- Christy Pruitt-Haynes is an HR expert and consultant at the NeuroLeadership Institute.
- To retain
working moms , Pruitt-Haynes says it's up to leaders to ditch their assumptions.
Some scenes we've witnessed countless times: the working mother who has to step out of a meeting to answer a call from her child's school. A rising star back from maternity leave who's passed over for a promotion because it's perceived that her career now takes a back seat. The executive who leaves the office at 3 p.m. each day for school pickup and, unbeknownst to her colleagues, is back online each night after her children are asleep to ensure her deliverables are met.
As organizations move forward with return-to-office plans, leaders have a chance to rewrite the playbook on how companies do things. Here are five ways they can set working moms up for success.
1. Ditch the assumptions
Too often, leaders go into conversations with assumptions of what employees want or need. Instead, it's important for them to ask what's on the minds of working moms and really listen.
For newly-minted moms, a return to the office might entail logistical questions, such as whether there's a lactation room or if she can adjust her working hours to get home and see her child before bedtime. Others may be looking to ramp up their career and want to have as much face time as possible, making a return to work a welcomed change.
Because we all have biases, well-intended missteps can often get misconstrued. That's all the more reason leaders must not only be aware of biases but work to mitigate them.
If, for example, a working mother says she'd like to work four 10-hour days instead of five eight-hour days, bias may cause a leader to quickly say no because it's an unproven method. But if a leader can recognize that bias and instead pivot by listening to the working mom and allowing her to test that scheduling for a trial period, that could be the difference between retaining a working mom and seeing her walk out the door.
2. Forget she's a mom
This may sound counterintuitive, but working moms already receive plenty of societal dings. To even the playing field, discuss options with them the same way you would discuss returning to the office with other employees.
To be sure, this doesn't mean dismissing requests to move certain meetings because of daycare dropoff. Instead, it means asking yourself, "Would I respond to this question differently if James asked it instead of Jane?"
3. Focus on results, not time
If working moms have a superpower, it's the ability to spot the most important priorities and focus on activities with the biggest impact.
This ability to sift through the weeds and surface priorities is not to be underestimated. But the key to harnessing this ability is to give working moms autonomy to experiment with what may work. An eight-hour block of work prepandemic may have been OK, but now three three-hour blocks of work may be the key to productivity.
4. Communicate like she does
If you read any profile of a successful leader who's a parent, chances are you'll come across some nugget like this: "I became a much better leader after having kids." The reason so many leaders have that realization is because whether you're dealing with a toddler or a teenager, you have to tailor your message very carefully so that your audience (i.e., your kids) hear what they need to hear to ensure the intended message isn't lost.
The same principle applies to your workforce. Communicating in the way a person needs to hear can be the difference between a message sticking or going in one ear and out the other. Instead of operating the way you always have, ask yourself, "What if I tried a different way of communicating?"
5. Check your compensation structures
Working moms often are placed at an economic deficit. When a man becomes a father, more money often is "justifiable" because he has to provide for his family, possibly widening an existing gender pay gap.
The same is true for working mothers. There may not be a bread-winning man in the picture and other expenses, including childcare, can compound the problems working mothers face.
What's more, without a federally-mandated paid leave, it's crucial for leaders to examine compensation policies to make sure moms who take time off for maternity leave aren't unfairly penalized.
By weaving these practices into return-to-office strategies, leaders can help working mothers do their best work and provide better outcomes for the entire organization.
Christy Pruitt-Haynes is a human-resources expert and consultant at NeuroLeadership Institute with over 20 years of executive and entrepreneurial experience.