Is your site 'Family-Friendly'?Being a Family Friendly site has a lot of advantages! If your clients feel they can bring the kids along when necessary, or that you are working to make their lives a little easier, you will gain their respect and most importantly, their attendance and participation! Before parents will fully engage in the job search process, they need to feel you have their families best intentions at heart, and that they can trust you to assist them to find work that meets the needs of them and their family. Creating a family friendly environment at your site will go along way toward building that trust.
Here are 7 simple and cheap tips to make sure your site is parent- and kid-friendly!1. Put together a couple of toy boxes around the office - you can get a bag full of toys from your local op shop for just a few dollars. 2. Colouring in books and pencils are also a great distraction for kids - have a wall or noticeboard where the kids can hang their works of art! 3. Kids get thirsty too - along with tea and coffee for adults, provide some cordial for the kids to enjoy. 4. For the older kids (especially in school holidays) why not install a couple of computer games in one of your older computers. That way the kids will be out of mum's hair so she can concentrate on business. 5. Make as many appointments as possible just after school drop off, or before school pick ups. Parents are out at those times anyway, and will appreciate that they don't have to leave the house too many times in one day. 6. Provide information on networks or websites that would be interesting to parents. For example, http://www.singleparentbible.com.au is a fabulous online magazine that single parents will love. Contact the publisher, Tina Shaw, for info to hand out to parents 7. This may seem obvious, but make sure you make the most of the parents you have on staff. Return to work parents face a lot of challenges and issues of confidence. Working with someone who has been through the same thing will help establish positive working relationships. Those staff probably have tips and ideas they have developed in their own personal lives that may be useful to their clients. Also AvailableThis article is also available for download in PDF format |
