FlexJobs Survey About Working Parents Highlights Why Work Flexibility Is Critical
Boulder, CO (PRWEB) August 15, 2017 -- According to a recent FlexJobs survey of nearly 2,000 parents with children 18 and younger living at home, parents struggle to meet all their family and life priorities within the traditional workplace system. Family and work-life balance tied as the overwhelmingly top reasons working parents seek flexible work options (81%). Time savings (44%), commuting stress (41%), and cost savings (39%) were additional reasons. Working parents also consider work-life balance (81%) and flexible schedules (76%) more important than salary (72%) when evaluating a job prospect.
91% of working parents report working because they need to earn income, largely to cover expenses related to their children. Both parents work full-time in 61% of two-parent households in America, and approximately two thirds of single mothers are working outside the home, making flexible work arrangements critical in supporting parents juggling the demands of both career and family. To help parents find jobs with work flexibility, FlexJobs has identified fifteen companies for parents that are actively hiring for flexible job positions.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, VMWare, Deloitte and American Express are among the fifteen companies featured on this list, with a variety of current flexible job openings such as financial analyst, solutions architect, nutritionist, marketing associate, project manager and human resources assistant. To compile this list, FlexJobs cross-referenced Fortune's Best Workplaces for Parents list with its database of over 40,000 companies to determine which ones were currently hiring for the most flexible jobs. A “flexible job” is defined as a professional-level job that has a telecommuting, flexible schedule, part-time, or freelance component.
“The vast majority of parents work because they need the income to support their families, but the outdated 9-5 office workplace model doesn’t accommodate the needs and priorities of today’s working parents,” said Sara Sutton Fell, Founder and CEO of FlexJobs. “It’s not surprising to hear that 98% of parents are interested in being a flexible worker in the long term, especially considering that 70% have thought about leaving or actually left a job because it didn’t offer flexibility. So for companies, it’s wise to remember that working parents represent a big talent pool and it’s in their best interest not to alienate or lose those candidates simply because of parenthood. By acknowledging the reality of working parents and providing flexible work options, companies like those on this list help to make parents more successful in both their employee and parent roles,” Sutton Fell concluded.
The top reasons parents work include paying for basic necessities (rent or mortgage, groceries, utilities, etc.) (78%), saving for retirement (64%), paying for other child-related costs (childcare, extracurriculars, etc.) (61%) and saving for their kids' education (61%).
The survey also uncovered additional findings on work flexibility and working parents, such as the impact on their volunteer activity at their children’s schools, their attitudes about their dual parent/employee roles, impact on health, potential cost savings, and what they would exchange for the option to telecommute.
*Demographic breakdown of the respondents, all with children under 18 living at home: Ages: 20-39 (42%), 40-59 (56%), 60+ (2%); Education: high school degree or equivalent (4%), some college but no degree (15%), associate or bachelor degree (50%), graduate degree (31%); Career level: entry-level (11%), experienced (56%), manager or higher (33%).
For more information contact Kathy Gardner at kgardner(at)flexjobs.com.
About FlexJobs
FlexJobs is the leading online service for professionals seeking telecommuting, flexible schedule, part-time, and freelance jobs. With flexible job listings in over 50 career categories, and opportunities ranging from entry-level to executive and freelance to full-time, FlexJobs offers job seekers a safe, easy, and efficient way to find professional and legitimate flexible job listings. Having helped over two million people in their job searches, FlexJobs has appeared on CNN and Marketplace Money and in TIME, Forbes, Fortune, and hundreds of other trusted media outlets. FlexJobs' Founder & CEO Sara Sutton Fell has also launched two additional partner sites, Remote.co and 1 Million for Work Flexibility, to help provide education and awareness about the viability and benefits of remote working and work flexibility. Sutton Fell is also the creator of The TRaD* Works Forum (*Telecommuting, Remote, & Distributed), dedicated to helping companies leverage the benefits of telecommuting, remote and distributed teams.
Kathy Gardner, FlexJobs, http://www.flexjobs.com, +1 (203)253-9531, [email protected]
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