Spark Collective Releases Free Guide for Leaders to Support Parents Working from Home with Kids

Across the country, dual career couples are navigating serious challenges as they try to manage work, kids who are home from school for an indefinite period of time, and parents who may be more susceptible to COVID-19. For those able to work from home, an unprecedented reality has set in that no one is prepared for, company or parent.  That reality? Working from home with kids, which has already trended under the hashtag #WFHWK. 

Spark Collective, a social enterprise focused on supporting companies to invest in working parents and their managers, recently released a free guide for chief people officers, managers, and working parents. The guide explains why businesses cannot ask their employees to proceed with “business as usual” from the couch, and how leaders can provide their workforces with immediate support in urgent and new ways. The guide covers best practices and practical tips for human-centered management, operating with maximum efficiency, reorienting goals for realistic expectation-setting with employees, and tips for working parents. It can be found at www.sparkcollective.co/leaders.

 “In the immediate term, we want to support companies and working parents to get through this crisis well- in all the ways- without burnout or chaos or fallout with customers, all of which affect real people and company bottom lines. The guide is a start of a conversation, by no means complete, but level sets where leaders and working parents can make changes to best support themselves, their families, and their work. This is also an incredible long-term opportunity- for many companies, we are testing ways of working, like flexible working, that catalogs of research shows works better than traditional models. And if done well enough, we could see these best practices implemented for good, creating more inclusive and equitable workplaces, not only for parents but for many other people. We want to partner with leaders to give this their best shot, especially because it may be a long while before our old ways of working are even options again,” explained Callan Blount Fleming, founder and CEO of Spark Collective. 

The guide can be used in small organizations and large enterprises, and focuses primarily on the people management, change management, and culture building opportunities – and necessities – for this unprecedented moment. It is a completely free, thorough, and practical guide based on knowledge amassed by Spark Collective’s work and research with more than 400 parents, managers, and company leaders. 

Go to www.sparkcollective.co/leaders for the guide and reach out to hello@sparkcollective.co for further support and resources. 

About Spark Collective

Callan is the founder and CEO of Spark Collective, a social enterprise that delivers individual, cohort, and organizational leadership coaching, workshops, and culture transformation individuals and companies. Callan’s diverse work experience in teaching, finance, non-profit fundraising, and senior leadership roles uniquely positions her to support leaders in a variety of industries and growth moments. Callan lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and young daughter, and is expecting a baby boy in early April 2020.

After Callan’s own surprisingly tough return from parental leave and subsequent research into the “motherhood penalty” and its direct effect on gender equity, Spark Collective created company-based, practical, high-impact solutions to help retain high-performing parent employees and change workplace cultures. Specifically, they provide leadership coaching, workshops, and community-based learning opportunities for managers of working parents and working parents themselves to support employees in the transition to working parenthood and beyond. In doing so, they help companies build the workplace of the future, where working parents can thrive and companies become the inclusive, productive, and profitable organizations they strive to be.