Are Businesses in Africa Leaving Money on the Table by Ignoring Working Parents? with Soledad Sanchez Canamares

[00:00:00] You're listening to the Unlocking Africa Podcast. I'm the Corporate Alliances Specialist in UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office. We cover 23 countries. CEOs are focused on resilience, productivity, long-term growth. And if they lose skilled employees because they cannot balance work and family responsibilities, that becomes a strategic risk, right? It's not a human resources issue anymore.

[00:00:26] What is the cost of losing our people? Investing in people often costs less than repeatedly replacing them. So that shift in perspective often can change the business case entirely, right? Stay tuned as we bring you inspiring people who are unlocking Africa's economic potential. You're listening to the Unlocking Africa Podcast with your host, Terser Adamu.

[00:00:54] Welcome to another episode of the Unlocking Africa Podcast, where we explore the ideas, innovations and strategies that are unlocking Africa's economic potential. Across global markets, businesses are facing the same pressure points, rising hiring costs, persistent talent shortages and a workforce whose expectations have fundamentally shifted.

[00:01:18] At the same time, hundreds of millions of workers still don't have access to the basic workplace support like paid parental leave, childcare or flexible work. And the cost of that isn't just social, it's economic. Because when people can't balance work and care, productivity drops, retention suffers and businesses quietly absorb the cost.

[00:01:43] And more importantly, what does this look like in African markets where informality is high, margins are tight and workforce participation still has significant room to grow. Today, I'm joined by Soledad Sanchez-Canemarez from UNICEF to break down why this is no longer a social conversation, but a strategic one. Soledad, welcome, welcome, welcome to the Unlocking Africa Podcast.

[00:02:12] How are you? Hi there, sir. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm fine. I hope you are well, too. I'm very, very well. Thank you, apart from this chesty cough that I've got, but I will get over it. So, as always, I'd like to get straight into it and start from the beginning. So I was hoping you can give us an introduction into who Soledad Sanchez-Canemarez is. Yeah. Well, I am more than UNICEF, right?

[00:02:41] But I think for the purpose of the podcast, let me just focus on the UNICEF side of my life, which is I'm the Corporate Alliances Specialist in UNICEF, Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office. We cover 23 countries. And basically what I do is to engage with businesses, but also be young, businesses, stakeholders, including governments, to improve their business practices, to support them in this journey towards responsible business conduct,

[00:03:08] so that we engage with them to achieve results for children, benefit families, and as a result, the whole societies and economies in this area of Africa. As you mentioned, a lot of your work touches on responsible business conduct. I know one area that we're going to be talking in depth about today is about family-friendly workplace policies.

[00:03:31] We know that those have been traditionally framed as a social good, but UNICEF is now positioning them as a driver of business performance. So what would you say has fundamentally changed that has driven that new incentive or drive? Yeah. So this is part of the wider responsible business conduct agenda, what we call in UNICEF Child Rights and Business.

[00:03:56] And we've been working for so long, more than years on this agenda when it comes to family-friendly policies. I mean, the change is not the policies themselves. I think it's the evidence that we have today. Because 10 years ago, they were viewed as primarily employee benefits or part of a corporate social responsibility agenda of a company. But today, it's increasingly becoming or is already a business performance issue.

[00:04:26] Because businesses are facing talent shortages, rising recruitment costs, skill gaps, growing expectations from employees, but beyond, right? Investors, consumers. So supporting employees' caregiving responsibility is a business issue. It's a competitiveness issue. And it can be also a risk in terms of profitability and performance.

[00:04:52] So this is no longer just about doing the right thing, which it absolutely is, right? But it's also about doing the smart thing from a business perspective. So when it comes to policies such as paid parental leave, flexible work arrangements, breastfeeding support, etc., this will directly contribute to higher employee retention, greater productivity, a stronger employee engagement.

[00:05:16] And that is why businesses should consider this from a business perspective and not from a social perspective only. Interesting. So I guess my next question is, at what point do you believe it stopped being more of a HR conversation and more of a conversation within the boardrooms? And it's become more of a boardroom issue that is tied directly to competitiveness. Yeah, very good question. I think we are still in a transition period.

[00:05:45] But I think the turning point came when businesses started to measuring the costs of turnover and disengagement, as well as the costs of losing high quality talent, right? Because board CEOs are focused on resilience, productivity, long-term growth. And if they lose skilled employees because they cannot balance work and family responsibilities, that becomes a strategic risk, right?

[00:06:13] It's not a human resources issue anymore. So here I think that what we see is a shift from the question about how do we support employees to how do we build a workforce that is motivated, productive and engaged so that it will result in higher productivity, profitability and long-term growth.

[00:06:38] So I think there is where we find the shift into a competitiveness and profitability topic. So if we break this down further, because I think once you frame this as a business issue, the next question is, where does it actually show up in performance? So where do family-friendly policies show up most clearly on the balance sheet? Yeah, I mean, there are several areas that stand out, right?

[00:07:07] I think that they are retention, performance, absenteeism, recruitment of talent, right? Because, for instance, replacing an employee can be extremely costly and affect productivity. There are a lot of disruptions in productivity, right? So family-friendly policies support lower recruitment and training costs because employers stay longer, right? Also, when it comes to absenteeism or low performance, it is already proven, there is evidence,

[00:07:36] that employees who can manage their family responsibilities and have flexibility are more focused and productive at work. And I can say that I am that example. So it's actually working. I can speak about my own experience, right? Also, in terms of talent attraction, I think that increasingly, of course, there are exceptions, right? But skilled workers, when assessing a job opportunity, they are not looking only at the salary, right?

[00:08:05] They are also looking at the workplace culture and flexibility. So these policies, as I mentioned, right, they should be viewed as an investment in workforce stability because all these factors, retention, absenteeism, performance, and the recruitment of talent, they affect profitability and business performance. So I would say that those are the ones that stand out the most.

[00:08:29] So I guess from the environment that we currently are in where companies are facing rising costs and retention challenges, would you say that businesses are losing money by not investing in these policies? I would say in many cases, yes. Because as I mentioned before, replacing an experienced employee can cost several months or even years of salary.

[00:08:55] If you think about recruitment, onboarding, training, productivity disruptions, also the institutional knowledge that they lose. I mean, there is evidence already saying that up to 400% of an employee's annual salary can be lost when replacing them, of course, depending on seniority. So the figure is quite remarkable, right? It's high.

[00:09:16] And here I think that the question is if businesses can afford the hidden costs of not having family-friendly policies. Because when people leave their jobs because they cannot reconcile work and caregiving responsibilities, businesses are incurring in avoidable costs, right?

[00:09:38] So what we see in our experience as UNICEF across different regions in the world is that many companies overestimate implementation costs of family-friendly policies while underestimating the financial benefits of retention, engagement and productivity gains. So yeah, this is to say that yes, it's affecting and it's impacting on their profitability in the long term.

[00:10:03] So we know that you've done a lot of work within this space at UNICEF. So what would you say is the strongest evidence that you've seen linking family-friendly policies to productivity and also to employee well-being? Well, I mean, what we see is that those employees that feel supported are more engaged and less likely to miss work and more likely to remain with their employer.

[00:10:29] So that retention also leads to stronger teams and improve overall performance. I think I have an example from Rwanda, which is part of the region that we cover in the regional office. And there was some years ago, there was an engagement, an initiative led by UNICEF Rwanda with a company, a tea company called Sorwati. I hope I pronounced it correctly.

[00:11:27] So if I remember well, that meant that from initially five kilos of tea that they were collecting in the farms, they moved into 20 kilos of tea collected per day. So that means that, you know, family-friendly policies are working and are supporting productivity

[00:11:47] because otherwise without those measures, those women would be all at home or would be leaving their jobs or would be taking care of their kids. So this is one of the key examples that shocked me when I joined the region. And it's actually something that we are trying to expand in other countries. Because I guess ultimately performance is driven by people.

[00:12:11] If we look closely to what's actually happening inside the workforce, how directly is employee turnover, would you say, linked to how companies support caregiving responsibilities? Yeah, I mean, the link is very direct because normally people don't leave the job because they dislike their work, right? It's because they cannot balance their professional and family responsibilities work together, right? I mean, they are not happy in the end.

[00:12:40] So I think that in this case, particularly for women who still take care of this portion and share of unpaid care responsibilities globally and also in Africa, this is particularly relevant and true. And we have also data showing that 80% of parents say that child care or child care measures or family-friendly policies affect their decision to stay or leave a job.

[00:13:10] So definitely there is a strong link between, you know, turnover and support caregiving responsibilities. From what you say, the evidence and data is there, but are companies understanding the cost of replacing talent versus a building system that actually retains the talent? Absolutely. Yeah, I think that they are very focused on the cost of implementing a new policy,

[00:13:36] but are underestimating the cost or the hidden costs of the turnover. So I think that the most successful companies increasingly are asking a different question is, what is the cost of losing our people, right? Because investing in people often costs less than repeatedly replacing them. So that shift in perspective often can change the business case entirely, right? What is the cost of losing our people, right?

[00:14:06] Because investing in people often costs less than repeatedly replacing them. So that shift in perspective often can change the business case entirely, right? Yes, I guess a significant event that changed the whole business or working landscape was COVID. So post-COVID, do you think expectations around work has shifted?

[00:14:30] And have companies now kind of seen a different dynamic where they're competing on flexibility in the same way they compete on salary? Yeah, increasingly, increasingly. I mean, again, I'm an example of that, right? So now I think the value proposition is a bit different. Of course, salary remains very important, but I think that flexibility has become a major factor in employment decisions,

[00:14:55] especially for young workers, parents, women or high-skilled professionals that also, you know, travel around the world, would like to work from different setups. I think that this type of, you know, flexibility is not longer viewed as a benefit, but as a true factor or key factor in choosing and remaining with an employer.

[00:15:20] So I think that companies that are ignoring this shift may find themselves in a competitive disadvantage because they will lose talent. So yeah, I think that after COVID, things are not the same. And definitely flexibility is one of the key areas that employees look at when taking those decisions. That naturally, I guess, brings us to one of the biggest structural issues in labour markets globally, which is how care responsibilities are distributed.

[00:15:48] So how would you say family-friendly policies translate into measurable gains for workforce participation in women? Yeah. I mean, unfortunately, women continue to perform the majority of unpaid care work globally and also in Africa, right? So when workplaces, and again, I speak through my example, when they provide parental leave,

[00:16:14] flexible working arrangements, childcare support, women or we are more likely to remain in that employment, return to work after childbirth, and also we will be able to progress in our careers, right? And I think that here the point is also women themselves, but also how this will contribute to the general productivity, but also the economy of a country, right? And also, I think that what is important that we are seeing some evolution and examples also in Africa,

[00:16:44] this is not only a women's issue, right? Because there is a trend to think that, oh, family-friendly policies, women. No, this is a family issue. And I'm saying this because also policies that encourage fathers' involvement in caregiving, so that they redistribute a bit of responsibilities more equally, that is also impacting positively, not only in women, but also in companies taking, you know, the decision to implement family-friendly policies.

[00:17:14] So in the long term, you have a more productive and a more diverse and a more equal, if we can say so, workforce, right? So yeah, this is how they could translate into measurable gains for them. With that in mind, I guess if African economies were to somehow close the gap, what would you say that would look like in terms of the economic upside? Mm-hmm.

[00:17:43] Economic gains can be substantial because women's participation in the workforce expands the talent pool, first of all, raises households' incomes and boosts investments and productivity as a whole, right? There are some studies from the World Bank, from McKinsey, that they have shown that increasing women's participation in the labor force can generate substantial economic growth, right?

[00:18:09] And beyond, because this is, I mean, of course, we are looking at the economic side of things when it comes to family-friendly policies, but as a society, as a whole, this is tremendously positive, right, for younger generations and for women itself. For many African economies, seeking to accelerate growth and capitalize on demographic opportunities, enabling women to participate fully in the labor market is not a gender issue. It's an economic growth strategy.

[00:18:38] I am fully aware that this is not easy, right? But the more they involve them, the more possibilities they give them to thrive in their jobs while also taking care of their responsibilities at family level, the better for their economies, for their businesses, but also for the economies and growth of those countries. So would you say the biggest story here is that countries are actually leaving growth or GDP on the table

[00:19:05] because workplaces are not structured for how people actually live? I mean, yeah, I think that's a very good question. I think that is exactly the bigger story, right? It's how this all is affected to GDP of countries. And the same also happened, you know, post-COVID. But the thing is that many more places were designed around assumptions that no longer reflect reality, right?

[00:19:34] So most workers today have caregiving responsibilities at some point in their lives, right? The workplace that was designed in the past is not reflecting on the current reality. So when workplaces fail to accommodate those realities, businesses lose talent and economies lose productivity and also families face unnecessary pressures.

[00:20:00] So and all this is affecting GDP and economic growth of countries, right? So if we lose that talent, we lose innovation, of course, you know, economics will pay a price. So that's why we always say also that family-friendly policies are a great tool or a great investment to help align labor markets with how people actually live and work.

[00:20:25] And that will definitely and positively impact on GDP outcomes, right? In the medium and long term. Yeah. So if we bring this into the Africa context, because the realities underground are very different to, say, more westernized markets. We know that a large share of Africa's workforce operates in the informal economy.

[00:20:49] So how do you even begin to apply family-friendly policies in that context? Yeah, this is actually the most important question for Africa and the most frequent question, because the important thing here is that we should not assume that family-friendly policies only apply to large formal employers, right? What we need is to take them and adapt them to local realities.

[00:21:16] So when it comes to the informal settings, many principles of family-friendly policies can be adapted through, for instance, community childcare models. And that happens. I mean, the example that I provided from Rwanda, it's a formal setting example. We call them early childhood centers, but those mobile creches or preschool centers that were built there can also be built in informal settings.

[00:21:44] Also, social protection programs can be of great help to support family-friendly policies and flexible schedules as well. Maybe your question is, yeah, but if this is informal, who is paying for this, right? And here, the key thing is that while in other economies or informal settings, most of the responsibility, right, is falling on the employer, on the businesses, of course,

[00:22:13] and the government, because we need certain regulations to create an enabling environment. In this context, the role of the government is very, very important. It's key, I would say, to make this happen. So, in this case, it's governments supporting social protection programs. I remember I was living in Mozambique, working there, and the government of Mozambique established breastfeeding spaces in informal settings where women were working mostly in agriculture areas.

[00:22:42] And that can look like a very normal or minimal measure had a huge impact on them. And it not only improved productivity, but also the retention and the engagement of those women that were working in those settings that could be very, very hard, right? So, that is just a small example of what can be done. And, of course, here, governments, businesses, and even development partners should come together, and they all have a role to play in extending this support beyond the formal workforce, right?

[00:23:12] So, this is from the regulation side to the need of infrastructure and measures to enable this to happen. With that in mind, you mentioned the breastfeeding initiative in Mozambique as a minimum measure. So, what would you say a minimum viable version of these policies looks like for SMEs or businesses operating with tight margins?

[00:23:38] Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that the beauty of this is that we don't need to do everything at once, right? This is not a package that you take it or not. I think that a small business, you know, they can start just with flexible schedules or predictable working hours or breastfeeding space that is not very costly. That's why also, coming back to UNICEF Toolkit,

[00:24:04] we always stress that the best is to start with a needs assessment and identifying the most feasible high-impact actions for a specific workforce. So, I think that, I mean, SMEs, the fact that you are an SME doesn't prevent you from taking certain actions forward. So, small changes can make a significant difference. So, I think that the moment you identify those low-hanging fruits that can be impactful, you are ready to go and you don't need a lot of investment.

[00:24:33] So, this is also part of the myths that we see around family-friendly policies. We know that UNICEF has developed the family-friendly policies toolkit, but where do you see companies struggle most when moving from, say, policy design to actual implementation? I mean, where we see the challenge, the biggest challenge is in implementation. We see a lot of policies, a lot of commitments, a lot of nice intentions, right?

[00:25:01] But the policy design is not an issue. We see companies adopting policies but struggling to create a workplace culture where employees feel comfortable using them because that's another issue. Once you have those policies in place, you need to make employees safe to use them, right? And managers here play a critical role because if employees fear negative career consequences,

[00:25:29] the uptake of these family-friendly policies will remain low regardless of the policy itself. So, there is where we have a biggest challenge in terms of implementation and where we need to put all our efforts on. Thank you for that. If the evidence is already clear, why is adoption so slow? Or maybe I should ask, where exactly are companies getting stuck?

[00:25:55] Yeah, I mean, I think that it's a cultural mind shift, right? And it takes time because the first reaction is saying that this is very costly, right? And as I said before, they are underestimating the benefits and overestimating the costs, right? They think that they require major investments when in reality, many high-impact measures can be implemented broadly.

[00:26:24] And there are some low-cost solutions that can provide meaningful results, right? So, I think that the investment part of it is one of the biggest bottlenecks, I would say, or the conception around this investment. Another challenge, I think, is simply not knowing where to start. And this is why precisely UNICEF created the toolkit or developed the toolkit

[00:26:52] because many managers, they are quite interested, but then when they are to start, they don't know how, with whom, with which teams. So, this toolkit actually provides the practical guidance and examples that businesses can adapt to their context. So, I think that those are the two main adoption issues. Of course, we are better than in the past, but still the culture is, I mean,

[00:27:18] and if I think about the Africa context, there is a lot of work to do in terms of building that capacity and debunking those myths around the implications of family-friendly policies from a business perspective. So, you mentioned about debunking those myths. So, what would you say is the biggest misconception business leaders have when they first approach this agenda? Well, I think I mentioned some already. I think that family-friendly policies are too expensive, which is totally false.

[00:27:48] And also, I mean, some of the most interesting innovations and policies or implementation of those policies are emerging from resource-constrained environments. So, that is not any more an excuse. The second, I think that they believe that they only apply it to large multinational corporations. And it's not only those. It's also SMEs, informal settings, et cetera.

[00:28:13] Third, I think I mentioned that they believe or people believe or businesses leaders believe that this is primarily a women's issue and it's not. And I already explained why. And yeah, and I think that also another misconception is that they believe that maybe this is something to happen in an office setting, right?

[00:28:36] But this can take place in every single sector from farms, hospitals, offices, services. So, yeah, I would say that those are the biggest misconceptions in general. And I'd say in some industries, the challenge isn't just mindset. It's also the operational realities, as you said. Some resource restraining environments or sectors like manufacturing, logistics, agriculture, where physical presence is required.

[00:29:05] Right. So, in those settings, how should leaders think about flexibility without actually compromising output? Yeah, I mean, I think that maybe there is overall identification of flexibility as working from home, right? And of course, there are some sectors where physical presence is essential. So, I think that when it comes to this challenge, I think that the direction is to maybe shift flexibility,

[00:29:34] to establish like phased returns after parental leave, to have more predictable schedules, to have breastfeeding accommodations. I mean, flexibility goes beyond the time, you know, or the place where you are working. It also means that you can, I don't know, work some hours in the morning, then have time for your kids or to breastfeed, and then go back and work if that allows, right?

[00:30:01] Because it also depends on your context and reality. But I would say that predictable scheduling and also some childcare support or adjustments during key caregiving periods can be a way to implement flexibility in these settings where physical presence is essential. And I think that the key question here is not if flexibility is possible or not.

[00:30:28] I think it's what form of flexibility makes sense within a particular operational context, right? So, that's why I mentioned that if you look at the toolkit and you use it, and I encourage businesses listening to the podcast to go ahead and do that, they will see that family-friendly policies can be implemented in factories, farms, healthcare centres, industries, etc. So, if we look at the bigger picture,

[00:30:54] because this isn't just being driven internally by companies, there are external pressures shaping this as well. So, are we now seeing investors, say, multinationals and global supply chains push family-friendly policies as part of, say, ESG targets or responsible business standards? Yeah, I mean, increasingly, yes. Also, because everything is very interconnected.

[00:31:21] So, ESG agendas are coming strongly in African markets. And investors and multinational companies are paying greater attention to workforce well-being and human capital management. Responsible business conduct is not only an opportunity for your company in terms of productivity and retention.

[00:31:45] If implemented and if used as part of ESG or responsible business standards, they are also strengthening their attractiveness to investors, to their customers, to global business partners. I mean, it comes from a trade perspective. This is increasingly relevant. And we see how these measures are influencing global business partners,

[00:32:14] global investors in their purchasing, you know, decisions and practices, right? So, I think that definitely, yes. And that's why we are all closely working with businesses in Africa, in this region, to make them, embed them, not only from a productivity perspective, but from an open door to other business partners, to other trade opportunities with not only African countries,

[00:32:42] but mainly with European countries that are looking more and more at this ESG agenda and at these family-friendly policies as part of them. I think this raises a much bigger question about where this is all heading. You know, if African businesses get this right to scale, how could family-friendly workplace policies reshape the continent's, I guess, competitiveness over the next decade? Yeah.

[00:33:10] I mean, I think that the demographic situation of the continent itself speaks about this, right? So, most of our societies and countries, the majority of people are young people. So, when you look at this, definitely it will have an impact beyond competitiveness. It will shape the mindsets of future generations, about the workforce, about the opportunities that they can have

[00:33:39] when they have those opportunities, right? So, there are other challenges. Of course, they go beyond this podcast focus, right? But if we invest in skilling young people, in making sure that they have learning opportunities that are connected to the labor market, and in parallel, at the same time, we invest in these policies, we will create an enabling environment for them,

[00:34:05] not only to thrive, but also to set and design the future societies that we want. I mean, one thing is what is happening in practice today, but the other thing is what people want and what people are dreaming about their countries, right? So, I think that if we build those young generations, if we support them, these are the future leaders that will also shape these policies and will support them from a governmental perspective and regulation perspective. So, definitely, yes,

[00:34:34] this is not only changing the business landscape, but countries as a whole. And I hope that in 10 years more, we can have another podcast to speak about the evidence, right? Showing this change. Quote of the week. As people, we often have quotes, mantras, proverbs, affirmations that keep us going when times are challenging or when times are good. Do you have one that you can share with us today? Okay. What I would say is that we just need to start.

[00:35:04] You know, start where we are, take one concrete step and build from there. I think that that would be my sentence today to encourage everyone listening to the podcast to look at the toolkit and see where we can start without complaining, right? Without saying, oh, it's very difficult, very expensive. Let's start and the rest will happen. That would be my sentence. Very lovely message. It's been a very interesting conversation, one that I've enjoyed.

[00:35:34] One thing I've taken away from the conversation is that family-friendly workplace policies are not a cost center. They are a productivity lever and they also shape who enters the workforce, but most importantly, who stays and how effectively people are able to contribute in that workforce or workplace environment over time. So, Soledad, absolute pleasure having you on the podcast. I've really enjoyed it. Thank you, Terser. It's been a pleasure. Thank you for the opportunity.

[00:36:04] Thank you. And we will speak soon. Yes, bye-bye. Thank you to everyone who has listened and stayed tuned to the podcast. If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, or tell a friend about it. You can also rate, review us in Apple Podcasts or wherever you download your podcast. Thank you and see you next week for the Unlocking Africa podcast.