January 24, 2016

Babies at your desks: The gender gap solution for 2016?

If you are a working female in your mid to late twenties you may have got some strong hints from family members during the festive period that you should now be thinking about starting a family! For those of us who are warming up to this idea which includes myself, there are two burning questions that keep surfacing.

1. Would I be able to afford the cost of childcare?
2. How and if taking time away from my career to start my family will affect me later on?

When speaking to friends and colleagues in the same situation, I found that my concerns were widely shared. In London the cost of childcare is a massive £6,000 per year averaging £115.45 a week – which is no small amount! So the prospect of returning to work on a full time basis will require some creative budgeting solutions.

A recent article in the Guardian explored this issue and it seems that a growing number of employers are offering childcare solutions that may assist women with re-entering the workplace on a quicker timescale than they had thought. These employers are offering an onsite crèche service and in some cases completely changing the work environment to allow parents to bring in their young children into the actual office! (this is not exclusively for mothers, fathers are benefiting from this also).

Babies in the workplace seems to have really been embraced in the US where around 200 organisations have adopted the ‘babies at work’ policy and more recently UK Taxi firm Addison Lee experimented with this idea. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO apparently has a nursery right next to her office for her children!

In an interview with Working Mums, Clare Bishop, Head of HR, Addison Lee said that “despite an initial drop in productivity, she expected an increase in staff loyalty and retention “ I think the most important thing is retention of staff and knowledge, the cost to replace staff due to family commitments could cost businesses huge amounts in some instances a cost of £30,000 upwards.

Babies at Work is an interesting concept which could allow new parents to not feel so guilty about returning to work early. It has the added bonus of allowing them to continue to drive their careers forward and to have the option of seeing their children during a lunchbreak and having the chance when they have a clear diary to spend quality time with them at work.  The consideration of colleagues would have to be considered and clear structures will need to be in place to take into account those who are not avid babies’ lovers and those who may need quiet time. Ok, maybe having babies at the desk is a step too far out the box however I do think the facility to have a crèche service onsite as part of a benefits package is a happy medium.  And one that would be appreciated by all employees.

I have yet to take the step into motherhood however I do hope that my employers would explore this idea as a means to strengthen employee relationships and retain staff in particular women at all levels.

Joanne Green

Girls Talk London Ambassador

Recruitment Account Manager