TEN TIPS FOR LINE-MANAGERS DURING SCHOOL HOLIDAYS
If you’re a working parent with children of school age, no other period of time is more challenging than the summer holidays. The conflict of work and home is never more real.
Line managers have a critical role to play in maintaining employee engagement at this time. They can make or break the individual going through it. Parents return in September refreshed and feeling as though they did a good job - or wondering whether to quit their job completely.
But how do you best support working parents through this time? Here are our top tips…
Trust them: Working parents operate in a perpetual state of wanting to do a good job but having very important people at home to work after. Trusting in this and allowing them to do what they need to do eases this pressure considerably.
Be overtly clear on deadlines: Transparency around delivery timescales helps working parents prioritise their workload. If you’re asking them to do something for you, be very clear about whether you need it immediately or if it can wait a couple of days.
Flexitime: For most working parents, the ability to work flexibly is the key to a successful life. During school holidays, additional flexibility is necessary. Give working parents the freedom to choose their work hours and days. If that means they need to work from 6-9 a.m. and 7-10 p.m., let them do it.
Core hours: A mandatory period where everyone works means that important conversations still happen and everyone is around simultaneously. We recommend no more than three hours a day, preferably avoiding the middle of the day so they can still take the kids out for a run to the park or a play date.
Plan ahead: Ensure any mandatory meetings are planned way in advance so working parents have time to make childcare arrangements.
Relax daily meetings: Consider relaxing requirements on frequent meetings, such as daily check-ins. Could you manage with just one or two meetings a week instead of every day?
Offer financial support: Remind parents about your employee benefits, which often include childcare vouchers and tax efficiencies. Anything you can do to support with clubs and childcare is always a help.
Encourage family chat: Talk about caring responsibilities within your team - it's a cultural game-changer and builds relationships between colleagues.
Reduce resentment: Quash any chat about "why working parents have time off when we don't" - it's humiliating and unhelpful and the people it's coming from are likely to join the rest of the 83% of the population that have kids one day
Don't be another pressure! This is your chance to evidence that their wellbeing and stress levels matter to you. If you can enable them, rather than make things worse, you will undoubtedly reap the benefits later on.
As line managers, you are the crunch point. You will determine your employees’ experience at work. If you are able to understand, empathise, and enable your employee, you will be rewarded with productivity, loyalty and longevity.
