What do Working Parents Really Need in 2021?

It also shone a spotlight on existing challenges that have faced working parents for years, highlighted by a greater visibility into people’s home lives.

According to data published by the Office for National Statistics in March 2020, there are 4.6 million households in the UK with dependent children aged under 16 years where all parents in the household are working. National lockdowns and other Covid-19 restrictions have required many families to rapidly adjust their work-life patterns; whether re-creating a work environment in the family home, fitting family time around additional shift work for key workers, or balancing work commitments and childcare needs. The levels of personal and professional change undertaken by working parents was and continues to be significant.

Even in ‘normal’ times, research shows that conflicting energy, time and behavioural demands impact men and women’s job satisfaction, family satisfaction and life satisfaction. Work-family conflict has also been reported as one of the most significant physical and psychological workplace stressors.

Several of these working parent challenges have intensified in recent months. In many cases, the impact of conflicting work-life demands has been especially felt among women. Research conducted by University College London and the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that women spent twice as much time as men on home-schooling in lockdown, and the Office for National Statistics reported that women have spent more time on unpaid work and less time on paid work because of Covid-19. This raises addition emotional wellbeing concerns, as well as questions relating to the future diversity of talent in the workplace.

As conflicting work and family demands will continue to challenge working parents throughout this year and beyond, identifying and implementing proactive, practical and emotional support within organisations should be a vital part of people strategies in 2021.

 What you’ll find in this report

This report provides guidance for organisations on how to provide the right individual, team and organisational support to working parents in 2021 and beyond.

It offers insight into the common hopes, fears, challenges and opportunities shared by working parents. The primary objective of the underlying research was to gather feedback from working parents on the support they most need to flourish across work and life.

In total, 40 working parents completed a short research survey. The survey was open to all working parents in the UK and as such the data is indicative of the broad and on-going support needs at different stages of the working parenthood journey, across different industry sectors.

Based on these shared real-life experiences, we have recommended specific individual, team and organisational level changes and actions that will effectively support the success and wellbeing of working parents today and into the future.

This research was conducted during September – November 2020.

Jayne Ruff – Chartered Occupational Psychologist & Founder of Parenting Point.

Parenting Point exists to give everyone the self-belief that they can flourish as a parent and a professional by positively aligning both worlds. We help parents find their meaningful and fulfilling work-life balance through practical, psychology-based workshops and coaching. We work with organisations to create positive and inclusive performance cultures that support and encourage the growth of working parents.