Supporting Working Parents During the Summer Holidays

While the summer holidays are all about creating precious memories with family, the prospect of keeping the little ones entertained for 6-8 long weeks can feel incredibly daunting to a working parent.

“According to recent figures, families across the country are facing a 5% jump in holiday club prices and a lack of available childcare, all set against the backdrop of a cost of living crisis.”

A parent’s working day doesn’t change during the summer holidays but, what does change, is the need to make sure the kids are cared for and entertained. So how can employers and parents work in partnership to ensure they have the foundations in place to be able to work and keep family units running over the coming months? Here’s our best advice…

Managing Requests for Annual Leave

Many employees try to organise their holiday entitlement around the summer holidays to reduce the battle of balancing work and childcare. We would advise parents to apply for this as far in advance as possible to ensure that employers can make the necessary arrangements.

Because employers will typically handle requests for annual leave on a first-come, first-served basis, they are often unable to accommodate everyone’s requests at the same time. By encouraging employees to explore the possibilities of swapping shifts, parents with young children can better support each other over this particularly tricky time.

Lockdown Taught Us a Thing or Two

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that empowering people to work flexible hours can bring great benefits to individuals and organisations alike.

“Flexibility helps more people access the labour market and stay in work, manage caring responsibilities and work-life balance, and supports enhanced employee engagement and wellbeing.“

There are various ways for organisations to introduce flexible working hours. It could be as simple as allowing employees with young children to start work later or finish earlier, negotiating permanent work-from-home arrangements, or introducing job sharing – a great solution for supporting employees to adopt more flexible working practises while achieving full-time cover for a position.

By giving individuals the option to work flexibly, employers can ensure their employees are available for important calls and meetings while enabling them to simultaneously balance workloads and childcare commitments.

Where We Come In

At Marmion, we pride ourselves on the honest, transparent, and ethical recruitment and consultancy services we provide.

We aim to help everyone achieve a healthy work-life balance so that parents don’t have to reduce their work hours, take unpaid leaved or turn down projects during the summer holidays. Get in touch with one of our of dedicated recruitment consultants to find out how we can support you.

Sending support and encouragement to working parents this summer – you’ve got this!