Working parents faced numerous unforeseen challenges during the pandemic. As workplaces open their doors, parents face a double whammy of readjusting to a new work style and sorting out childcare and schooling. Moving to a hybrid workplace will particularly be challenging for parents, including new and first-time parents and may leave them with a lot of stress and no time for their own well-being. On this Global Day of Parents, we want to share four practical ways organisations can help working parents ease into the culture of hybrid work. These tips will help parents give their best to work and their families. 

1. Train managers effectively

When it comes to making a hybrid model work for working parents, it all starts at the top. The C-suite executives should ensure that managers, team leaders and HR personnel are adequately trained to support working parents in a hybrid environment. This will, of course, require a new style of management. With working parents working remotely and on-site, they will need to cater to both of these working styles. Smaller moments of connection will have a more significant impact on working parents in a hybrid workplace. Parents who work in a hybrid workplace value more frequent check-ins and progress reports from their managers; therefore, managers will have to be experts in more nuanced aspects of management, such as providing feedback and being empathetic. 

Working parents might not be able to show up all the time or stay till the end of the day due to commitments. Therefore managers also must ensure that working parents are not discriminated against in the workplace. 

2. Make flexibility a part of your organisation

Parents, be it young or old, juggle many responsibilities while at work. Therefore, making leisure events like company offsites and virtual zoom parties optional can give parents a lot of wiggle room in their schedules and reduce stress and anxiety. You can also offer new mothers and fathers the option to work remotely when needed or simply adjust their work timings around school/ creche timings. 

A great way to offer additional flexibility to working parents, especially new mothers and fathers, is to normalise flexibility for all employees. This way, non-parents don’t feel like they are missing out on work-life balance. 

3. Offer childcare services

There are many services your business can offer to parents at work to help them give their best to work and kids. The first one is to provide on-site daycare on days that employees come to work. This allows parents to check on their toddlers, concentrate on work and be at peace. If on-site daycare is not something you can implement, offering daycare or summer camp subsidies can give parents added support and peace of mind. 

In addition to the options mentioned above, organisations can also designate spaces within the office for children attending online school and build a pool of resources for parents who need support.

4. Take the help of tech

Yes, inclusive policies and company culture can significantly help take care of working parents in the hybrid era, but did you know taking the help of technology to create flexible schedules works just as well? To ensure parents working from home have the same experience as their in-person colleagues, here are some tips to try:

• Make sure everyone has the right technology to join online meetings and huddles. Try to stick to the agenda and keep meetings to the point to keep everyone focused and productive. 
• To collaborate effectively from anywhere, use collaboration apps that work on laptops and phones. This way, working parents can still respond to messages even when away from their desks. 
• Moving your projects to the cloud can allow an easy share of documents among colleagues, making it more secure for teams to work together.