TOTAL REWARDS

Morning Brew Inc., Photos: Getty Images

Caregiving needs among the workforce multiply during the summer. It’s a phenomenon Sadie Funk, who runs the advocacy organization Best Place for Working Parents (BP4WP), likes to call the “great hustle.”

“You go from a fairly structured system of support, where you have full-time childcare and/or school in session, and maybe some after-school programming that’s fairly regimented to…the great wild west of pulling together summer camps, often week by week with different schedules,” she said. Funk noted that many summer camps only last through part of the day, from 9am–12pm or 9am–2pm, for example, creating a “tricky situation” for working parents.

The numbers bear this out. A majority (87%) of working parents said they experienced challenges when their children were home during the summer months, according to a survey fielded in April 2025 by childcare provider Bright Horizons. These challenges included work interruptions to distractions tied to their children’s schedules.

In light of these challenges, some employers are leaning into flexibility and getting creative with their offerings, Funk said. Others are subsidizing the cost of summer camp or running programs from their offices, providers and employers told us.

For more on how HR can support working parents amid summertime care challenges, keep reading here.—CV

      

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HR STRATEGY

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As more companies have experimented with flexible work arrangements in recent years, “Summer Fridays” policies that allow workers to work from home or work fewer hours have become popular during the warmer months.

But the labor market is largely cooling, leading more employers to require in-office attendance and, it seems, reduce summer flexibility perks. Employers that issued an RTO mandate in the past year were less likely to offer employees summertime flexibility than those that did not (50% vs. 65%), a recent HR Brew survey of roughly 200 people pros found.

Here, we dig into the findings to get a sense of where summer flexibility stands.

For more on the state of summertime flexibility policies, keep reading here.—MC

      

HR STRATEGY

Emily Parsons

Employees need HR pros to be their coaches.

Women in particular stand to benefit from such a relationship, according to Lois Frankel, executive coach and author of Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office: Unconscious Mistakes Women Make that Sabotage their Careers.

Frankel shared with HR Brew what insights people leaders can glean from her book.

For more from our conversation with Frankel, keep reading here.—MC

      

work perks

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: The majority (83%) of 18- to 34-year-old workers consider mental health leave benefits when making job-related decisions. (Bloomberg)

Quote: “Economic growth is a combination of the economy generating more for each hour that workers are at the job and more workers working more hours…The first half of that—productivity—is still growing at a good pace in the US, but the second half—bringing more workers into the economy—is not contributing as much to growth as it has in the past.”—Bill Adams, chief US economist at Comerica Bank, on how the declining workforce participation rate is affecting the economy (USA Today)

Read: Flexible work was the solution to one manufacturing plant’s staffing shortages. (NPR)

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Friday Quiz

Amelia Kinsinger

The week’s biggest HR stories, now in quiz form. Test yourself on the latest headlines in DEI, hiring trends, workplace strategy, and more in a quick, competitive challenge built for HR pros. Challenge your coworkers and see how your score stacks up!