magine if the United States placed caregiving at the center of its social fabric. It’s a longstanding vision among those advocating for family-first policies and inclusive workforces, and it’s past time to start building. The impacts are profound when public institutions and businesses truly prioritize the needs of working families.
The centralizing of care nearly happened at the turn of the century, as suffragists brought women’s equal voting rights to the global consciousness and heavily influenced urban policy during great economic upheaval. The Atlantic explored early roots of this “gender mainstreaming” movement with the 1914 tale of labor advocate Frances Perkins, who lobbied to power-wielding NYC planner Robert Moses about a particular problem women faced that could be solved with forward-thinking design and education. Perkins’ crusade? Installing diaper changing stations throughout public spaces, a significant hindrance that kept mothers and nannies homebound unable to enjoy lengthy time outdoors. Fifteen years later, Moses launched diaper changing rooms in Jones Beach—a stretch of time when New Yorkers survived a global World War, a global pandemic, and colossal collisions of women redefining family life by entering local voting halls and businesses.
Profiled in Politico, the next great “Working Mom Wave” crashed during the historic 2018 U.S. midterm elections. The moment served as a hopeful signal of work-life equity and a stark reminder how much this nation still assumes there’s someone at home full-time: “A record 102 women were elected in the midterms, a total that includes several moms with young children. The influx is forcing lawmakers to reassess policies to make Capitol Hill more female- and parent-friendly. Renovations are already underway to install nursing stations around the Capitol. And there’s talk among Democratic women about how to best arrange the congressional schedule so that parents can video chat with their kids over dinner, help them with their school work and make it home three days a week.”
As leaders navigate a post-COVID workforce, the same level of creative problem-solving must be applied to redesigning work for caregivers. They should redesign: flex schedules and job-sharing opportunities for parents unable to participate in back-to-back video calls; the cost of in-home elder care for the 30% of households who just missed their July housing payment, including teachers; management and shareholder expectations; work cultures to provide 24-weeks minimum paid family leave without penalty, and leadership to reward families with generational wealth and health.
Mothers in particular are already battling for career growth, with motherhood bias accounting for a majority of the gender pay gap across all industries. Since COVID-19, LeanIn.org reports nearly 2/3 of women polled have decreased their work hours or dropped out of the workforce directly due to lack of child care. The United States in particular is hemorrhaging highly skilled talent because of the lack of subsidized caregiving benefits and national paid family leave. This, of course, was already problematic to our economy before recent furloughs and mass layoffs.
COVID-19 is causing seismic changes to systems that used to work. Distance learning is becoming the norm for school-aged children and center-based care is becoming less desired by families with children under five. Consider 40% of today’s U.S. families have school-aged children and a majority of households work and care for family full-time. Care benefits that were recently considered progressive are now unfit for the modern world. Parents are puzzling work and homeschooling into a round-the-clock schedule. They’re plugging in nannies and at-home care providers (read: babysitters) where the ratio is safer—one provider to one family. Some families are collaborating and creating “pods” of shared COVID-19 safety, and sharing the cost of that nanny, who most times has a teaching role as well. The Helpr benefit, for example, sets up placements with nannies or pods for employees and their families while helping coordinate the complexities for easy transition and less stress. Helpr enables families to leverage and pay their own care providers, such as a neighbor who’s a college student and also distance learning or a grandma. The price on this new model of backup care is as low as 25% of typical care costs, making it affordable to single-parent workers and lower-income earners. It’s also flexible, as it can be used for just a few hours at a time. It’s a win-win-win and a long-term solution.
The cost to replace an employee is anywhere from 16%-215% of an employee’s annual salary, according to SHRM. The fabric of our care communities, not AI nor machine learning, will keep us all connected, productive, and profitable. The future of work centers caregivers and parents in the decision-making on what is right for them. Companies and organizations are just as burdened by the care crisis as families themselves. They should therefore play a significant role in smoothing this new-world transition for caregivers and their working colleagues.
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How Centering Care is Core to Solving the Skills Gap
August 14, 2020
As leaders navigate a post-COVID workforce, they must be creative in how to solve problems in redesigning work for caregivers. They can look to the early 20th century - during another pandemic - for inspiration.
I
magine if the United States placed caregiving at the center of its social fabric. It’s a longstanding vision among those advocating for family-first policies and inclusive workforces, and it’s past time to start building. The impacts are profound when public institutions and businesses truly prioritize the needs of working families.
The centralizing of care nearly happened at the turn of the century, as suffragists brought women’s equal voting rights to the global consciousness and heavily influenced urban policy during great economic upheaval. The Atlantic explored early roots of this “gender mainstreaming” movement with the 1914 tale of labor advocate Frances Perkins, who lobbied to power-wielding NYC planner Robert Moses about a particular problem women faced that could be solved with forward-thinking design and education. Perkins’ crusade? Installing diaper changing stations throughout public spaces, a significant hindrance that kept mothers and nannies homebound unable to enjoy lengthy time outdoors. Fifteen years later, Moses launched diaper changing rooms in Jones Beach—a stretch of time when New Yorkers survived a global World War, a global pandemic, and colossal collisions of women redefining family life by entering local voting halls and businesses.
Profiled in Politico, the next great “Working Mom Wave” crashed during the historic 2018 U.S. midterm elections. The moment served as a hopeful signal of work-life equity and a stark reminder how much this nation still assumes there’s someone at home full-time: “A record 102 women were elected in the midterms, a total that includes several moms with young children. The influx is forcing lawmakers to reassess policies to make Capitol Hill more female- and parent-friendly. Renovations are already underway to install nursing stations around the Capitol. And there’s talk among Democratic women about how to best arrange the congressional schedule so that parents can video chat with their kids over dinner, help them with their school work and make it home three days a week.”
As leaders navigate a post-COVID workforce, the same level of creative problem-solving must be applied to redesigning work for caregivers. They should redesign: flex schedules and job-sharing opportunities for parents unable to participate in back-to-back video calls; the cost of in-home elder care for the 30% of households who just missed their July housing payment, including teachers; management and shareholder expectations; work cultures to provide 24-weeks minimum paid family leave without penalty, and leadership to reward families with generational wealth and health.
Mothers in particular are already battling for career growth, with motherhood bias accounting for a majority of the gender pay gap across all industries. Since COVID-19, LeanIn.org reports nearly 2/3 of women polled have decreased their work hours or dropped out of the workforce directly due to lack of child care. The United States in particular is hemorrhaging highly skilled talent because of the lack of subsidized caregiving benefits and national paid family leave. This, of course, was already problematic to our economy before recent furloughs and mass layoffs.
COVID-19 is causing seismic changes to systems that used to work. Distance learning is becoming the norm for school-aged children and center-based care is becoming less desired by families with children under five. Consider 40% of today’s U.S. families have school-aged children and a majority of households work and care for family full-time. Care benefits that were recently considered progressive are now unfit for the modern world. Parents are puzzling work and homeschooling into a round-the-clock schedule. They’re plugging in nannies and at-home care providers (read: babysitters) where the ratio is safer—one provider to one family. Some families are collaborating and creating “pods” of shared COVID-19 safety, and sharing the cost of that nanny, who most times has a teaching role as well. The Helpr benefit, for example, sets up placements with nannies or pods for employees and their families while helping coordinate the complexities for easy transition and less stress. Helpr enables families to leverage and pay their own care providers, such as a neighbor who’s a college student and also distance learning or a grandma. The price on this new model of backup care is as low as 25% of typical care costs, making it affordable to single-parent workers and lower-income earners. It’s also flexible, as it can be used for just a few hours at a time. It’s a win-win-win and a long-term solution.
The cost to replace an employee is anywhere from 16%-215% of an employee’s annual salary, according to SHRM. The fabric of our care communities, not AI nor machine learning, will keep us all connected, productive, and profitable. The future of work centers caregivers and parents in the decision-making on what is right for them. Companies and organizations are just as burdened by the care crisis as families themselves. They should therefore play a significant role in smoothing this new-world transition for caregivers and their working colleagues.
