We’re over 100 days into the pandemic and as the world of work, childcare, schools, and more change every day, working parents are shouldering a lot. The solutions you put in place in March are very different from the solutions that your employees—especially working parents—will need in the months ahead.
Supporting parents through this stressful time has become a national conversation. In the New York Times, Deb Perelman explored this in her viral thought-piece: “Allowing workplaces to reopen while schools, camps, and day cares remain closed tells a generation of working parents that it’s fine if they lose their jobs, insurance, and livelihoods in the process.”
We discussed some of the most important data we’ve seen regarding working parents and COVID-19 in our recent webinar hosted by Employee Benefit News & Employee Benefit Adviser: Future of work: Designing a supportive workplace for parents. Erik Lumer, Chief Product Officer at Maven, Mercedes Samudio, LCSW, parent coach, and founder of Diversity in Parenting, Inc, and Steve Jacobs, Founder and CEO of Bright Parenting and now Vice President of Product at Maven, met to discuss how they’re solving today’s parenting challenges head on. Click here to check out the webinar on-demand.
Here are some of the key takeaways from their discussion.
Retaining parents—especially women—in the workforce long-term is a top concern.
- At least 14% of women are considering quitting their jobs because of COVID-19 and childcare (Syndio)
- 81% of employed mothers said their ability to engage effectively at work has been negatively impacted (Working Mother Media)
- This is on top of the fact that—without a pandemic—43% of women leave the workforce within one year of having a child (FlexJobs)
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