Have you ever wondered what is the difference between a satisfied and a dissatisfied employee? It stands out most in his work results, his loyalty and effectiveness as part of the team… and his smile when he comes to work. Working parents are some of the people we need to pay extra attention to. Working conditions for a parent such as flexibility, understanding managers, good communication, etc. can retain and develop a good employee in the company.
We must not forget that small steps, taken in time, are the strongest support when we face bigger difficulties. This was very evident during the quarantine when we all faced the home office challenge. Unpleasant as it was for dozens, young working parents, especially of younger children, found themselves in a most difficult situation.
Juggling the responsibilities of both childcare and maintaining a home and, of course – work, can overwhelm a parent, even if she is a superHUMAN, which our Callie is.
She shared with us what is most important for her as a parent to feel good in her workplace:
“For me, the most important thing is to be in a truly human environment – one where we are people first! Leda – my daughter, like many children, is often sick. Since I’ve been a part of Xplora, I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve been horrified that I had to stay home to look after her – it’s accepted as normal and by no means with a bad eye. Leda often participates in the conference calls – she is very happy and the team enjoys her inclusions.
The peace of mind I have when I have to pick her up from daycare or visit the doctor’s office during business hours is no exception – we just do it.
Most importantly, these situations do not cause disruptions in the work process and the work goes smoothly, without stress and prejudice about who will think what if you stay at home with the child.”
But how to create this environment – a dream for any working parent?
- Be flexible
- Listen carefully
- Create valuable relationships within the team
How to be more flexible?
When we talk about good people management, especially in the current situation, we can’t help but include the word “flexibility”. Have you ever thought about how a parent could handle all the daily tasks they have? From picking your child up from kindergarten/school to playing with them after dinner, it’s all an essential part of their life. Therefore, work should not interfere with his daily duties and personal life. Workflow flexibility is the tool that can turn work from a hindrance into a help for parents in the company.
Show you are flexible with the following solutions:
- possibility of home office
- flexible start and end of the working day
- no meetings at the end of the working day
How to communicate effectively?
Do you know how the parents in your company feel? If the answer is no, you’re probably not actively working with employee feedback. So apply different models for internal communication. For example, meetings at different levels, passive feedback by running surveys with specific questions, etc.
Creating an environment where every employee can share what they like and don’t like is the foundation that successful managers build on when making decisions for their teams. This can highlight existing problems or eliminate the preconditions for them.
Are you wondering how to optimize your teams’ performance without applying stifling monitoring over their tasks? Here again, the answer is effective internal communication. It also builds strong trust, which helps everyone on the team feel and respect their responsibility to their tasks.
One of the most effective ways to communicate constructively with employees is KISS model that we at Xplora have successfully implemented through weekly meetings with managers. Through it we can see what things to keep, what to improve or what to remove from internal communication.
In short, the KISS model looks like this:
K – Keep – What of the current situation does the decision maker want to keep?
I – Improve – What are you visibly trying to do but could do better and is there more work to be done on this?
S – Start – What are the things you don’t do that, if done, would get much better results?
S – Stop – What are the things they tell you to stop doing immediately because they make the end result worse ?
How to build community?
How does a company “come to life” and start working like a well-oiled machine? The answer lies in the social pulse of teams – the communication and relationships between them. So give people the opportunity to communicate freely with each other on a daily basis. This will allow every parent on your team to feel comfortable sharing when they feel a heavier workload. But there will also be no strain on his work when circumstances arise for special treatment.
Once you’ve built this type of community, whether the team is a home office or in the workplace, communication is much more effective and the problems that arise are much fewer. In this type of work environment, there is also a high level of concern from others.
How to bring your team closer together?
- Make a fun challenge with symbolic prizes
- Celebrate the occasions of everyone in the team – see how we like to celebrate birthdays at Xplora
- Organize an after-work outing to share the joy of a successfully completed task.
Here’s a little proof of how cool it is when people on the team have fun together:
These seemingly small steps improve team relationships, leading to higher team performance.
The team is always the strongest point of a company. That’s why we chose people as our superpower. Because together we make miracles. If you are wondering what kind of projects – visit our YouTube channel to see the interesting projects we have worked on.