Services
Babysitters
Companies could cooperate with mobile child-cares services to enable flexible care arrangements for parents, and possibly buy certain quotas in advance. The babysitter can assist them in picking up the children from kindergarten or school and bring them to different spare-time activities. This is of special interest in families where both partners travel in their jobs. Another option is to offer the employees financial support for their private babysitter arrangements.
Financial support for cleaning assistance
Many families struggle with finding time to do the house work. This is often a source of conflict among couples. For many families hiring a cleaner might be a good solution as it takes a burden off the parents’ shoulders and frees time to spend with the children. Whether or not to hire a cleaner is often a financial question. To make this option more accessible the company can refund parts of the employee's expenses.
Jour fixe
Fathers could use in-house places to meet and exchange experiences, resources, information, and ideas. These could be casual meeting groups, but also informal common dates for lunch. This enables fathers to jointly reflect on their situation, counter feelings of isolation and look for solutions. Keep it voluntary!
Meals
Canteens/meals at the company can be an important contribution by the organization towards relieving employees’ everyday life. It could be possible for family members and others to use the facilities, and to bring warm meals home with them.
Playroom
A playroom or corner reserved for children when parents have to take them to work for some reason.
UBA
UBA offers parents-and-children offices. These are available for parents who occasionally have to bring their children to the work place. This practical tool helps them through childcare emergencies without being absent from work. The offices are supplied with the usual working facilities for the adult and various play options for children of different ages, including a computer with games suitable for older children.
NRK
The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) offers two kindergartens to their employees' children. The kindergartens are on the company’s premises and make it easier for the employees to collect their children in the kindergarten after work.
FOCUS
The project Fostering Caring Masculinities is an EU-sponsored project with five partners; Germany, Iceland, Norway, Slovenia and Spain. The project has aimed to examine and improve men’s opportunities for balancing work and private/family life in order to encourage the preparedness of men to take over caring tasks. To reach this goal the project has focused on companies' framework conditions to perceive and include men as actors and target groups in equality policies.
Each partner has carried out studies in two different companies, one private and one public. The guidelines presented here are based on these work place studies and examples of existing practices from other companies.
Fostering Caring Masculinities
