Before the Pandemic hit, most employers did not consider it their business to inquire about how their working parents were juggling work, their children\u2019s school and childcare.\u00a0 In fact, to ask just the female population of workers about childcare could be considered discriminatory.<\/p>\n
Still employing working parents have significantly influenced employers, especially in their ability to retain top talent.\u00a0 Many employers had already been implementing family-friendly policies, flexible work arrangements and greater pools of time off.<\/p>\n
Then COVID-19 hit.\u00a0 A combination of staying in place and closed schools caused many\u00a0working parents\u00a0to suddenly work\u00a0remotely\u00a0alongside their kids, who were asked to attend remote school programs.<\/p>\n
As a response, most employers became\u00a0even more\u00a0flexible and reasonable.\u00a0\u00a0NYS issued COVID-19 Leave and\u00a0the Federal government responded with the Families First Corona Response Act (FFCRA).\u00a0Two of the six criteria under FFCRA\u00a0outlined qualifying reasons\u00a0for\u00a0leave\u00a0related to childcare.<\/p>\n
Employers covered under the act need to provide a total of 12 weeks of partially paid leave to employees whose children\u2019s day care or school has closed due to COVID-19.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Due to a wide variety of circumstances, companies had to\u00a0quickly\u00a0understand the complexities\u00a0of FFCRA, such\u00a0as\u00a0who is eligible and\u00a0allowing\u00a0intermittent leave.\u00a0\u00a0Employers relied\u00a0heavily on their\u00a0human resources departments\u00a0for guidance.\u00a0 We pity the employers with little or weak human resources departments.<\/p>\n
Since many public and private schools\u00a0locally will be limited to virtual\u00a0or hybrid\u00a0classroom learning in the fall, we expect September and October to be crazy months for employers when it comes to their staff\u2019s schedules, qualifying leave,\u00a0and school situations.<\/p>\n
To make matters even more complicated, the Department of Labor (DOL) has challenged employers in court cases where employees were either denied leave requests or fired. Lawsuits claim employees were fired because they couldn\u2019t keep to their expected work schedules while caring for young children at home. DOL has published guidance for employers to be more flexible with approving FFCRA. Data is showing employees are actually working longer hours from home. DOL is also warning employers to establish better ways to collect all hours worked.\u00a0 How do you know if an employee is working and when they are not?<\/p>\n
Although many employers are adjusting their expectations for working parents, others may not be.\u00a0\u00a0Employers, who don\u2019t\u00a0accommodate working\u00a0parents,\u00a0could face many negative consequences, including legal action against them.\u00a0An employer could be subject to penalties and damages for unpaid wages and attorney fees and costs, as well as be required to reinstate the employee.<\/p>\n
We have always\u00a0cautioned\u00a0employers\u00a0-They will not be measured during times of plenty and profitability but rather be measured on how they dealt with\u00a0times of\u00a0uncertainly and stress.\u00a0 During this most\u00a0stressful\u00a0time, employers who are inflexible and unaccommodating towards\u00a0working parents\u00a0may find their actions\u00a0affecting\u00a0their ability to attract and retain top talent.<\/p>\n
The HR department should work with managers to develop a remote-work policy for all employees.\u00a0 The policy should outline expectations and\u00a0flexibility\u00a0guidelines,\u00a0which includes the criteria on which employees can work from home and who is required to come into workplace.\u00a0 The policy will state what hours they are expected to work and sets a schedule for virtual meetings. It is important that remote workers be treated the same as if they were\u00a0working in the office.\u00a0Moreover,\u00a0the policy needs to be communicated to all employees\u00a0with as much notice as possible.\u00a0\u00a0With school starting, now is the time.<\/p>\n
Employers should consider having the policy reviewed by a labor attorney to make sure it is compliant\u00a0with local, state and federal laws.\u00a0Someone has to keep up and follow the DOL court\u00a0cases\u00a0so they can\u00a0adjust accordingly.<\/p>\n
Since there is no end in sight to the COVID-19 restrictions, now is the time\u00a0for employers to look to their HR department or look to assist department with HR responsibilities.\u00a0\u00a0HR\u00a0should respond by putting together\u00a0solutions to help ease the burden for working parents.\u00a0Employees should have a trusted company contact (HR) to discuss scheduling issues and expectations versus availability. HR has the responsibility to\u00a0ensure\u00a0working parents\u00a0have everything\u00a0they need\u00a0to stay productive.<\/p>\n
Employers still need to balance the needs of their business and the needs\u00a0of their working parents. Leading with empathy and\u00a0clarity\u00a0goes\u00a0a long way in getting both needs met and they will be remembered\u00a0when\u00a0attracting and retaining top talent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before the Pandemic hit, most employers did not consider it their business to inquire about how their working parents were juggling work, their children\u2019s school and childcare.\u00a0 In fact, to ask just the female population of workers about childcare could be considered discriminatory. Still employing working parents have significantly influenced employers, especially in their ability […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":10844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[],"post_folder":[268],"class_list":["post-11135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-consulting-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11135"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11138,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11135\/revisions\/11138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11135"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=11135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}