost to their health, their happiness and, of course, their productivity. Now all schools are closed and once again parents – the core of the UK’s labour market – are staring down the barrel of an unproductive quarter, unable to fulfil what they know they are capable of just when businesses need them at their best.
Being an empathetic employer right now is crucial. Give your parents space, encourage conversations about flexible hours and enable conversations about mental health.
But more tangible action is also needed: 75% of parents say better childcare would make them more productive, and 87% say that support from their employer to deliver that childcare would make them more loyal. Indeed, at no time in the crisis has domestic childcare ever been restricted, because the Government can see the same statistics as we do – they know how vital it can be.
Our suggestion is simple: provide credit for in-home childcare. By giving your parents childcare you give them room to breathe and demonstrate how much you value them. More bluntly, you get ROI – enabling working parents to focus on the jobs they love.
So we suggest this: become an employer of productive parents. You can do this by:
- Allowing employees to expense childcare costs. This can be done via expenses or through Bubble for Business – we’ll get you enrolled in our programme with zero setup and admin costs during this time. All your spend will go to your employees.
- Notifying working parents that the scheme is available to them
A productive, happy, loyal workforce is what every business needs – now more than ever. That’s only possible with great, trusted, reliable childcare on-demand, and Bubble is here to provide that to all parents, every day, at any notice, so that every business can grow out of this crisis.
Statistics from a survey of 500 Bubble parents in September 2020. Bubble is a free app for iOS and Android that connects parents with trusted sitters and nannies near them.
