To promote birth-friendly jobs丨推行“生育友好岗”！闵行这样做……

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‍It has been five months since Minhang District's Qibao Town responded to Shanghai's appeal to create more "fertility-friendly"jobs.

The appeal raised people's concerns about demography and its future, workplace gender equality and corporate economics.

At around 9am in a flower shop on Xinlong Road, Yuan Jing, a newly employed assistant, was trimming a sunflower bouquet, while her cellphone was vibrating as a message arrived: "The school will have an open class tomorrow morning and we invite you to join."

This might have been something of a "crisis"for many working mothers who would struggle with asking for time off, while in this 85 squaremeter shop, employees have flexible work schedules and their children can also do their homework there.

The Bai Hui Fan Hua floral store is a small example of Shanghai's trial of fertility-friendly positions citywide.

In December, 2024, the Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions and Shanghai Women's Federation released a notice on "Trial of Fertility-Friendly Positions Citywide" against a backdrop of a continuing decline in the birth rate.

Qibao was among the first to answer the call.There were challenges.

"When we sent a notice to 322 companies through WeChat, three responded with flextime positions,"said Yao Xiaoqing, deputy chief of the town's community affairs reception center.

"They are Bai Hui Fan Hua floral store, a handcraft production company and a restaurant, offering a total of five birthfriendly positions,"said Yao.

"Full-time mothers mostly want to return as whitecollar workers,"Li Danfeng, an employment guidance professional in Qibao, pointed out. "Yet their condition of frequently asking for a leave avails few regular white-collar positions for them."

Against all odds, staff from the town's community affairs reception center maintain a positive attitude on coordination between full-time mothers and potential employers. For companies who play a helpful role in female worker employment, they will be listed as "fertility-friendly employers"and enjoy policy analysis from professional government service personnel.

Community employment service stations in the district are sending questionnaires to residents about training in such positions. Full-time mothers are now able to receive free training sessions near their neighborhoods.

Shang Aiying, the Bai Hui Fan Hua flower store owner, had been the chief of a kindergarten and a head-master of an off-campus training institution. She had been enduring a work intensity of seven days a week and four hours commuting daily for several years.‍

Shang Aiying, owner of the Bai Hui Fan Hua flower store, has taken the district's lead to avail "fertility-friendly"positions to young parents.

In 2024 she opened her own flower store and its work schedule for employees is flexible.

This is made possible through adopting a team of two from 2pm to 4pm daily, providing one person off-work and the other can still maintain work inside the store. A manager will refer to schedules of the about five or six employees in a new week and make overall arrangements. Through mutual aid scheduling, employees are able to take care of their families and a higher retention of workforce is created.

Yuan Jing, a newly employed assistant, trims flowers in the store.

Yet such foundational innovation comes at a cost.

"Headquarters economy plays a big role in Qibao's economy structure and such firms tend to prefer standardized management," Yao said.

When Yao and other officials from the community affairs reception center were visiting some manufacturing corporations, their human resource managers pointed out their dilemmas: "Suspension of an assembly line for just one minute may cost a company tens of thousands of yuan, so a flexible working schedule is really hard to adopt."

Even for small enterprises like Bai Hui Fan Hua, such an innovation poses higher management costs and longer employee training sessions.

"Real equality is about rechanneling duties rather than creating a workplace greenhouse,"said Guo Yanjun, a law professor from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. "In Sweden, parents of a new baby share a total of 480 days' parental leave. When the recruitment cost for a male and a female employee is the same, gender differentiation treatment tends to be minimalized."

"In Shanghai fertility-friendly positions are for both full-time mothers and full-time fathers,"Zhu Junjie, deputy chief of Minhang employment promotion center, said.

Fertility-friendly positions are now being posted on “闵行易就业”("Easy Jobs in Minahng") applet on WeChat and Shanghai's new employment information website http://jobs.rsj.sh.gov.cn.

The district's employment promotion center regularly hosts offline job fairs that also include fertility-friendly positions.

早上九点，闵行区七宝镇新龙路上，“百卉繁花”花店的玻璃门透出暖黄灯光。新入职的店员袁静正在整理向日葵，手机里跳出孩子班主任的微信：“明天上午学校将有公开课，邀请您前来参加……”这样的时刻，曾是无数职场妈妈难以开口的“请假危机”，如今在这间85平方米的花店里，店员可以灵活调整工作时间，还能带着孩子来店里写作业——这是上海市试点推行“生育友好岗”政策下的一个微小样本。

2024年12月，上海市人社局、市总工会、市妇联联合发布《关于开展“生育友好岗”就业模式试点工作的通知》，在人口出生率持续走低背景下，试图开辟就业市场新赛道。作为第一时间响应新政策的街镇之一，七宝镇在试点落地时却遭遇了现实落差。

“当时把信息发到322家企业所在的微信群，最终只有3家拿出弹性岗位。”七宝镇社区事务受理服务中心专职副主任姚晓清翻开工作日志，2025年1月的就业援助月小型招聘会上，这3家企业分别是百卉繁花花店、手工艺品公司结绳记和一家餐馆，共提供5个生育友好岗位。“虽然求职者十之七八都有孩子，但报名者寥寥。”

这种落差在七宝镇就业指导专员李丹凤眼里形成鲜明对照：全职妈妈大多想做办公室白领，但针对妈妈们需要不定时请假的情况，能匹配文职类的岗位很少，多数是兼职岗位。“有位前连锁超市主管坚持要找月薪过万的管理岗，可我们手里能匹配的只有超市一线员工岗。”

但姚晓清相信，总有匹配的机会。每天对接企业时她一次次耐心地询问“最近有没有适合全职妈妈的岗位”，还把带动女性就业能力强、安置女性数量多的企业纳入七宝镇《“生育友好岗”用人单位统一名录》，为其配备就业服务专员，及时提供通俗易懂的就业创业政策解读。关于生育友好岗位的努力已融入每天的日常工作，成果也逐渐显现，在受理中心挖掘到的手绳编织、鲜花销售等岗位上，已有13位生育友好岗位员工和企业达成初步意愿。

政策工具箱也在扩容。闵行区就业促进中心已梳理出一系列适合弹性时间、薪资相对较高的新兴行业技能型岗位。副主任朱俊杰透露，包括母婴护理员、育婴师、养老护理员、美甲师、互联网营销师、整理收纳师等培训项目。目前闵行区42个社区就业服务站正在排摸社区居民的培训意向，把培训“送到”有需求的就业服务站。届时，全职妈妈在家门口就能参加免费培训。

冷柜前，46岁的店主尚爱英正在修剪花刺。这位幼儿园前业务园长、教育培训机构前校长，经历了多年每天通勤4小时、每周7天无休的工作强度，去年，她选择自己创业开花店，采用柔性管理制度，让员工请假时不需要有太多顾虑。

尚爱英设计的“双岗重叠制”，让弹性工作成为可能：每日14点—16点设置双人在岗时段，一人有急事，另一人也能守店。每周排班之前，店长虞静都会充分收集五六位店员的时间安排，以互助式排班最大限度照顾家庭。柔性管理带来了意外收获——核心员工流失率明显降低。

制度创新的成本压力真实存在。“总部经济在七宝产业结构占比较大，这类企业更倾向标准化管理。”姚晓清坦言，走访中春路沿线制造企业时，一些人事经理也很无奈：“流水线停转一分钟损失上万，怎么弹性？”即便是百卉繁花这样的小微企业，也面临管理成本更高、员工培训周期更长等现实情况，但尚爱英算过长远账，家庭友好能让人均效能提升，隐性收益远超投入。

学界正为平衡点提供新思路。女性和性别史学者王燕建议，企业可以按照员工的孩子年龄，设置男女职工皆覆盖的“梯形弹性工作制度”，孩子年龄小的，弹性更大，年龄大的，弹性小。

上海交通大学法学院教授郭延军以瑞典父母共享480天产假为例，当男性同样需要为育儿调整工作，企业招聘一名男性和一名女性成本相同，就不会因性别做差异化选择，才会带来真正的就业公平。

因此，区就业促进中心即将开展的技能培训不对性别设限，宝爸、宝妈都可以报名。这种认知转变，或许比政策补贴更有穿透力。