Effective Parents make Effective Employees

 For most parents, September marks the beginning of the New Year. School is back in session and the routine for the rest of the year is in place. Even parents of babies and preschoolers treat the Fall as the start of the year.

These parents are your employees or union members.

At Parenting Today we have a program that will be advantageous for both families and the workplace. This is the time for you to be considering what you can offer the parents in your workplace or union this year.

I have been asked a number of questions about the program Great@Home–Great@Work and will use this forum to answer your questions and invite you to add more if I miss one of your concerns.

Why Should We Offer a Program for Parents?

 Employee Productivity will climb. Problems at home always trump problems at work. The more you can support parents to care for their children in a confident and effective manner, the more they will arrive and work ready to focus on the job at hand.

The presence of this program in the workplace enhances staff loyalty. Parents who work in an environment that encourages and understands the challenges of handling both work and home stay loyal to the company. Parents have told me that they brag to their friends about their family friendly workplace and state that they would never leave.

Is This Simply a Matter of Offering Occasional Workshops?

 Ongoing support programming recognizes that the situation on the home front is a moving target. Children grow and change and the parenting needs grow and change with them.

Workshops, whether during the workday, at lunchtime or right after work are an integral part of the program. The topics are chosen to meet the needs of the participants.

But, as one workplace wellness coordinator said to me: “Great speakers like yourself come in and everyone gets excited, but then they leave.” With Great@Home–Great@Work, I don’t disappear.  There are a variety of options for ongoing parent support.

But We Have an EFAP Program so Why Use Great@Home–Great@Work?

 The strength of a quality EFAP program lies in the counseling services they can offer your staff.

Great@Home–Great@Work does not offer counseling, it offers education, information, support and guidance. When parents are learning, about child development and positive parenting practices they are much less likely to need professional counseling along the way.

The two programs are complimentary but definitely different.

What is the Basic Framework of Your Program?

 All of Parenting Today’s programs share a basic value system I call

P.U.R.E. Parenting.

P — is a parenting plan

U — is unconditional love

R — is respect for your child as he is right now

E — is encouragement

These make up the framework of any resources that will come from Parenting Today. These four pillars are the essential ingredients for raising healthy children who will develop into capable young men and women.

So, in Summary: Why should you care?

Today’s young professionals have decided that they will work hard but they will also have a life. They are insisting that their benefits programs include recognition that they have a full life outside of the workplace. And the workplace that honours that will find that they can recruit the best people, that they will see an increase in employee retention and loyalty and that their employees will have fewer sick days, be focused on their job while at work and will suffer less stress and anxiety.

Raising kids is one of the greatest challenges for those trying to achieve a balance between home and work. The workplaces that recognize that will be the winners, as will their employees and the next generation of workers, their children.