{"id":9328,"date":"2022-05-08T06:31:36","date_gmt":"2022-05-08T10:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=9328"},"modified":"2022-05-08T06:32:02","modified_gmt":"2022-05-08T10:32:02","slug":"women-returning-to-the-workplace-are-seeking-flexibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=9328","title":{"rendered":"Women returning to the workplace are seeking flexibility"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Caregiving duties were a big reason millions of women exited the workforce during the pandemic. And for many, that\u2019s still holding them back \u2014 something employers need to address.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Nearly a quarter of women said that their child care workload had not returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to a new\u00a0survey<\/a>\u00a0of 1,001 women by the job search engine Indeed. Similarly, almost half of workers (men and women) who quit a job during the Great Resignation left for child care reasons, lack of flexibility to choose when they put in their hours (45%), or paid time off (43%), according to a Pew Research Center\u00a0survey<\/a>\u00a0conducted in February.<\/p>\n

To come back, these female workers are leveraging the tight job market to seek flexible hours, remote work opportunities, employer-provided caregiving benefits, paid leave and sick days, and a workplace culture that respects family caregiving.<\/p>\n

Read on Yahoo Money<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWomen are finally starting to say, \u2018I’m ready to get back in\u2019\u2026. [but] over the past year and a half, many of the female job seekers we work with said they would not work unless the positions were remote and flexible,\u201d Gwenn Rosener, partner, and co-founder of\u00a0FlexProfessionals<\/a>, a recruiting and staffing firm for the Boston and Washington, D.C., areas, told Yahoo Money. \u201cWe\u2019ve been amazed at the conviction of our candidates \u2013 they won\u2019t budge.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘<\/strong>I was looking for a flexible arrangement’<\/h2>\n

Women have, of course, have historically left the\u00a0workforce<\/a>\u00a0for caregiving duties. Until the pandemic skyrocketed the number of women hitting the exits, though, employers didn\u2019t pay much attention to flexible work arrangements. Workers, typically women, had to negotiate for job-sharing, flex hours, or part-time positions on a case-by-case basis with their manager.<\/p>\n

But the scramble now to hire and retain workers is changing that attitude. Job openings in the U.S., and the number of workers quitting their jobs lingered at near record highs in February, according to the most recent data available, a signal of high demand for workers and of jobseeker leverage.<\/p>\n

We want to hear from you! Tell us your work and retirement questions or concerns by emailing\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>yahoomoney@yahooinc.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Take Karen Severy, 57, a lawyer who lives in Bethesda, Md., who left her job a year ago to help her teenage son who was struggling with remote learning and relieve her own burnout. She was feeling the financial stress, but still wanted a job on her own terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a single mom with a mortgage to pay,\u201d she told Yahoo Money. \u201cI was looking for a flexible arrangement \u2013 maybe coming in once a week and if there’s an office meeting \u2013 with a firm that would be understanding and happy with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She contracted with FlexProfessionals and was matched in November with a hybrid job that allows her to split her time between home and the office of a local legal practice.<\/p>\n

‘I’m going to look elsewhere’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The new paradigm has also empowered women who are on the job as well. More than 1 in 4 (28%) caregiving women in non-manager roles in the the U.S. would switch jobs if they\u2019re not allowed to work at least some of the time from home and nearly half (48%) of executive women who are caregivers would do so, according to a recent Boston Consulting Group (BCG)\u00a0survey<\/a>\u00a0of 8,968 employees with caregiving responsibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe numbers are staggering,\u201d Lisa S. Weitzman,\u00a0WeCare\u2026Because You Do<\/a>\u00a0director of strategic partnerships at the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging, a national family caregiver support program, told Yahoo Money. \u201cWomen are saying, ‘if you’re not going to meet my needs, I’m going to look elsewhere.’\u201d<\/p>\n

More companies are listening.<\/p>\n

Last year,\u00a0<\/strong>Schneider Electric,<\/a>\u00a0a global energy company with its U.S. headquarters in Boston, Mass., for example, contracted with\u00a0Care.com<\/a>\u00a0to provide backup assistance for adult care, childcare, and even pet care. It also started enrollment in a voluntary part-time program for U.S. salaried employees to reduce hours as needed, but retain employee benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve been very passionate about\u00a0trying to pull females back in the workforce<\/a>, even prior to COVID, but we needed to up our game,\u201d Amy deCastro, vice president of HR, global businesses at Schneider Electric, told Yahoo Money. \u201cOur goal is by 2025 for 50% of new hires to be women, up from 39% at entry now and 30% to be senior leaders up from about one in four.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Tina\u00a0Jepson,<\/a>\u00a036, a Nashville-based writing specialist for Schneider, those types of benefits and empathy for working moms are what has kept her on the job the past two years at Schneider. Jepson spent five years out of the workforce raising two children, before she accepted the job in 2019. At the time, she was four months pregnant with her third child.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven as a new hire, I was eligible for 12 weeks of paid parental leave,\u201d she told Yahoo Money. \u201cI was impressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jepson was back from leave when the pandemic began. \u201cMy manager was a new mom at the time, too, and she understood the chaos that comes when you have children\u2013now 9, 7 and 2\u2013at home, online school and work,\u201d Jepson said. \u201cSo far, I’ve never felt like I’ve had to choose between my family, my kids and work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wellthy.com<\/a>, a digital care-concierge platform that helps employers assist staffers who have caregiving needs, now provides services to 1.1 million workers, double the number it did a year ago. The company hires social workers as care coordinators and offers a tech platform to manage care, ranging from scheduling medical appointments to finding the right specialists to organizing a move to a long-term care facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things we see holding women back from reentering the workforce is having the care infrastructure that they need,\u201d Wellthy CEO and co-founder Lindsay Jurist-Rosner, told Yahoo Money. \u201c[Employers] want to make sure that women want to work there. If not, they know they will go where they\u2019re more supported.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Kerry<\/a><\/p>\n
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Kerry Hannon<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\u00b7<\/span>Senior Columnist<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Kerry is a Senior Columnist and Senior Reporter at Yahoo Money. Follow her on Twitter<\/em>\u00a0@kerryhannon<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Read the latest personal finance trends and news from Yahoo Money.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Follow Yahoo Finance on<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Twitter<\/em><\/strong><\/a>,<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Instagram<\/em><\/strong><\/a>,<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0YouTube<\/em><\/strong><\/a>,<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Facebook<\/em><\/strong><\/a>,<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Flipboard<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, and<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0LinkedI<\/em><\/strong><\/a>n.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n