“Parents are emerging from the hardest years of their lives at this moment,” said Gina Nebesar, co-founder and chief product officer at Ovia Health, a family-health benefits platform. “Many of them are really taking this opportunity this year to reassess what matters most to them.”

Nebesar could relate. She returned to work after having her third child during the pandemic, at a time of fear, school closures, and women leaving the workforce in droves. Through her role at Ovia, she witnessed what other families were going through and what they really needed from their employers. In a company survey of thousands of people, “90% of them said they’d leave their jobs for the same exact job if it offered better family benefits, like flexibility,” said Nebesar. “And 77% said they considered family-friendly culture their No. 1 priority in choosing where to work. How do we reimagine our support for parents and think of them as parents, not employees, first?”

Subsequently, employers are evaluating if their pre-pandemic policies are holding up. In a From Day One webinar, “Return to Work: Best Practices to Retain and Support Working Parents,” moderated by Boston Globe reporter Katie Johnston, the panel of business leaders, all of whom are working moms, discussed how employers are adjusting their protocols for returning to work while retaining and supporting working parents.

“It’s been a period of self-reflection for a lot of people about making their needs met: What do I want in the workplace?” said Jennifer Chiang, head of people strategy in the U.S. for MilliporeSigma, a biotech company. “And it’s forced us to really change our policies and think about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, taking a look at each tier and making sure that we’re satisfying it.”

While feedback surveys are popular, employers are utilizing an array of methods to determine worker needs and accommodate returning employees. Pilot programs, which rely on “early adopters” or volunteers, offer different models of operation to gauge workers’ experience returning to in-office work. Other leaders recommended incorporating more flexible work options like paid parental leave, providing parenting groups, lactation rooms, and increased manager training to support working parents. “So much of that return-to-work experience depends on the manager,” said Nebesar. “And the managers really need dedicated or very specialized training for parents to help them with those different paths through parenting.”

Mental health is a big concern for all workers, especially new parents. Maternal mental health issues are the No. 1 complication in pregnancy and childbirth. More leaders today are encouraging staff to open up about burnout and challenges at home. Some employers are getting creative with stress-alleviating activities at work, like offering on-site art-therapy counselors or fun community events for families.

“Our company offered a virtual camp for children at home,” said Chiang. “One of our employee-resource group (ERG) leaders conducted this really well-planned camp where students could learn about STEM activities all week long.”

As with any work-related change, communication is paramount, with one company giving two months’ notice for employees to return to the office. Other panelists said their companies took a phased approach, allowing staff members to ease back one or two days a week, then gradually increasing their in-office workdays. In some cases, customers wanting employees to come back to the office were at odds with employees’ reluctance to return on-site, and expectations needed to be managed.

“We launched a completely new function within the organization that does advanced analytics about employee sentiment, employee behavior, or trends in the market, to make sure we’re keeping a proactive education with our [employees],” said Judith Almendra, VP of global human capital and talent acquisition at TTEC, a customer-experience tech company.

And yet, many workers remained resistant to returning on-site. At TTEC, 30% to 40% of employees said they’d resign if asked to come back to the office, according to Almendra. So the company encouraged their employees to visit the office for a day to interact. “What we found is people forgot what it is to be in the office,” she said, “and some of the pros [of being] with each other.” The positive reminder served to change people’s minds; 50% of those who had initially threatened to leave changed their minds. The company also offered flexibility to those with major concerns about returning.

“A lot of kind of communication and engagement needs to happen through that process,” said Almendra.

Many panelists advocated greater intentionality when asking employees to return, focusing on the benefits of in-person work. They’re considering what activities warrant returning to the office, and adjusting schedules for occasions when team members need to collaborate, problem-solve, brainstorm, or welcome a new hire.

“People really value going back and seeing everybody,” said Diana Geofroy, VP of HR for Colgate-Palmolive. “They want to be in the office when there is a purpose and not to go in the office just to send emails, which is something they can do at home. People value working in teams and working in collaboration.”

While employers are experimenting with return plans, they’re also reworking office layouts. Cubicles are being replaced with couches and more open spaces to encourage interaction.

Companies are testing creative ways to entice employees to return, like offering transportation allowances and complimentary EV charging. When in doubt, free food always seems to do the trick. “We're going to bring back weekly team lunches, just as a perk,” said Shannon Flynn, VP of corporate HR at Fortive, an industrial tech company. “It’s amazing how much that does incentivize people to come in.” She’s already seeing a shift in momentum.

“At the beginning of the year, only a handful of us were coming in and nobody really saw the value in it,” said Flynn. “As more and more people are coming in, they’re getting excited about coming in on a more regular basis. I think we’re going to see the pendulum swing back to the middle.”

Samantha Campos is a freelance journalist who has written for regional publications in California and Hawaii, with forays into medical cannabis and food justice nonprofits. She currently resides in Oakland, Calif.