Tight resources – in terms of time and money – are often a key characteristic of smaller workplaces and can influence all areas of running a business. This also includes particular challenges for supporting expectant and new parents, such as concerns about meeting legal requirements, managing maternity or paternity-related absence at work, or providing enhanced leave and pay (see Leave).
“Anyone with less than say 20 staff is going to be massively affected by a pregnancy because of all the legal requirements we have to put in place and the costs – I guess the financial costs of pregnancy to a small business are not offset by the government support. […]. I get tax relief to a higher amount than [what] it would have cost us, but it’s nowhere near the actual cost of the impact to the business. (Bill – 10-49 staff)
Did you know? The benefits of supporting parents outweigh the disadvantages: While SME employers in our study acknowledge the financial and administrative costs of managing staff with childcare responsibilities, they rank the benefits of support (e.g. improved workplace culture, increased motivation and retention), higher than the costs.
Small steps can make a big difference
Parents value flexible working just as much as enhanced maternity and paternity leave and pay! Our study showed that the most valued forms of support among SME employees are informal flexible working (43.3%) and formal flexible working (41.3%), followed by enhanced maternity or paternity leave and pay (39.1%).
There are many simple, low-cost ways to support parents that staff will greatly appreciate. Our toolkit provides examples throughout. Most of these are related to Flexible Working and a Supportive Workplace Culture.
