Back to School: How to Support Employees with Children

Back-to-school season means bracing for heavy foot traffic in the malls, long streams of red brake lights on the roads, and the excitement of the new school year buzzing through the air. Employers, however, must also prepare for the potential influx of time-off requests and absenteeism from their employees who are parents or guardians.  

While a high volume of PTO requests may not be the most ideal situation for employers, creating a family-friendly workplace to support employees who are parents has several benefits that could positively impact business.  

Benefits of a family-friendly workplace  

Creating a family-friendly workplace through policies and benefits is especially beneficial during the peak of the back-to-school season.  

Providing a family-friendly work environment contributes to:  

• Improved wellness for employees and their families  
• A more inclusive workplace  
• Increased productivity  
• Improved gender equality 
• A positive workplace culture 

Practical ways to support employees with children 

1. Offer flexible work  

The 2022 Labour Force Survey conducted by Statistics Canada found that a flexible work schedule was an essential job factor for 64.7% of employees. Flexible work includes flexible hours, work from home arrangements, extended lunch breaks, and holiday substitutions.  

Employees value control of their work hours, but this is especially important for employees with children. This level of flexibility allows parents to manage their professional and personal responsibilities more efficiently.  

Introducing a flexible work policy also has several benefits for employers, including:  

• Improved employee satisfaction, retention, and morale  
• Decreased employee absences  
• Increased employee productivity  

Flexible work arrangements allow employees better work-life balance, which significantly benefits both employers and employees.  

2. Review your wellness policy  

Back to school can be a very stressful time for parents of all stages. Offering wellness benefits to your employees could help ease the tension of the season, which could increase focus at work. Some benefits employers could include in their wellness policy include:  

• Gym and personal training memberships – Exercise has been proven to reduce stress and improve health. Offering gym and personal training memberships is a great way to encourage healthy stress relief for employees.   
• Family and individual therapy – The stress of the season can sometimes put a strain on people’s mental health, which can affect your employee’s productivity. Providing an outlet to employees and their families to confidentially work through disagreements could benefit your employees. 
• Mental health days – Allow your employees to take mental health days if they need it. Mental health days are typically separate from sick days and vacation days and can help to decrease severe burnout in employees. 
• Employee assistance programs (EAP) - Employee assistance programs offer short-term, confidential counselling paid for by employers. EAPs are also usually extended to members of employee’s immediate family. 

3. Have a policy on disconnecting from work  

A right to disconnect policy encourages a work-life balance and is beneficial to both employers and employees. Employees who have the right to disconnect from work may be able to spend more quality time with family and friends, finish household chores, or just be able to relax and unwind after a hectic day. 

For employers, the right to disconnect may result in happier and more productive staff. This may improve employee retention levels, and boost employee morale. 

Although Ontario is the only province at present that requires provincially regulated employers with 25 or more employees to implement a right to disconnect policy at their workplace, it is a good practice that employers in other provinces could also adopt. 

Managing last- minute time off requests from employees with children 

Life with children can sometimes be unpredictable, and this is no different for your employees who are parents. If an employee calls out at the last minute due to a family emergency with their child, there are several ways you can handle their request:  

1. Statutory leaves – Depending on the emergency, the employee could request one of their options to a statutory leave. These leaves include family caregiver leave or family responsibility leave.  
2. PTO – Personal days can be given in conjunction with vacation time or in addition to vacation time. Employees can request personal days to manage short-term or last-minute situations that come up with their children.  
3. Remote or flexible work – Having the option to work remotely or have an earlier or later start time can save you from losing the workday to non-productivity.  
4. Vacation time – Employees with less than five years of employment at a company are entitled to a minimum of two weeks of vacation each year. You may resort to deducting vacation days from an employee with a last-minute time-off request. This must of course be communicated with the employee and agreed to prior to deducting the days. 
5. Unpaid time off – Employers may also opt for unpaid time off for last- minute time off requests. Employers would simply deduct the hours not worked from the employees pay period.  

Employers must remember they have a duty to accommodate their employees up until undue hardship. Duty to accommodate is necessary to prevent or reduce discrimination against employees who may need special arrangements.  

Providing support to employees who may need it during back-to-school season is a great way for employers to ensure productivity does not suffer, while avoiding hefty discrimination claims. It is also important to note that creating family-friendly policies must be fair, accessible, and applicable to all employees. 

Do you need help creating new HR policies for your workplace?  

Whether you need to draft a flexible work policy, calculate correct leave and vacation pay, or update your employment contracts, we’ve got you covered. Peninsula’s experts can help you develop company policies, and with any other HR, health and safety and employee management matters that may arise. 

To learn more about how Peninsula’s services can support your business, call an expert today at 1 (833) 247-3652