How to Create a Family-Friendly Workplace
How to Create a Family-Friendly Workplace
If you manage people, you don’t need us to tell you that life happens. Elderly parents require care, kids get sick, busses get cancelled, appointments pop up, and employees look to management for flexibility as they try to navigate work-life demands.
As we prepare for Family Day here in Canada, Cenera’s coaches have been thinking about what leaders and executives can do to make their workplaces more family-friendly.
Leaders must be proactive in keeping their workers healthy and balanced. Going beyond lip service and policies and truly allowing employees to fulfill obligations on both sides of their lives will boost morale, engagement and satisfaction at work. As your organization builds a family-friendly reputation, employees will be more likely to stay, and top talent will be more likely to join you.
Here are three things leaders can do to make the workplace more family-friendly.
First, Build a Culture of Accountability
Building a family-friendly workplace means trusting your employees to work efficiently and independently at times. Accountability is key to creating the trust needed to achieve excellent outcomes.
Define and communicate results and expectations
Gain buy-in and commitment from your team
Hire accountable employees
Coach employees on how to be accountable
Hold each other accountable
Second, Offer Flexible Work Arrangements
Offering flexible work arrangements, whether through formal company policies or informal agreements, creates space for employees to deal with pressures on the home front, while still meeting their work duties, expectations, and deadlines.
Common flexible work arrangements include:
Flextime
Telework/telecommuting
Compressed workweek
Job sharing
Remote working
Allowing unpaid time off for significant life events
Leaves and sabbaticals
Third, Lead by Example
Speed of the leader, speed of the team. If you want to encourage your employees to find a healthy balance between work and life, as a manager, you need to walk the talk.
Focus on employee productivity vs. hours
Encourage breaks
Discourage employees from working long hours and weekends
Give employees Family Day and other public holidays off
Acknowledge that every employee is different
Lead by example: leave the office on time, take breaks, don’t email outside of office hours
If your organization needs support in creating a family-friendly workplace that supports employees in participating in all aspects of their work and life entirely, Cenera’s Executive Coaches can help.
To get started on designing employee experiences that matter, call now!
P: 403.290.0466
E: info@cenera.ca
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