“They can use (it) a couple hours at a time,’’ Daly said. The company will also start offering an emergency backup care benefit in early September, enabling employees to use a center or to get in-home assistance when normal child or elder care arrangements fall through. And IBM employees who want to work from home can do so until the end of this year, even if their offices have reopened. Company management will weigh whether to continue allowing that option in 2021. IBM is not alone in offering more malleable choices for employees. RBC Capital Markets, the investment banking arm of the Royal Bank of Canada, is recording meetings so that staffers can tune in when the time is most convenient. “It could be at 10 o’clock at night, or 6 in the morning,’’ said Liz Lieberman, the company’s head of human resources in the U.S. Remote work, and job sharing, where a pair of employees trade off days performing the same role, were options before the pandemic, Lieberman said. But such arrangements may become more commonplace because of the ongoing challenges caused by the health crisis. The company is also taking into account how some workers are juggling jobs with family responsibilities when evaluating their performance. “There’s a lot of understanding around what people are able to do,’’ Lieberman said. “We have to prioritize...It’s quite a daunting experience to be doing two full-time jobs at the same time.’’
facility – about three times the number of young fathers who were out of work for the same reasons. But businesses still need their employees to perform to maintain the bottom line. Among companies, 66% say they are not planning or considering altering performance expectations or career development and promotion processes for workers dealing with child care issues, according to a survey by Willis Towers Watson. And morale may plummet as employees without children feel pushed to pick up the slack for their colleagues who are parents. Traci Wells and her four children have been working and learning at home, a balancing act that will continue in the new school year.
Productivity will dip with remote learning More than half of working parents say they will be distracted to a moderate or significant degree as they carry out job tasks while helping their children with remote learning, according to Perceptyx, an employee survey platform.
‘’There’s a lot to balance and think through,’’ Pryor said. “Employers are really struggling because of that. It’s not just dollars and cents.’’ Still, some are trying to step up to the challenge. “In the spring, we hoped this would be a sprint, but it is becoming clearer this is looking like a triathlon,’’ said Joanna Daly, a human
“It’s quite a daunting experience to be doing two full-time jobs at the same time.’’ – Liz Lieberman, head of human resources for the Royal Bank of Canada.
Meanwhile, the survey found 42% of working parents are also somewhat or greatly worried about their job security because they are having to grapple with their kids being at home. Even sympathetic employers may face a dilemma since they need a steady workflow to stay financially afloat. A PwC survey in June found that 44% of employers felt employees were more productive working at home during the pandemic, vs. 31% who believed they were less productive and 25% who felt work output was roughly the same.
resources vice president for IBM, which has more than 350,000 employees globally, 90% of whom are now working from home. “We really don’t want our employees to be burnt out, so part of this is to listen to what employees are needing and being prepared to respond in real-time.’’ IBM is now offering four additional weeks of flexible, paid emergency leave that can be used in increments or in a single, monthlong stretch.
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September 2020 | The Business Review
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