Advertisment

Advertisment

Home » Knowledge Hub » » A third of employers do not offer early parenthood support

A third of employers do not offer early parenthood support

18 May 2022

ParenthoodSupport

Nearly two thirds (63%) of employers say they offer early parenthood support leaving those employers who don’t extremely vulnerable to losing staff to other more family-friendly organisations at the point their staff become parents.

According to digital health platform Peppy, the pandemic was a real wake-up call to employers when employees’ working lives and home lives suddenly collided in ways no one could have predicted.

With this comes a greater employer awareness of the importance of family life and its influence on staff choices. Indeed, in relation to this, 83% of employers said they have concerns they could lose their best talent if they do not provide early parenthood support.

Early parenthood support is the name given to the support offered to new parents following the birth or adoption of a child, and includes but is not limited to, support with infant development, sleep and feeding, perinatal health, relationships, mental health, childcare, and return to work.

Reasons for offering early parenthood support

From an employee retention point of view, employers believe the most important reason to offer early parenthood support is to appear as a caring employer (45%).

This was followed by wanting to be a more attractive employer against competitors (41%) and because it is important that staff can support their family and friends outside of the workplace (34%).

Additional reasons were to mitigate the risk of the wider workforce being impacted by a colleague having time off or not being productive (31%) and to be able to actively attract specific demographics of staff, for example by gender or age (19%).

Senior leadership buy-in

Unfortunately, not all business leaders recognise the positive difference that such support can make to recruitment and retention. Just 55% of HR decision-makers think that their senior leadership teams recognise that offering support for early parenthood has a positive impact on recruitment and retention.

This was also echoed with regards to whether early parenthood can make a positive impact on the wider business.

Indeed, just 55% of HR leaders believe senior leadership recognises that offering such support has a positive impact on the wider organisation.

Areas such as productivity, efficiency, and morale can all be improved when colleagues see how well others are supported.

Dr Mridula Pore, CEO of Peppy, said: “When employees become parents, their lives are happily turned upside down and they tend to re-evaluate what is and what is not important – often putting the new child at the centre of everything.

“If an employer is unsupportive or disinterested, employees may start to look elsewhere for an organisation that more visibly puts family first.”

It is true that not every employee will need or want to lean on workplace support, but knowing it’s there gives great peace of mind.

“It also sends out a very clear message that the organisation understands that the individual is more than just an employee, they also have an important family life and responsibilities beyond the workplace.”

Topics

Share

Advertisment

Latest Events

Mar 2024 – Leveraging Digital Learning Tools: Empowering HR Teams for Success

In today's fast-paced business landscape, the role of HR teams is evolving rapidly. To stay competitive and foster organisational growth, companies must leverage effective learning programs strategically.

Mar 2024 – The Efficiency Programme: How HR can maximise technology benefits

There are huge promises and potential for the use of AI and technology in HR and in this session we discuss the best way ahead for HR for technology and AI use.

Effective Resourcing Models & How We Guarantee the Integrity of Inclusive Recruitment Regardless of Approach

A opportunity to debate how can we adopt a cohesive inclusive approach that enhances the candidate experience without creating barriers between us and the talent essential to your organisational success.

Feb 2024 – It’s All HR’s Fault

Despite being a trusted voice in the C-suite, HR is still viewed with distrust and outright disdain by many employees – the very people HR is there to support.
Its all HRs Fault On demand Webinar

Jan 2024 – Health and Wellbeing: Making it Personal

If you’re investing in a health and wellbeing strategy, you want to make sure it meets the needs of your workforce.

Dec 2023 – Year in Review 2023

In this webinar we brought back some of our previous 2023 webinar speakers who gave their view on the past 12 months.

Nov 2023 – Reward and Recognition for the International Workforce

In this webinar we explored the dispersed workplace and asked what it means to support employees all over the world.
Reward and Recognition for the International Workforce

Streamlining Year-End HR Operations

Providing seasonal support, ideas and inspiration, this webinar covered the challenges and opportunities presented to HR professionals at this time of year.
Streamlining year-end HR operations

Compensation Planning – The key to a motivated and satisfied workforce

Compensation and reward strategies have changed radically over the past few years with the impact of the pandemic and the trends that followed.
Compensation Planning - The key to a motivated and satisfied workforce

Oct 2023 – Talent Acquisition: Why your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is more important than ever

This webinar addressing talent acquisition majored on the Employee Value Proposition (EVP).
Talent Acquisition – Why your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is more important than ever

Resourcing Models, Insource, Outsource or Hybrid what are the best solutions?

Discussions on the evening were led by two invited experts Jim Richardson, with spells at Santander and Royal Bank of Scotland as Global Head of Talent, Jim now advises corporate businesses on their TA models, and, Ross Crook, Managing Director at Sanderson Solutions.
Resourcing models round table

Sep 2023 – Retention: Holding on to The Talent You Need

The post-pandemic workforce now presents more of a challenge in terms of feeling satisfied and content in the workplace. This webinar on retention also provided a masterclass on employee engagement.
Retention holding on to the talent you need

Aug 2023 – Professional Development: Making the Step Up

What does it take to be an HR Director, or to take a position at Board level? This webinar looked at professional development for HR leaders.
What does it take to be an HR Director?

Jul 2023 – Employee Benefits: Then, now and next

The importance and value of giving employees choice on rewards and recognition.
Employee benefits, then now and next.

Jun 2023 – HR Data: The Key To Delivering Real Value

This webinar on HR Data brought home the importance of understanding the value of people data not just to HR but to the business as a whole.
HR on demand event - HR data: the key to delivering real value

RPO Market – Insource, Outsource or Hybrid: What are the best solutions?

The HR World and Sanderson Managed Services Ltd held an exclusive Round Table dinner to explore and debate the current RPO arena.

AI as part of the hiring, on-boarding and retention processes

The HR World and Sanderson Managed Services Ltd held an exclusive Round Table dinner to further the discussion of AI among Senior HR Leaders.

May 2023 – AI in HR: The Perfect Balance

AI is hitting the headlines right now as experts forecast a future that’s powered by tech. But what will this mean for HR?
On demand hr webinar - Ai in HR

Apr 2023 – HR Tech: Ensuring your technology delivers for all your people

Technology continues to throw challenges at the HR function as the speed of change increases and new technology (anyone noticed something called AI?) enters the arena.
HR tech on demand webinar with Sympa

Mar 2023 – Equality, diversity, and inclusion: Reshaping thinking for action

In this webinar we explored how ED&I can have a real impact for businesses. At the centre of the discussion was the idea of changing thinking in order to make things happen.
Equality, diversity, and inclusion: Reshaping thinking for action

Feb 2023 – Leading With Agility: How to give your business the behaviours and mindsets it needs for volatile times

This webinar took as its focus agility and how businesses can develop and maintain these skills among its workforce.
This webinar took as its focus agility and how businesses can develop and maintain these skills among its workforce.

Jan 2023 – How can you create a culture of health and wellbeing in the workplace?

This webinar tackled the important and timely issue of creating a health and wellbeing culture in the workplace.
How can you create a culture of health and wellbeing in the workplace?

Hiring Gen Z – what can employers learn about emerging talent in 2023?

Join us at this cross-learning, in-person event as part of The HR World Culture Clash series at RSA House in London on 20 Oct 2022.
Hiring Gen Z: Culture Clash Panellists

Bridging the gap: what can employers learn about emerging talent to drive better hiring strategies?

Join us at this cross-learning, in-person event as part of The HR World Culture Clash series, bringing HRDs, founders and emerging talent together to build a better workforce for the future.
Bridging the gap: what can employers learn about emerging talent to drive better hiring strategies?
HRW Membership@2x@2x

Are you a senior HR professional?

Join our membership to shape the future of work, get exclusive access to events, white papers and research content, profile your work, gain access to support from HR experts and celebrate your successes.

Become a Partner

Please get in touch to talk about how we can help your business make an impact in the world of work through our content marketing, partnership plans and advertising.