The COVID 19 pandemic has forced working moms to deal with countless challenges. With nationwide school closures and a shift to remote work, many working moms have struggled to find a healthy work/life balance. Now a new study by Ovia Health of working parents, almost all of whom were moms, has revealed a great deal about what these women are dealing with:

• 77% of employees feel family friendliness is their largest priority.
• 42% do not believe their employer is family-friendly.
• 27% did not return to work after birth, at least in part because there were no childcare options.
• 90% would probably leave for the same job if it offered better family benefits.

Given the hyper-competitive labor market that most employers are struggling with, this final statistic shows the importance of family benefits as part of employee retention and recruitment strategy. Women who rejoin the workforce will also be looking closely at these benefits when choosing an employer.

These family-friendly benefits could include, among others:

• Flexible Scheduling Options: Making working hours flexible can help working moms handle family needs without worrying about conflicting schedules, but ultimately this is a benefit more than just working moms are beginning to expect in 2022. 
• Breastfeeding Accommodations: One of the first concerns many working moms have after returning to the office are breastfeeding benefits. This may start as simply as a lactation room in the workplace, but for positions with travel requirements, this may also include free breast milk supply shipping.
• Family Care Benefits: Family care benefits may include offering paid daycare services or on-call babysitters for employees that cannot find care elsewhere. However, another option that could be particularly attractive is to offer onsite daycare, which can save working moms a lot of time over offsite daycare.
• Paid Maternity Leave: Providing new moms paid time off to care for their children is a crucial benefit. In fact, it can also reduce employer healthcare costs as well. A study published by the Journal of Health Economics showed that every extra week of parental leave has been shown to reduce adverse maternal and child health outcomes. 
• Mental Health Support: In addition to offering care for perinatal mood disorders, mental health support can be offered through employee assistance programs, stress management programs, and resiliency training, among others.

The fact is that though these benefits can look like a significant expense, they are worth it and will almost certainly pay themselves off in time. With competitive family-friendly benefits, employers can not only retain the talent they have but place themselves in a position to attract new candidates as well.

Sources: SHRM | Modern Recruiters | The Olson Group