It’s not new news that recruiting and retaining employees is becoming harder. When the blame isn’t being placed on Gen Zs lacking loyalty, it’s being put on the post-Brexit skills shortage and rising employee demands for flexibility. But could the fault lie, at least partially, with your maternity and paternity policies?
Employers are not adequately supporting family life
According to research from Fertility Family, 64% of respondents want improvements to maternity and paternity leave. Additionally, over half (55%) say flexible or home working options would make it easier for them to plan a family, and nearly one third (28%) say their employer does not provide adequate flexible working options to support family life.
The Beyond the Birth Rate report explores why the UK’s birth rate is falling, and the affordability and practicality of having children is a major concern for many:
- 60% say financial instability is the reason they will delay starting a family.
- 32% say the rising cost of living is a significant concern.
- 75% say the affordability of childcare needs to be a top priority for government.
- This is followed by improvements in maternity/paternity leave (64%) and housing subsidies for families (19%).
Modern parenthood trends
Of course, the birth rate may not be a major concern to your organisation. You may even believe it’s good news that birth rates are falling. Except for this – many people still want to have children. The report predicts more people will opt to be single parents by choice and use improved fertility technology to make conception easier for older individuals.
Adoption and surrogacy are also expected to become more common and it is anticipated there will be a rise in co-parenting among non-romantic partners.
If your policies and pay are insufficient for those looking to start a family, you are probably not going to retain a large proportion of your people, regardless of whether they have babies to take care of.
It’s time to reflect on your maternity and paternity policies and benefits
If you’re struggling to attract or retain staff, the issue may be related to the way you treat employees of childbearing age. Yes, they may put off having children, but only while they find an employer who will allow them more flexibility, financially reward them enough to support that family and offer humane maternity and paternity policies and pay. When they find somewhere like that to work, they will leave you and not look back.
And while 47% of respondents in the research believe more people will decide not to have children at all, they will still likely have (at some point) aging parents, get sick themselves, or desire more time with their partner or just some time to live their lives.
The 2024 CIPD Resourcing and Talent Planning report showed that ensuring pay and benefits were competitive and increasing flexible working opportunities were the most common actions taken to improve employer brand and attract and retain talent. If your policies and pay are insufficient for those looking to start a family, you are probably not going to retain a large proportion of your people, regardless of whether they have babies to take care of.
Fail to get the basics right and lose good people
After 25 years of coaching executives and working with organisations on their culture, I would be the first to say that pay and benefits do not create motivated, engaged employees. You need a great environment, great leadership, a culture of trust and to respect individuals and their unique differences. And that’s just for starters.
But none of that will work if you don’t get the basics right:
- Adapting to the key life stages of your employees.
- Enabling employees to do their best while also having a life outside of work that they can afford and enjoy.
Employees seeking an employer who will be more sympathetic to the needs of young families may never tell you that’s why they left. But they certainly won’t if you don’t ask.
We all know how expensive it is to lose good people. If this report prompts you to look again at the reality of working for you while starting a family, you may discover how easy, and relatively inexpensive, it would be to keep them.
