Employer attitudes towards employees with preschool age children
Published: 1 July 2007
Within the framework of the European Commission’s EQUAL [1] initiative, the project FORWARD! Reconciling family and work (in Lithuanian) [2] aimed to minimise the labour market exclusion of families with young children and to improve childcare facilities. In 2005, as part of the project, 30 employers or management representatives were interviewed in order to determine their attitudes towards employing women with preschool age children. [1] http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/equal/index_en.cfm [2] http://www.seimairdarbas.lt/
In the framework of the EQUAL initiative, a Lithuanian project aimed to minimise the labour market exclusion of families with young children. Some 30 employers were interviewed in order to ascertain their attitude towards employees – primarily women – with preschool age children. Less than half of the employers facilitated their employees with preschool age children in reconciling their family and work life.
Within the framework of the European Commission’s EQUAL initiative, the project FORWARD! Reconciling family and work (in Lithuanian) aimed to minimise the labour market exclusion of families with young children and to improve childcare facilities. In 2005, as part of the project, 30 employers or management representatives were interviewed in order to determine their attitudes towards employing women with preschool age children.
The employers represented companies in the capital city of Vilnius and surrounding region. A targeted selection of respondents was used for the purposes of the research. The owners or managers of private companies accounted for most of the respondents, at 73%. In the companies where interviews were carried out, employees with preschool children constituted almost one quarter of the workforce, at 23%.
Reasons for discriminating against women with small children
The respondents were first asked to indicate why they would not like to employ women with preschool age children. Lack of professional knowledge and the illnesses that younger children get were the reasons most often cited by the employers. Just eight (27%) of those interviewed replied that they would employ women with preschool age children without any reservations (see Figure).
Reasons why respondents would not like to employ women with preschool age children (%)
Note: More than one response option was possible.
Source: Employers’ interview regarding their attitudes towards employees with preschool age children, 2005
The research also sought to identify the reasons for dismissing employees with preschool age children. Some 19 (63.3%) of the respondents stated that they had not dismissed such employees, while 14 (46.7%) of the respondents mentioned several reasons for dismissing these workers. The following reasons were among the most often recorded: lack of professional knowledge; illnesses of young children; lack of mobility; and frequent use of legal rights.
Conditions for reconciling family and professional life
The results also revealed that less than half of the employers interviewed created suitable conditions for their employees with preschool age children in order to facilitate their work–life balance. Those who stated that they did provide such an environment most often cited the following measures:
flexible working hours (85.7%);
reduced working hours (14.3%).
The research showed that 21 out of 30 employers (70%) would agree to contribute to assisting employees with young children to better reconcile their family and professional duties. On the other hand, seven or almost a quarter of the respondents (23%) do not see any sense in doing this. Almost half of the interviewed employers (47.6%) who would assist their employees to reconcile their family and professional duties would offer a flexible working schedule to such employees. In addition, more than one tenth of the employers (14.3%) would arrange childcare services at their companies.
The employers were asked to highlight measures – financial, legal or organisational – to which they would give priority. This was done in order to establish the respondents’ opinion as to which measures at national level would make it easier for employees with preschool age children to balance work–life with taking care of their children. The majority of the respondents believed that financial measures, for example, tax exemptions, would be most effective in dealing with the problem of reconciling family and work.
Employers were also asked to specify the measures that they had taken to improve the qualifications of their employees who return to work after childcare leave. Most respondents (76.6%) replied that such employees are offered in-service training, which is the most economical means of raising skill levels. Some 20% of employers use the services of educational establishments, while university or college studies, whether full time or part time, are found by employers to be the least attractive option.
Rasa Zabarauskaite, Institute of Labour and Social Research
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2007), Employer attitudes towards employees with preschool age children, article.
