Working Parents and Workplace Flexibility in New Hampshire

The report examines how New Hampshire’s working parents negotiate the competing challenges of work and family.

Workplace flexibility, particularly regarding where and how work gets done, encourages employees’ productivity and decreases a company’s turnover rate, according to the report. About half of working parents in New Hampshire stated that their job was “very flexible,” while one-third said it was “somewhat flexible” and 8 percent said their job was “not too flexible.” Fifty-five percent of working parents in New Hampshire agreed that the main reason they were staying in their job was because of the workplace flexibility, and 23 percent passed up a promotion for a better job because of uncertainty about workplace flexibility.

The paper, published as a joint effort among the Carsey Institute, UNH Cooperative Extension and New Hampshire Employment Security, also makes policy suggestions, arguing that workplace flexibility is a necessary component in maintaining a robust economy.
 

Read the report.