THE SMART WORKFORCE
Emma Oliver explores the idea of a Nanny Share as a flexible and therefore smart solution for women returning to work after maternity leave
When it came to making a decision about returning to work after having a baby, I put it off as long as possible. But facing the end of maternity leave meant facing my options. And sadly, the maths did not add up.
More often than not, women cannot afford to go back to the workplace after having a child, and the financial pressures can be overwhelming.
Did you know that for each year a mother is absent from the workplace, her future wages fall by 4%? This is not good news for the countless mothers that spend for example the first five years with their new family, or for those that find the cost of childcare to be the main reason they’re unable to return to the job they held prior to having a child.
I vividly remember doing the maths all those years ago. My company refused a four-day week with one day working from home. And the optional four days in the office just weren’t viable. By the time I had covered childcare and paid for my travel costs, there was so little cash leftover at the end of the month that frankly, it wasn’t worth it. (Not to mention covering off the greater personal costs I would have endured as a working mother; those of guilt and concern).
That’s now eight years ago and since then I’ve been fortunate enough to turn my career into a successful freelancing one. Something more and more of the work force are also doing, for the very nature of work itself these days has changed; jobs are far more complicated than they used to be and a prolonged recession is very much at the heart of that. These days we have had to make our jobs work for us.
We have also had to make our childcare work for us to fit with society’s diverse needs, which have moulded us into a flexible work force of freelancers, part-timers, job sharers and all manner of other varied arrangements.
To meet the demands of these situations families now find themselves in, childcare has had to grow and change itself. It has had to develop flexible and cost effective measures. And it has done so by introducing the concept of the nanny share.
Sharing a nanny – where multiple parents collaborate as joint employers of a single nanny, who works between the parents’ homes, caring for all the children at once. It is a solution for many, as it means not only does it work out more reasonable for the families, it also gives the nanny a greater return. Add to this the fact that children have the social interaction that they may not have had otherwise. A smarter work force indeed.
Perhaps a nanny share is the financial solution for keeping your job? Speak to Eden about your options, call us on +44 (0)207 471 6000
