After I had children, securing a job with flexible work arrangements quickly became my top work priority. I was willing to give up health insurance, a bump in pay and retirement benefits in exchange for a job that allowed me the flexibility to juggle family responsibilities and achieve a better work-life balance.
I’m far from alone.
According to a new survey from jobs site FlexJobs, working parents rank work flexibility as the most important factor when considering a potential job. The factors ranked “most important” were, in this order:
- Work flexibility: 84 percent
- Work-life balance: 80 percent
- Salary: 75 percent
- Health insurance: 42 percent
- Company reputation: 39 percent
- Retirement benefits: 29 percent
FlexJobs says nearly half of two-parent households in the U.S. have both parents working full time and more than one-quarter of households with children have a single parent at the helm. So, it’s really no surprise that flexible work options are so popular with working parents.
Sara Sutton Fell, founder and CEO of FlexJobs, says in a statement:
“These survey findings indicate that work flexibility is not just a convenience for working parents, but a real necessity. In fact, nearly 40 percent have actually left a job because of the lack of work flexibility options, and an additional 20 percent are actively looking for new work because of it.”
FlexJobs, which surveyed roughly 1,200 working parents, says flexible work arrangements:
- Allow parents to spend more time with their families.
- Help them find a better work-life balance.
- Allow them to be more involved and active in their children’s schools.
- Help them be less stressed and healthier.
Fell says:
“From recruiting and retention perspectives, it is costly to any company for more than half of their working parent employees to leave or consider leaving, especially when 86 percent of working parents would be more loyal to an employer if they simply had flexible work options.”
As a worker, how do you rank work flexibility? Sound off below or on our Facebook page.
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