Mother’s Day is May 12, 2019, and, according to the Pew Research Center, 70 percent of all mothers today with children younger than 18 are working. This didn’t just happen overnight, though. Millennials grew up with Baby Boomer parents, with 66 percent of Boomer women being employed. This set the stage for future generations. And with more than 17 million Millennials becoming mothers, the trend is expected to increase.
And that’s good news because moms make excellent employees. And companies would be smart to prioritize hiring and retaining working mothers.
One of the job requirements of being a mom is having strong time management skills. As Inc.com notes, a need for work-life balance means that working moms are adept at prioritizing projects to drive their productivity.
And it’s backed by science. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis found that mothers outperformed women without children overall throughout a 30-year career. Interestingly, according to the study, the most productive employees have at least two children. It seems as if moms do know best, even when it comes to how to be productive employees.
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Unfortunately, companies aren’t taking advantage of this. In fact, Forbes points out how 69 percent of employed Americans say working moms are more likely to be passed up for a new job than other employees. What’s more, women get a four percent pay cut for each child they have.
Sadly, the prejudice against mothers isn’t just affecting their—and their families’— wallets. It has widespread ramifications, like contributing to a 26 percent increase to the global gross domestic product in 2025. (That’s 28 trillion dollars.)
In order to both attract and retain working mothers, your company needs to create a more inclusive company culture. This doesn’t have to begin with sweeping changes, either. It could be as simple as creating a policy that prohibits meetings after 4PM. This prevents mothers from having to stress about childcare and school pickup.
Another way to ensure that your company values working mothers is to make vacation mandatory. Sounds silly, right? According to the Harvard Business Review, Type A professionals will voluntarily bypass holidays and time off. That’s why it’s important for working moms to have an appropriate work-life balance. If not, burnout, family issues, performance decline, or attrition all are more likely to increase.
So if you really want to honor Mother’s Day this year, rethinking how your company views working mothers is a much more deserving gift for these valuable employees.
