Co-working spaces, with childcare facilities on-site, are offering working parents an affordable and manageable way back into the workplace – Financial Times reports.
Dubbed “workplace hybrids”, these spaces offer parents close proximity to their children, without the immediate need for constant care, and a space to work too.
Furthermore, they offer working parents a likeminded community and assuage the guilt some parents feel when they put their child into nurseries.
However, these workspaces are, at the moment, quite rare in the UK. Entreprenursery, West Hampstead, is one of the few that exists.
Even then, it is for only one morning a week and is hosted in a local church which offers a workspace upstairs whilst nannies take-on childcare in a creche.
Yet, Entreprenursery’s rates are cheaper than the average hourly rate of a nanny – £12 compared to £13 – and much less expensive than a day in a nursey.
Sam Aldenton, Co-Founder of London-based co-working business Second Home, thinks that there has not been great enough response to the needs of working parents.
Citing expensive property prices and strict childcare rules, Aldenton hopes that the current “untapped demand” for childcare and workspaces will offer success for Second Home.
Second Home opens its first space with childcare on site in Hackney in September. The company is partnering with a London-based childcare provider, who will take charge of the crèche.
Yet, worryingly for HR, a third of working British mums (33%) would have to give up work if it wasn’t for school breakfast clubs – impacting a large part of the workforce.
And, aware of their employees’ needs, Facebook, Ikea, American and Kering are just a few of the companies that have had to recently improve their family benefits offerings.
However, these often focus around family illness or paternity and maternity leave, forgetting that working parents often feel the burden of responsibility throughout their child’s life.
Kate Prince, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at Kelloggs, a company who offers breakfast clubs, added: “At Kellogg’s we also feel passionately about supporting work-life balance for all colleagues, including working parents. That’s why we give everyone access to flexible working hours and benefits.”
Source: HR Grapevine
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.