Youth who experience economic instability and do not have consistent access to basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter are at higher risk of substance use, violence, delinquency, teen pregnancy, and dropping out of school.
Parents or guardians may not have time or opportunity to set boundaries and monitor behavior of their children, or they may choose to set limits that are much more lenient than many parents. Youth who experience limited parental supervision, feel that family rules are unclear, and/or think that they could get away with skipping school or using substances without getting caught are at higher risk of substance use, depression and anxiety, violence, delinquency, teen pregnancy, and dropping out of school.
Family-friendly business practices typically offer flexibility, benefits, and resources to employees and have been proven to produce positive outcomes for the employer (e.g., increased productivity, improved employee satisfaction and loyalty, lower absenteeism), the employee (e.g., employment stability, reduced stress), and family members of employees (e.g., positive relationships between parents and children, healthy development). [1]
Additionally, family-friendly business practices play an important role in increasing a family’s economic opportunity by providing an environment in which working adults can effectively balance the competing demands of both their work life and their family life and retain stable employment. These practices and policies can help working parents retain employment and income in a variety of ways, including by increasing employee enthusiasm and commitment, reducing barriers to retain opportunities, increasing women’s confidence and comfort returning to the workforce after giving birth, and by reducing or eliminating lost wages. [2, 3]
Learn about the various practices and policies that make up family-friendly workplaces. In order to promote family-friendly work environments within your community, you first must have a clear understanding of the different components that contribute to family-friendly workplaces.
Resources:
The Community Tool Box provides a comprehensive overview of family-friendly business policies.
The Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment’s (CDPHE) Family-Friendly Workplace Toolkit provides an overview of many common family-friendly business practices. This resource remains relevant and provides useful information, however users should note that recent changes to Colorado laws are not reflected and several recommendations are now in place.
Understand the importance of an equity lens when expanding family-friendly business practices. While gaining popularity, family-friend business practices are not equitably accessible to all employees and their families. It is important to consider how your efforts can promote the expansion of these practices to reach all workplaces, income levels, gender and sexual orientations, and immigration statuses.
Resources:
The Center for Law and Social Policy’s report “Equity Matters” discusses the equity considerations surrounding paid leave, a critical component of a family-friendly business.
“Workplace Connections” explores the relationship between gender equity and family-friendly business practices.
Consider using an Equity Impact Assessment to better explore and understand unintended consequences family-friendly policies may produce. Both the Center for the Study of Social Policy and Race Forward offer free resources.
As a part of their ‘Five Building Blocks for Racial Equity’, the Race Matters Institute of JustPartners, Inc. offers a free guide on conducting a Racial Equity Backmap, which helps groups and individuals consider and identify the various drivers of a given inequity.
Identify and connect with other organizations and individuals working or interested in this area, as well as those that hold decision-making power. Working with other organizations and/or individuals is the best way to maximize your coalition’s power and allows for a greater influence. Before selecting implementation activities, your coalition should take time to understand who is already working in this space, who has power to influence decision making, and what efforts are already underway. Reaching out to these organizations and individuals can help you form partnerships and learn from current and/or previous systems-level work in this area.
Resources:
The National Academy of Community Organizers offers A Guide to Power Analysis in Community Organizing, which can help coalitions understand where power sits within a community around a particular issue.
Understand the federal, local, and state policies that influence family-friendly business practice adoption in your community. Various federal, state, and local policies may influence if and how local businesses adopt family-friendly business practices.
Resources:
This policy brief from CDPHE covers the impact of paid leave policies–a critical component of a family-friendly workplace.
Colorado communities can learn about recently passed paid family leave policies through the Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program through the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
Some counties have also passed paid family and medical leave for their county employees including Boulder and Pueblo. Read more in Family-Friendly Policy Scan: Case Studies from Colorado (page 7-11).
It is important to note that the uniqueness of your community, its resources, and its needs will ultimately determine what implementation of this strategy will look like. Additionally, it is important for your coalition to approach this strategy in a way that is aligned with your overarching goal(s). The list below offers suggestions and ideas of evidence-informed actions your coalition can consider taking as part of your implementation of this strategy.
Build partnerships with local businesses and educate them on the role family-friend business practices can play in producing healthy outcomes among youth in the community. Family-friendly business practices often must be adopted by businesses themselves, so an important activity your coalition may take is to engage and form partnerships with local businesses. Once you have created partnerships with businesses, your coalition can assist them in accessing resources to support their efforts to understand the needs of their employees and put effective family-friend policies in place.
Resources:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) resource “Making the Case: Engaging Businesses” compiles a variety of helpful information and tools your coalition can use to build partnerships with businesses.
Colorado Executives Partnering to Invest in Children (EPIC) offers several resources that can guide these efforts.
Good Business Colorado is a grassroots organization of values-driven employers and entrepreneurs in the state of Colorado working together for equitable communities, a sustainable environment, and a prosperous economy. They host workshops across the state with businesses who want to grow their family-friendly business practices and educate businesses on changes to laws like Colorado’s Paid Sick Leave Law.
Educate stakeholders on the importance of employer-provided comprehensive health benefits. To best support families, employers should adopt policies beyond the provision of basic health insurance to include dental and vision insurance, short-term disability, and employee assistance programs (EAPS).
Resources:
CDPHE’s Family-Friendly Workplace Toolkit covers what comprehensive health benefit policies look like and gives state-specific examples/guidance.
Educate stakeholders on the benefits of flexible work schedules. Employers with policies that allow for flexibility in both the times during work gets completed and place work is performed have been shown to support employee ability to balance work and personal demands.
Resources:
CDPHE’s Family-Friendly Workplace Toolkit discusses not only the benefits of flexible work policies, but also the importance of building professional cultures of flexibility. Examples of various flexible work policies are provided.
The County of San Mateo in California offers a comprehensive Telework & Flex-Scheduled Toolkit.
Workplace Connections offers a list of best practices for implementing workplace flexibility (pg16).
Educate stakeholders on the importance of employer-provided supportive services for new parents. Employees face many stressors when returning to work after welcoming a baby into their lives. Supportive services such as lactation support can increase the likelihood of mothers returning to work after maternity leave.
Resources:
CDPHE’s Family-Friendly Workplace Toolkit provides an overview of lactation support policies, as well as other possible services.
The Office on Women’s Health provides an overview of laws already in place concerning lactation accommodations at work, as well as suggested best practices.
Educate stakeholders on the importance of paid leave policies. Research shows that employees who can take paid leave keep their jobs longer than those unable to access paid leave. There are a variety of different types of paid leave (e.g., sick leave, vacation time, family leave, etc.), all of which are shown to provide positive benefits to employees, their families, and employers themselves.
Resources:
Colorado’s Department of Labor and Employment’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program website offers resources for individuals and families and employers regarding Colorado-specific policies.
Trust for America’s Health’s “Leveraging Evidence-Based Policies to Improve Health, Control Costs, and Create Health Equity” (pg 32) discusses the importance of paid sick and family leave, as well as offers examples of where such policies have been implemented already. Key considerations and policy recommendations are also provided.
The Essentials for Childhood Policy Guide (pg21) discusses family, parental, sick, and medical leave policies and provides examples of their implementation.
This policy brief from CDPHE discusses the benefits of various types of paid leaves
The All-In Cities Policy Toolkit offers a variety of resources for communities interested in promoting paid family leave and paid sick leave policies.
The National Center for Children in Poverty’s report “Paid Family Leave: Strengthening Families and Our Future” provides the evidence supporting the benefits of paid family leave, and provides a series of recommendations for those interested in advancing its adoption.
CDPHE’s Family-Friendly Workplace Toolkit discusses the various types of leave, and offers examples of Colorado-based businesses that have implemented parental and family leave policies.
Read about three U.S. cities that have successfully implemented paid parental leave via the National League of Cities.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s report “The Cost of Doing Nothing” provides an in depth overview of the benefits associated with leave policies.
Read about Colorado communities that have implemented this strategy here.