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No excuse for Dads not to work flexibly too!

Posted: Jul 2021
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How can Corporate Comms employers encourage this?

It is already clear that, post pandemic, there will be fundamental differences to the way we live our lives, with the way we work being a key aspect. The coronavirus crisis has enabled many people to revaluate what is important in life and has given us a taste of the work-from-home lifestyle that many will be reluctant to give up once the pandemic is over. In fact, research by YouGov shows that pre-COVID only 32% of British employees ever worked from home, but that once the crisis is over most (57%) want to be able to continue working from home, either the whole or some of the time.

Historically women have made up the majority of flexible or home workers for childcare reasons, however, for families with two working parents, the last year and a bit has also seen a sharp increase in shared childcare responsibility. Indeed, research by Working Families has revealed that 68% of employers surveyed said male parents and carers have shown more interest in flexible working since the pandemic hit. 

This is encouraging, but what more can be done to help promote flexible working to male corporate communications professionals? Corporate comms employers can play an important part in creating sustainable options for fathers, which is key to creating greater levels of equality between male and female employees. Moreover, in the post-covid world, your flexibly offerings to enable both parents to share childcare could be a dealbreaker to both potential and current employees.

  • If you haven’t already, create an official ‘hybrid working’ working model which is open to all – basically a flexible working model which allows employees a combination of working from home, at the office or in other public spaces. With many offices reopening, some employees may already be working to this kind of model, however making it official will help hybrid working continue to be the new normal.
  • Ensure your company culture supports equality in flexible working to care for children (or for any other reason). Company culture is so important for employee happiness, engagement and retention as well as company reputation, so make sure you stamp out any stigma attached to men requesting flexible working.
  • Demonstrate and celebrate examples of people who are working flexibly, effectively and productively. Forced home working has shown us that you don’t need to be in the office full time to be productive – in fact flexible working can help increase productivity and wellbeing.
  • Identify senior male flexible working role models - either within your organisation or externally - and get them to share their story. It is very powerful to hear first-hand from a leader that they have made a success out of flexible working.
  • Actively promote company policies related to Shared Parental Leave. This government led legislation was introduced in 2015 to provide husbands and partners the legal right to divide responsibilities as well as paid time-off work.
  • Bring your policies in line with the government’s Good Work Plan, which is a set of proposals encouraging businesses to improve workforce equality by advertising all jobs as flexible from ‘day one’.


The Works Search a search consultancy specialising in PR and corporate communications. We have unrivalled matching abilities and known for finding the top 5% performers in the industry - the ones who deliver and make your reputation great. For more advice or market insights, do get in touch with us on 0207 903 9291 or email sarah@the-works.co.uk

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