No magical one-and-done solution exists to help working parents better balance professional and familial duties.
That said, empathy and flexibility can go a long way in making employees with childcare responsibilities feel supported. At Denver-based agricultural platform Smartwyre, that support comes in the form of giving team members the ability to work outside typical hours and overcommunicating project details with increased documentation.
As it turns out, such strategies have benefited employees across the board.
“Encouraging better-written communication has enhanced our ability to assess our planning and implementation in ways that weren’t previously possible,” Lead Software Engineer Kevin Walter said.
Since transitioning to a remote work environment, Walter said managers haven’t simply listened to concerns regarding work-life balance — they’ve actually internalized what working parents have to say.
When your team first switched to remote work, what were the first steps you took to help working parents make that transition?
As an organization, we found that the biggest help for our parent employees was ensuring that we heard what they needed and did what we could to be flexible. We tried to shift work responsibilities to allow flexibility outside the standard 9-to-5 time period. This let households with two working parents take turns handling childcare.
We’ve also stepped up our focus on asynchronous communication. We are increasing the level of detail in our ticketing system and overall documentation. We’re increasing usage of team messaging channels over voice calls. And above all, we’re trying to be understanding of the occasional delays and interruptions that are becoming a normal part of the workday.
What Smartwyre Does
How are you working with the parents on your team to understand what resources would be most useful?
The most important thing seems to be ensuring everyone feels heard and understood. This is a stressful time with a lot of change for everyone. Employees need as much confidence and stability as they can get. For leadership, it’s our responsibility to both listen and actually hear what our employees are struggling with so that we can accommodate, reassure, empathize and assist as necessary.
We recently had dinner delivered to an employee’s family that was going through a period of particular stress. One night off from cooking and dishes may not have fixed everything, but in a particularly tight moment, it shows we care as an organization and give everyone involved a much-needed breather.
The most important thing seems to be ensuring everyone feels heard and understood.’’
How has this experience changed the way you think about the workday?
This experience has helped us understand that the traditional 9-to-5 model isn’t entirely necessary in many cases. It’s helped us to understand that being available during key work windows is more important than when the work gets done. This type of change will likely make life easier for everyone. Encouraging better-written communication has reduced the need for synchronous reviews and enhanced our ability to assess our planning and implementation in ways that weren’t previously possible.
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