Why flexible work culture has to change to get women back to work

One year into the Covid-19 crisis, and we are finally starting to grapple with the devastating impact that the pandemic has had on working women. In 2020, women in the U.S. have lost approximately 5.4 million jobs, or about 55% of all net job losses, with women of color being impacted the hardest. Nearly 2.1 million U.S. women have left the paid labor force entirely, which threatens to wipe out decades of gender equality gains in the workplace.

The primary reason for this is nothing new. Women have long shouldered the brunt of unpaid childcare and household labor, and the pandemic only intensified these challenges with the closing of schools and childcare facilities. Even in corporate America, which did not experience the same level of job loss as in lower-wage industries, more than 1 in 4 women are contemplating downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce completely due to increased care-taking responsibilities at home. For millions of these working mothers, stress and mental health are reaching a breaking point.

Though America is severely lacking public policies that would help alleviate the situation, such as federal paid family leave and universal childcare, employers also have an important role to play in this growing crisis.

The current problem with “flexibility”

In the first few months of the pandemic, many employers switched quickly from in-person to remote working, with the expectation that employees would soon return to offices within a few months. By the end of 2020, more than half of U.S. companies reported that their teams were still partially or fully remote.

Though employees generally report being more productive and happier with the increased flexibility of working from home, there are still signs that our “new normal” won’t necessarily be sustainable in the long run. First, the benefits of WFH face a gender gap—a recent study found that a greater percentage of men vs. women reported getting promotions, pay raises, and increased leadership duties while working from home.

And as the boundaries between home and work life have blurred, employees report working even more hours than before, with working mothers reporting having to make up hours lost to home-schooling or childcare duties by working late into the night or on weekends to catch up. Even childless employees have been affected, with many saying they have to work more hours to pick up the slack for coworkers with children.

Much of the issue stems from the fact that many employers have treated flexibility and remote working as a band-aid solution for the pandemic instead of as a long-term organizational strategy. Now that we’re one year into the pandemic, businesses can no longer ignore the cracks in the system. “Flexibility” is burning us out—especially women.

Structuring flexible work arrangements to empower women and benefit all employees

To avoid the inevitable pitfalls that flexibility can bring, companies must first see flexible work arrangements not just as an employee benefit, but also as a business strategy that can improve employee productivity and engagement as well as help with recruitment and retention.

Though small- and medium-sized businesses may lack the HR resources to formalize an official flextime program, it’s still possible to create a structured policy that defines flexible work options, sets clear expectations based on role and work arrangements, and is fairly and equitably applied across the organization. Here are some key guidelines that business leaders can set in place:

Encourage teams to work smarter, not longer.

The only way to break the pervasive cycle of overwork is to first embrace the idea that no one, including salaried employees, should be expected to consistently work more than 40 hours a week. Research shows that ideal productivity is typically reached with slightly less time (38 hours), and that employee output sharply drops after 50 hours per week. (Companies that have busy times that require longer hours should balance them with slower workweeks to reach the 40-hour average.) By explicitly encouraging employees to not exceed this standard, companies can discourage the practice of presenteeism and better manage workloads within teams.

For businesses in the creative and knowledge industries, employees need time to work in “flow,” a state of being completely focused and absorbed within an activity. People in flow states are up to five times more productive, yet the average business person spends only about 5% of their day in flow. Team leaders should help structure workdays in order to maximize chunks of uninterrupted time where employees can do important deep-dive work. Practices such as “No Meeting” Days and asynchronous communication have been shown to help with time management and improve team performance, particularly in flexible work arrangements.

Allow for part-time work arrangements that don’t “Mommy Track” employees.

Many companies have learned to successfully implement flexible working hours, where employees choose to work outside of usual business hours. But what about employees that don’t just want alternative hours, but rather less hours? Unfortunately for many high-skilled employees, the prospects for part-time work are much less accommodating.

Eliza Khuner, a former data scientist at Facebook, found this out the hard way after giving birth to her third baby. Following her maternity leave, she requested to work from home part-time so she could spend more time raising her daughter. Her request was denied, as was her request for temporary unpaid leave, so she resigned, learning shortly thereafter that hundreds of other Facebook employees faced the same difficult choice.

Despite having some of America’s most progressive parental leave policies, even Facebook has not yet cracked the negative stigma around part-time work. In many companies, part-time work is either reserved for low-wage shift workers, or seen as part of a “Mommy Track” or “Daddy Track” that gives the employee little hope for career advancement. With no good options for part-time work, many highly skilled women leave the workforce completely, and those that do stay potentially suffer higher rates of stress and burnout.

Companies that have structured programs that allow all employees to work part-time, such as IBM and Deloitte, have found that it has helped not only with employee retention, but also results in more diversity in senior leadership roles. Acknowledging that both women and men may want to scale their careers up or down at different points in their life helps to minimize the gender bias that comes with workplace flexibility.

Part-time work arrangements can take many forms. Companies may consider allowing employees to work a percentage of their full-time contract, taking a pro-rated salary as compensation—for example, working 4 days at 80% of their full-time pay. Some roles may allow for job sharing, splitting responsibilities between two part-time workers. For all cases, be sure to define what benefits employees might have when working part time. Benefits should be fair in comparison to full-time employees, yet attractive enough that employees feel they can take advantage of part-time work without shouldering new stresses, such as finding their own health insurance.

And lastly, ensure that part-time workers still have opportunity for career advancement. Many employees may see their flextime arrangement as temporary, hoping to scale up their career down the line. Never assume part-time employees aren’t fully dedicated—keep them in active conversation with their managers about job performance, project assignments, and promotional tracks so that they know what opportunities lie ahead for them.

Implement meaningful returnship programs.

For workers who put their careers on hold, whether to raise children, care for elderly parents or go back to school, returning to the workforce can be a difficult and frustrating process. Many workers find that only entry-level positions are available to them after such a long career gap, or that the previous job they once had now requires new technology skills that they may not have learned.

However, these are workers with lots of untapped potential—many hold advanced degrees and already have years of work experience. To harness this potential, many companies have begun to develop returnship or re-entry programs, which are specifically designed for people restarting their careers. Similar to an internship, it’s a temporary position lasting a few weeks to a few months that allows individuals to reacquaint themselves with the current work environment, update their technology skills, and deepen their network of peers and mentors.

Returnship programs can be a great way to build your company’s talent pipeline—as long as they are structured for success and not seen as a form of cheap labor. Be sure to have a defined role and responsibilities for returnees so that they can contribute to projects from their first day, and offer competitive pay, similar to what you might pay a temporary contractors, so that you can attract serious prospects. Also be sure to define what skills training and mentorship they can expect to receive in the program.

Changing the culture around flexibility

For flexible work arrangements to be successful, they have to become part of the fabric of your company’s work culture. Even the best-intentioned flextime policies will go unused if there is a negative stigma to using them.

Encourage both men and women to take advantage of flextime options. Flexibility should never be seen as a female issue, nor should men who want to spend more time with their families be seen as being less dedicated to their work. Childless employees should also be encouraged to use flextime, particularly if they want to take on a big life change such as going back to school or taking time to care for elderly parents.

It also helps greatly when senior leaders within the company also take advantage of flexible work arrangements, or when higher-level roles are advertised as part-time or flexible. This is signals to both employees and prospective candidates that your business truly values work/life balance and views flexibility as something that benefits both employees and employers.