Think flex work is the key to success? Working parents feel otherwise

Working parents are desperate for more time and flexibility, but are your company’s flexible work policies doing them more harm than good?

For the majority of working parents, the answer is a resounding yes. Sixty-six percent of working parents said that flexible work arrangements caused them to burn out, and 44% said they worked more hours than pre-COVID, according to a new survey from child care and early education program Vivvi.

Working parents are struggling to do it all — the Vivvi survey found that half of parents had to work outside of business hours at least seven times a month in order to make up for time spent caring for their kids.

Read more: 12 working moms speak up about the benefits they want from employers

While employers have embraced flexible and hybrid work arrangements, working parents are still floundering more than a year into the pandemic. And with so many unknowns still ahead, employers need to change their strategies now to prevent their working parents from walking away.

“The stakes could not be higher,” Charles Bonello, co-founder and CEO of Vivvi, said in a release. “If more companies do not provide their caregiving employees with the flexible support that they need, we’ll see even more parents forced to leave their current jobs, or the workforce altogether.”

While the working parent struggle is affecting the majority of caretakers, most employees are suffering in silence: Vivvi found that 65% of working mothers don’t speak up about their child care challenges for fear of being perceived as a “problem employee.”

Read more: 5 companies that boosted their employee benefits for working parents

But what is the solution? While 94% of parents say that flexibility is key, it’s not enough to support the full spectrum of needs working parents are grappling with, says Sarahjane Sacchetti, CEO of family benefits platform Cleo.

“COVID broke so many of our norms, but it also hopefully broke the barriers for how some of the more siloed parts of HR and benefits are working together,” Sacchetti says. “Often, HR manages these silos separately: workforce productivity, retention and recruiting through one arm and healthcare spend and total benefits through another. Employers are missing the connecting point of supporting the broader safety net that working parents and families need.”

In order to make those connections, employers should listen and learn from their working parents, and provide more robust benefits. Companies like PwC, Prudential and Salesforce have boosted family benefits, offered paid education and child care benefits and increased PTO for working parent employees.

Read more: EAPs are an old solution for the new problems working parents face

“If you're not thinking about how to address their bespoke unique needs, especially coming out of such a dark tunnel that was the pandemic, I think you're going to lose them,” Sacchetti says. “Working parents are a precious part of your workforce, not just culturally, but oftentimes at that management level. So how do you meet them where they are and give them more tools and more support?”