Corporate standards for supporting working parents and effects of implementing flexible work arrangements

Amid current demographic pressures, the Russian economy faces the need to integrate national working-parent support policies into corporate HR management practices. The study seeks to provide an empirical evaluation of both effects and barriers to the implementation of family-oriented flexible work arrangements within corporate standards for supporting employees with parental responsibilities. The research methodology builds on role theory, rational choice model, and new institutionalism. At the empirical level, we carried out an expert survey involving representatives of 641 companies in the Ural economic region. Expert assessments were analysed using the methods of descriptive statistics, such as mean values and the Kruskal-Wallis test. Narrative analysis was applied to cluster the expert recommendations by areas of support. The findings reveal that employers are poorly informed about the provisions of the national Corporate Demographic Standard. Corporate initiatives to support staff with family responsibilities are more prevalent in large companies compared to medium-sized and small firms. Implementing flexible schedules, part-time work, and remote work offers several advantages, namely reduced employee turnover, increased staff loyalty, and improved labour productivity. The results show that flexible work arrangements have a limited, though still positive, impact on fertility motivation. Among the barriers to implementing family-oriented practices are: difficulties in organising individual work schedules, technological constraints, and potential increased dissatisfaction among employees without parental responsibilities. The proposed model for integrating family-oriented work arrangements into HR management policy can be used in corporate social programmes.