The Future of Work Depends on Care

Every business depends on care. Employees are also parents, guardians, family members, and caregivers. They care for young children, older relatives, family members with disabilities, and loved ones with health needs. These responsibilities shape whether people can enter the workforce, stay employed, work productively, advance, and return after major life events—and, in turn, whether companies can retain talent, reduce absenteeism, strengthen productivity, and build resilient teams.

Yet care is often treated as separate from work: a private responsibility managed outside the boundaries of business decision-making. This is especially visible as some companies reassess flexibility, leave, and other workforce policies introduced or expanded in recent years. Regardless of how business needs shift, treating care-related support as discretionary is increasingly out of step with how work, families, and economies function.

While family-friendly policies are often discussed in relation to employees, it is equally important to recognize that they have direct implications for children and the realization of their rights. When workers lack the time, resources, or support to provide adequate care, it can affect children’s health, development, safety, and well-being with effects that extend beyond the household to the workforce and broader economy. Family-friendly workplace policies offer a practical way for companies to recognize this reality. Paid leave, flexible working arrangements, breastfeeding support, childcare solutions, and protection from parental/caregiver discrimination help workers balance work and care while strengthening business performance.

They are not only employee benefits; they are part of responsible business practice.

Care is Business Infrastructure

Care is part of the hidden infrastructure that enables work. When workers do not have access to paid leave, reliable childcare, predictable schedules, or support for caregiving responsibilities, companies may see the effects in higher absenteeism and turnover, lower engagement and productivity, and slower career progression, particularly among workers who already face structural barriers.

These impacts are not evenly distributed. Women continue to carry a disproportionate share of unpaid care work globally. Lower-income workers, single parents, migrant workers, workers with disabilities, and employees in part-time, temporary, or informal roles may also face greater barriers to accessing support.

For companies, this is a workforce resilience issue that affects retention, recruitment, operational stability, leadership pipelines, and employee trust. It is also a human rights and child rights issue. 

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights expect companies to identify and address how their operations affect people. In the context of care, this includes not only impacts on workers but also on their children and families particularly where inadequate support for caregiving undermines children’s rights to health, nutrition, development, protection, and adequate care. Family-friendly workplace policies are a practical and preventive way for companies to address these risks as part of their human rights due diligence.

When workers lack support for caregiving, the adverse impacts may include barriers to equal employment opportunity, reduced income security, mental health and well-being impacts, pregnancy- or caregiving-related discrimination, and risks to children’s health, nutrition, development, and well-being. By reducing these barriers, family-friendly policies can help companies support workers and families while advancing respect for human rights in practice. This is reinforced by growing international recognition including through the UN Human Rights Council of the importance of care and support systems for realizing human rights.

While companies play a critical role in supporting workers with caregiving responsibilities, they do not operate in isolation. Access to childcare, paid leave, and income security is shaped by public policies and social protection systems. Sustainable progress depends on an enabling environment where governments set standards and invest in services, and where business practices align with and support these frameworks.

The Business Case is Practical

Family-friendly policies are sometimes framed as costs. Evidence suggests they are also investments in workforce stability and performance.

Paid leave can increase return-to-work and retention. Flexible work can reduce worker stress and absenteeism. Childcare support can help workers remain employed and productive.  Breastfeeding support strengthens employee wellbeing, retention, and return-to-work outcomes.

UNICEF’s research highlights the business relevance of these policies. Women who receive paid leave are more likely to return to work within nine to twelve months after childbirth. In Rwanda, childcare support was linked to higher productivity among workers. In Colombia, breastfeeding support in the banking sector contributed to reduced absenteeism and improved organizational culture.

The broader economic case is also significant. 2026 research by McKinsey & Company and Moms First’s National Business Coalition for Child Care found that childcare disruptions cost the US businesses up to USD 70 billion annually in lost productivity, turnover, and absenteeism, particularly among foundational workers.

For companies, however, the most useful business case is specific. The value of family-friendly policies will look different depending on the workforce and operating context. For one company, the strongest case may be reducing turnover. For another, it may be improving shift coverage, increasing women’s advancement, strengthening supply chain resilience, or meeting buyer expectations.

In many cases, care-related support may help address the workforce challenges companies are already trying to solve. Companies can design and implement family-friendly policies in ways that work for both people and business.

Lessons from Practice

Many companies already understand that workers need support to balance work and family responsibilities. The harder question is where to start. UNICEF’s Building Family-Friendly Workplaces Toolkit offers a practical starting point, with evidence, self-assessment tools, and step-by-step guidance for companies across factories, farms, offices, and service-oriented workplaces.

In addition, through Article One’s experience supporting companies in expanding family friendly policies, we have learned the following lessons:

1. Language matters. When family-friendly policies are described only as “benefits,” they can sound optional. In practice, they are part of how companies manage workforce risks, support people, and build more resilient operations.

2. Implementation matters as much as policy design. A leave policy that workers fear using will have limited impact. A flexible work policy that managers discourage will not support caregivers. Childcare support that is unaffordable or misaligned with working hours may not reduce barriers.

3. One size does not fit all. In an office, flexibility may mean hybrid work or a gradual return-to-work program. In a factory, it may mean predictable shifts, shift swaps, breastfeeding breaks, or childcare aligned with production schedules. On a farm, it may mean mobile childcare, transport support, or partnerships with local providers.

4. Inclusion should be built in from the start. Policies should consider mothers, fathers, adoptive parents, guardians, single parents, same-sex parents, workers caring for older relatives, workers caring for family members with disabilities, and employees in part-time, temporary, migrant, informal, or lower-paid roles.

5. Measure and refine. The key question is not only whether a policy exists, but whether workers can access it, use it, and benefit from it in practice.

6. Companies can extend benefits through the use of leverage. Coordinated action between the public and private sectors is essential to address care constraints at scale. Companies can play a role in supporting stronger care systems by engaging in policy dialogue, aligning with national regulations, and advocating for investments in family-friendly social protection, childcare, and parental leave.

For companies beginning this work, the first step can be simple: listen to workers, review existing policies, identify gaps, and prioritize what is feasible. For companies with policies already in place, the next step may be assessing whether workers can access them equitably, whether managers support their use, and whether the policies are improving outcomes for people and the business.

Looking Ahead

Companies that recognize that the future of work depends on care will be better positioned to manage human rights risks, retain talent, support gender equality, and build resilient workforces. Companies that overlook it may face avoidable risks to trust, productivity, and long-term competitiveness.

Family-friendly workplace policies are not only about helping employees manage life outside work. They are about understanding what people need to work, care, and thrive—both a business and a human rights issue.
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Download UNICEF’s Building Family-Friendly Workplaces Toolkit to get started.