Earlier this month, leaders from across the spectrum of employers, vendors and innovators came together at the Caregiving and Work Summit hosted by Mother Honestly. The virtual event, which had over 1200 registrants, featured speakers and panelists on a wide array of topics from mental health to the state of childcare and work in America.

Lions &Tigers Founder, Brea Starmer, moderated the panel The Caring Company: How Employers Can Support Their Employees’ Caregiving Responsibilities In and Beyond Crisis. This panel featured Katelin Holloway Partner at Initialized Capital, Cara Brennan SVP of People, Places and Learning at Udemy, Karsten Vagner VP of People at Maven Clinic, and Rob Master VP of Media and Digital Engagement at Unilever.  The group explored policies and actions employers can take to help their employees, the role of HR today, and practical ways we can keep moving forward with regard to being caregivers and leaders.

Key highlights and takeaways from the panel

Focus on Retention

As business leaders, we now must focus not only on the way we attract talent but also on how we retain and support employees. HR must shift from what has historically been a recruiting function to a retention strategy that promotes equitable, long-term policies that support parents. 

Company Culture Matters

Equally as important is how employers treat their parent employees right now. It’s impossible for parents to have the same production than they did with childcare; therefore, we must focus on outcomes and not the hours spent. Brea Starmer pointed out how even if, as an employer, you can’t afford to fund your own on-site childcare, you can still subsidize caregiving and create a company culture that “measures impact over hours.”

Not A Single Solution

There is no one size fits all solution. While there are certainly policies employers can take to make this time more bearable (like paid family health insurance, paid parental leave, family leave and childcare assistance), there are other tactical solutions for #flexwork, as Karsten Vagner noted, which include:

• Implement core hours for meetings
• Send agendas ahead of meetings
• Ask “can the meeting be an email?”
• Identify which email chains don’t require immediate replies
• Find the goals that can be shifted or adjusted when you can.
• Give people that green light to balance their workload again now that remote learning has started.

Did you attend the Summit?  We’d love to hear what you thought.  You can also read more about the Caregiving and Work Summit here.