Hesitating because your prospective employee is a mother? Think again

8 reasons why you should consider hiring a mother: light-hearted yet serious look as to why she could be the perfect choice.

In a competitive environment, companies need to be efficient. Cutting cost is part of the drive to efficiency, including measures to reduce employee time off for illness.  However, that cannot be the whole story. Companies also value talent, creativity, staff loyalty, and they value a positive image both internally and externally.  Yet how, in such a competitive environment, can the case be made that women, and especially women with children (“mothers”), should be prime candidates for recruitment?

Contrary to what one may think, a company can doubly benefit from hiring mothers. Mothers have, through their experience, acquired or honed some specific hard skills and soft skills –skills which will directly benefit the company. Hiring mothers can also be good for the company’s image, whether with the local community for the smaller enterprises, or the world of consumers for the larger ones.

What skills, then, can a mother bring her employer? Here is a selection:

Teamwork and flexibility: She’s able to work in a team and bring the team to accomplish the task. She’s learned –often the hard way—to find solutions to keep the whole team happy. She’s able to re-arrange her schedule according to others’ needs, to make alternative arrangements, and ensure a fast turn-around. Does she have a plan B? Of course, as well as a Plan C, and as many plans as will be necessary to ensure that everything works smoothly –even if we are faced with a crisis.

Patience and Resistance: She’s able to work under pressure, staying calm and functional when all else breaks loose. Mothers have learned by experience what it takes to bear annoyance and pain, without complaint or (for most anyway) loss of temper. Naturally, we would not want to imply that such situations happen in the workplace, but should they do, we know that mothers would cope better than most.

Organization, prioritization and anticipation: She’s able to anticipate others’ needs and, if she wants to minimize the impending disasters, a mother must plan ahead of time what need to be done and when. This is how she manages her small enterprise of a home, and this skill is no small asset for her future employer. Wearing different hats and juggling with competing calendars is all par for the course.

Responsibility: Managing her entire family makes a mother more responsible. It gives her three pairs of eyes to make sure that everything is ok, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. She is able to take decisive action when needed, and to take responsibility for it (note: not all fathers can claim that).

We see then, that these skills can bring a potential increase in efficiency to a company. Mothers, being especially good at managing processes, and improving “staff” motivation, understand that they should be working in a responsible, caring company, that can take in its stride the specific needs that mothers might have. And mothers, in return, can offer two qualities, loyalty towards the employer that cares for their needs, and stability, because she needs that to ensure that she can also manage on the home front.

In addition to these skills, the more inclusive, the more cooperative atmosphere that will prevail, the more productive the company can be. An employee is not a machine. An employee is a human being with strengths and weaknesses, with skills and insecurities. An employer needs, above all, employees that are productive –and they will be productive if freed from the constraints of an employer who refuses to understand that.

All employees are liable to need to take time for outside activities or responsibilities. A company may indeed face extra costs linked with the specific needs of some its employees, including mothers. One example, in larger companies, could be the provision of a kindergarten or day care center where young children can be cared for during office hours. Yet it is clear that these costs are far outweighed by the benefits of having a productive workforce.

In addition to these direct benefits to the company’s productivity, a company will also benefit from an enhanced image. A company that cares for its staff, that is inclusive in its hiring and retention of staff, is a company that can improve and build on its good reputation, whether locally or in the wider community of consumers.

Being a mother is not in itself the recipe for an ideal employee. The skills that mothers have, other employees may of course have as well. Mothers also need to have the skills required for the job. However, one must admit that along with motherhood comes a whole range of required skills that can and will directly benefit the company.

Written by Martin Damary, with Taline Abdel Nour, Cristina Afonso-Sena, Luna Kagabo and Nicole Kuderli. 

Suggested further reading:

Wall Street Journal, 19 February 2013: “McKinsey Tries to Recruit Mothers Who Left the Fold”

L’observatoire des ressources humaines, « Engager des femmes – Un chef parmi des femmes »

Jenn Steele, Recruitloop, 19 November 2013 “Why I Love Hiring Working Mothers”

Ann Quasarano, Huffington Post, 25 October 2013 “Why You Should Hire a Mom”

Working Mother, “Welcome Back!”

Michelle Slatalla,  “The 10 Secrets of One Unflappable Working Mother”

Photo credit : Photos Libres