I started five businesses from scratch and I can tell you that the quality of talent that I was able to recruit in the early stage had different effects on success or failure.
What I’ve learned over the years is that hiring the best and smartest people isn’t just about comfortable office furniture or amenities like free coffee, a backup refrigerator, or a downstairs gym. Today’s talent is looking for employers who provide funding for child care and even flexible spending account (FSA) accounts to help pay for family support services.
I have seen some large companies, like Starbucks and Best Buy, include childcare services on their employee benefits list. However, smaller businesses can also increase their privileges by providing child care services as a benefit. This creates a work environment that makes parents feel supported and encourages their professional development.
Reduces the ongoing financial and emotional burden on working parents, which will undoubtedly increase barriers to attracting and retaining employees.
Families can not only cultivate loyalty, but also make profitable these pro-family policies by increasing productivity.
The provision of paid child care services plays a key role in keeping parents with children in the workforce.
From 2016 to 2018, more than 2 million parents of children ages 5 and under had to quit, not work, or change jobs each year due to parenting issues. This has a particularly serious impact on women. At the same time, American companies lose an estimated US$12.7 billion annually due to the challenges faced by employees in parenting. Nationally, the annual loss of income due to the child crisis, productivity and income loss is estimated at 57 billion U.S. dollars.
Lack of child care is also one of the main factors preventing us from building a fair workforce and narrowing the gender and pay gap. Just look at the millions of mothers who have lost or quit their jobs due to the burden of parenting caused by the pandemic.
Since March 2020, the rate of black and Latino mothers quitting work voluntarily or due to layoffs is higher than that of white mothers. Many single mothers need child care but cannot get child care during the pandemic. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the second and third quarters of 2020.
The unemployment rate of single mothers was higher than that of mothers without children. Inadequate childcare services may affect your ability to return to work, wages, long-term financial performance, and overall economic recovery.
Like many single mothers of color, I also strive to pursue the “American Dream” due to the challenges posed by the nursery. In fact, my success as a C-level executive was limited due to my son’s lack of adequate parenting. For example, in 2004, I was approved as the vice president of sales because I could not go to work at 6:30 in the morning. Because of my son’s lack of attention before school. I struggled with this challenge in this profession, especially in the technical field, which is an industry dominated by men.
In this era when women are expected to account for 60% of the total labor force in the next five years, employers can use existing technology to provide fully managed parenting benefits for you Provide the flexibility and family support the workforce needs to increase employee productivity and return on investment.
As entrepreneurs and business leaders, we can do better. We have the ability to completely change the way we care for children in the United States, while at the same time greatly changing our company culture by redesigning the workplace to be more family-friendly. This is the future of work.
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