As parents and caregivers, women are one of the groups of people who are experiencing significant challenges during the work-life changes in this pandemic.
Like others, women have to adjust to new work from home policies while co-parenting and keeping their children or charges engaged.
These extra tasks and challenges may have even led them to consider seeking new employment with a lesser workload or leave the workforce altogether. Let’s look at some strategies to help women rise.
Flexibility
Creating a culture of flexibility is more than just implementing policies and managers giving the “OK” to take time off.
An authentic culture of flexibility is having the team and company support their women employees having a flexible schedule and knowing that their productivity and performance are not affected.
Having the trust can help women feel more valued, engaged, and not guilty about flexi-work arrangement.
Understand
What are the issues working mothers facing today? If management is not sure, go find out. Start focus groups and get to know their situations better.
Knowing the problems they face can help companies pool resources together to help them.
Subsidised child care? Caregiving help? Assistive technology? There are many ways to give the women employees peace of mind, and these benefits can even be extended to the whole company.
Other than perks, practices such as appraisals, deadlines or expectations can also be redefined to highlight and measure their performance.
Mentors
One of the best ways to learn is to seek help from someone ahead of the learning curve. Look at what other companies have implemented as best practices and personalise it to your own company.
Or within the company, match employees with mentors to help guide them through this period. Be it advice or tips, having a more experienced employee turn to can be excellent support for staff in need.
