The truth about the magic formula behind a parent and carer strategy…

The truth is, there is no magic formula. Starting strong here aren’t I!

If somebody has ever told you there is, or they evangelise mythical steps that are ‘the best way’ – please send them my way, because we need to talk. 

The real transformation happens when you embrace your individuality. When you look at what you do really well and what creates the challenges, and you figure out how to blend it. Asking some powerful questions, lead with compassion and firmly believe that a thriving workplace consists of valued employees. When you put down the performative, transactional, low hanging fruit and say ‘it’s time to go upstream!’. 

There are commonalities and fairly standard check-ins we need to do regardless of your industry and organisation, but it’s important we don’t confuse it with a ‘one size fits all’ approach. I definitely have a toolkit of things I’ve used universally across clients, but they don’t give the same outcome for everybody.  There’s a picture on my 2025 vision board that is a tailor’s kit. When I was joyfully cutting and sticking away, I stumbled across it and the metaphor clicked. A tailor might use the same kinds of tools, but the creations are unique. 

Here are three questions that are firmly in my kit bag. They can make a huge difference when it comes to mapping out a support strategy for parents and those with caring responsibilities in your organisation. They’re standard, but your answers won’t be. 

1. What’s your organisational ‘why’?

It’s important to be brutally honest, because the answer will determine pretty much every next step you take. If it’s feeling more ‘because we’re meant to aren’t we?’ rather than ‘to enable a workplace where everybody can thrive and we get to achieve our organisation goals’ then you might have some wobbly foundations on your hands.

2. How are you linking to your commercial strategy?

As per above…this isn’t a nice to do, it’s an incremental value add to your organisation. Part of that means needing to connect your talent and people strategy to your commercial strategy. The minute these support channels are seen as a ‘cost’ is the moment you make it infinitely harder to engage people. There are incredibly strong links if you look for them – everything from the relationship between engagement and sales, to the quality of your talent pipeline and attrition. 

3. Who are the decision makers?

Leave no assumptions on the table. You have to be clear on who is saying yes, no and maybe. It might be a common sense move, but it’s one that I don’t see as common practice. I’ve worked with organisations over the last seven years who don’t get the right people in the conversation and end up wasting so much of their hard work and time, because they don’t have the right stakeholders engaged from the beginning. And believe me, it was avoidable. 

Power of the Parent: The Strategy Club

If you want to move ahead and get to the heart of supporting parents and carers in the workplace, you might want to hear more about The Strategy Club – a community of businesses who are building lasting strategies and practical action when it comes to parental support.  You can book a short call below to hear how it could work for your organisation. 

Let’s chat about The Strategy Club

You might also find some pointers over on the podcast too!