As a Senior Consultant in and Operational Lead of the Australia and New Zealand team at Veldhoen + Company, my job has its highs and lows. It is equally challenging and rewarding, but at the end of the day, I feel like my life is clear. I can relax and rewind with my partner and our dog. However, some of my team members deal with much more work-life balance complexity, combining work with their arguably more important role of being a parent or guardian.
I truly admire the tenacity of working parents to be dedicated nurturers to future generations while also prioritising their valuable contributions to the team at work. But as a leader, having admiration for the working parents on my team is simply not enough. Admiration is not action; it does not practically help my team members achieve and perform at their best in both of their roles. Building a culture and way of working that supports flexibility and performance through trust and empowerment, however, do.
With the Future Forum reporting that 82% of working mothers desire greater location flexibility in these hybrid working times, how can leaders practically trust and empower working parents to ensure a high level of mental wellbeing and workplace engagement?
To lead with trust and clarity is to enable working parents to freely thrive. In the context of hybrid working, this means:
Working parents may log onto work a little later in the morning or decide to leave the office at noon to make the afternoon school pick-up run. You demonstrate trust when you empower your employees to autonomously decide when and where they work. This is the essence of a flexible workplace; as a leader you need to trust and support their choices. Of course, this type of working culture means working towards outcomes rather than hours. What do you need, as a leader and as a team, to all shift towards valuing the quality rather than quantity of work?
Among the chaos that is raising children at times, all parents know that routine is one of the strongest bases for raising successful and happy humans. As adults, this is also the case - routine in the workplace can be highly valuable to working parents so that the chaos in their lives is not compounded on both sides.
Rhythms and rituals foster workplace culture and a sense of belonging without being too restrictive or vague.
Implementing simple structures empowers working parents to connect with their colleagues and the wider company spirit regardless of how, when, and where they decide to carry out their work. Establishing intentional Team Agreements provides a valuable hybrid working tool and avenue for all team members to make their work schedules and structures known, and for different workstyles to be accommodated as best as possible. A flexible workplace looks different to each team member.
A working parent may decide to come into the office three days a week, but what if this becomes too hard to maintain with their caring duties? Leaders should create a safe space for open and transparent communication to give working parents the space to experiment with their hybrid working routine. If an arrangement doesn’t work, they should feel safe to communicate these issues candidly to their leaders. From this, refinements can be made for working parents to remain happy and committed at work. Open and transparent communication can also lend itself to nurturing human relationships between working parents and their leaders. It is where related workplace concerns such as proximity bias can be raised, and mitigation strategies to be co-created.
Ultimately, the best support leaders can give to working parents is to respond from a human perspective. It is not easy for parents to strike the right balance between their roles at home and work all the time, so by building a flexible workplace in which they can experiment and refine and adjust over time within the team establishes a supportive workplace culture that will drive value and performance throughout your organisation.