One of the “forgotten few” of the business world is single parents. Single parents often find themselves juggling many financial and social challenges that can be difficult to manage independently.
With the day-to-day demands of raising children, single parents barely have time to keep track of what is going on in business today, let alone find ways to improve their situation.
However, there are steps businesses and organizations can take to help ease the burden for single parents.
- Focus on Engaging and Hiring Single Parents
As in most cases with hiring, companies compete for the best talent. Given the difficulties associated with being a single parent, companies need to find ways to make themselves more appealing when it comes to this demographic.
It’s not all about money either – offering benefits such as childcare reimbursement, flexible scheduling, and time off can also be useful in showing your commitment to single parents.
- Develop a Flexible Benefits Program
Many companies offer life or even disability insurance benefits, but few recognize or offer the importance of flexible benefits to single-parent employees. In addition to offering childcare reimbursement, for example, helping out with elder care can greatly reduce stress levels among caregivers.
Flexible benefits can also help single parents by offering reimbursement for afterschool activities, tutoring services, and more.
- Create a Welcoming and Inclusive Workplace
Single parents are often seeking relationship-based activities due to the lack of other immediate family members. To create a welcoming and inclusive workplace, single parents should be engaged in the company’s future initiatives that focus on mentoring programs, community outreach efforts, or social events.
- Work to Help with Childcare Needs
In addition to flexible benefits, businesses can help create a support system for single parents by working with the community. One of the biggest challenges faced in today’s business world is finding quality child care.
Single parents should take this opportunity to partner with local universities and organizations to identify childcare providers who could potentially become part of their training programs or educational options.
Companies that focus on helping single parents will have more highly qualified employees while helping solve some of the most pressing issues faced by today’s society.