New research published today identifies that it is essential for employers to improve support for working fathers in order to achieve equality for working mothers.
Organisations need to go further than setting policy to achieve this – they need working practices that make it easier for employees to share parental responsibilities between mum and dad.
It is a key conclusion from research commissioned by Talking Talent, a global coaching consultancy leading the gender diversity agenda, who asked Censuswide to talk to over 7,000 working parents about their experiences.
Successfully sharing their role as parents is essential for women to continue the progression of their careers and is key to closing the gender pay gap. But it will only succeed if organisations ensure working dads don’t face exactly the same negative experiences which have stopped working mums progressing in the past.
The research found that over half (52%) of working parents, including 26% men and 30% women, think that their career has slowed down compared to their childless colleagues.
Difficulties for dads
44% of working mothers found it difficult to keep an interesting job – but even more working fathers (53%) are finding this a challenge too.
‘Working parent guilt’ isn’t the preserve of mothers either, and more men (66%) than women (60%) felt guilty at not spending enough time with their children.
And it appears that working dads are finding it harder to secure support from their employers too. 57% of all those surveyed wanted flexible working hours. While 21% of women have never had a request turned down, only 14% of men experienced the same.
Rebecca Hourston, Head of Working Parent & Executive Coaching Programmes at Talking Talent, said: “Stepping up to address these challenges is an important future investment for organisations. Attitudes and expectations are changing fast among young people and 68% of our respondents expected that the next generation would find it just as hard as them to balance work and parenthood.”
Sharing towards a solution
The research shows how shared parental leave (SPL) can lead the way. In the UK, two-thirds (66%) of working parents agreed that SPL can benefit couples by preparing them to share parental responsibilities more equally in future years.
Rebecca Hourston continued: “How your organisation talks about parental leave – how openly it communicates – tells us everything we need to know about their commitment to gender equality. To send a clear and positive message, employers need to be transparent and proactive in publishing their policies on parental leave.”
The research shows that over half of parents (56%) would have been very likely to share parental leave if their pay and working conditions had met their needs.
BUT, half of respondents (51%) thought that fathers who took SPL would experience a detrimental effect on their careers, and 53% feared judgement if they chose SPL.
She added: “Employers have a crucial role to play in making SPL both available and appealing. Organisations with their fingers on the pulse need to encourage both men and women to view SPL in a more positive light by demonstrating that with the right support, the relationship between parenthood and professional success can be mutually beneficial.”
Practice what you promise…
Where do organisations start? The new research points them in the right direction. More than half of working parents (53%) experienced a significant gap between what their workplace says it’s doing and what it’s actually doing; around half of that group (26% of the total) made this point strongly.
One in three parents surveyed, struggled to understand their company’s policy on parental leave for example.
Rebecca Hourston said: “By debunking tired myths about theoretical losses of skills or the supposed dangers of flexible working, this report challenges all types of organisations to close the gap between their policies for supporting working parents and their actual, ongoing practices. Achieving this will be a vital step toward truly inclusive behaviour.”
Ends
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charlotte@mywordcommunications.com or ed@mywordcommunications.com
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Notes to Editor
Talking Talent is a niche, award-winning global coaching consultancy leading the gender diversity agenda, and working with clients to unlock the potential within their business and make company-wide behaviour shifts that accelerate business performance.
For more than a decade, Talking Talent has worked with organisations on tailored coaching programmes that help them to retain talented individuals, increase their effectiveness and ensure that the benefit ripples throughout its business. Talking Talent has coached in the region of 19,000 women, working parents and line managers, and on average save over £100m a year across our clients in retention alone.
Talking Talent’s best practice solution includes a fully blended digital coaching offer that is available globally, 24/7. Talking Talent Online extends the reach and duration of typical coaching programmes, offering more complete individual and organisational support through parental transitions.
As part of its focus on helping organisations to retain employees by understanding individual needs, Talking Talent commissioned in-depth global research from Censuswide, who spoke to a representative sample of professionals across a range of levels, ages, sectors, and regions, gaining insight into the experiences of working parents today.
The report (Expecting More Than A Baby: Closing the Employee Experience Gap for Working Parents) draws on the results from Talking Talent’s survey of 7,087 working parents in the UK, the US, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and India, and it focuses primarily on the 1,023 respondents based in the UK.
UK respondents included:
• 498 working mothers
• 523 working fathers
• 830 full-time employees
• 193 part-time employees
