Convenience: Child Care

When you have both kids and a career, finding daycare can be a major issue. Not only is it expensive, but there are also logistics to consider: dropping your child off in the morning, scheduling your day around the daycare’s hours, and ensuring your child is happy throughout the day. Employees who have to juggle all this in addition to work often end up taking time off when there is a problem at the daycare or cutting short their day trying to accommodate the daycare’s schedule. As a result, more and more large companies are moving towards providing on-site daycare to their employees, as it’s a more feasible scheme for both parents and employers.

Advantages to Employees

The advantages that parents experience when it comes to child care at work are huge. Firstly, having one’s child on-site is comforting to parents who might worry otherwise. If there is a problem, for instance if the child falls sick during the workday, it is no longer a significant disruption to the parent’s day. Indeed, one study found that both employee absenteeism and turnover were significantly reduced by having on-site daycare facilities for parents. Productivity also improved, as parents were able to focus on work without worrying about their children. The overall result of having daycare available at the office is less stress and higher employee satisfaction and job commitment.

Another benefit is cost-effectiveness. Large companies are often able to subsidize daycare costs through employee payment programs and surprisingly, most employees are willing to pay for those costs regardless of whether or not they have kids. Either they realize the value of having a daycare in the facility or they see themselves needing to access that service in the future. Overall, parents have to pay less for daycare services, with the additional draw of not having to transport their children back and forth to day care, which can also be costly. On the whole, having on-site daycare provides more security, costs less, and increases productivity, security, and happiness for both employees and their children.

Advantages to Employers

On the surface it might seem as though having a daycare facility in the office might be distracting to workers and incur extra costs for the company on the whole. However, that is not the case. In fact, employers can stand to benefit from on-site child care, according to a study from the National Conference of State Legislatures. The company identified that child care and family issues were responsible for significant increases in both tardiness and absenteeism in 90% of all companies that participated. Eight out of ten companies also reported that their work days were shortened by daycare hours. That can add up to a lot of money lost for employers, who can save between $138,000 and $232,000 in yearly operational costs by simply providing daycare services to their employees. On the whole, child care seems to be a cost-effective option for both employers and their workforce.

Another benefit comes down to the type of workforce that a child-friendly working environment will attract. Employees who do not have children are more likely to stay on with the company even after they have kids. The reduced stress levels lead to higher work productivity for the entire office. Moreover, having an on-site child care facility will attract a conscientious, high quality workforce. It’s time that employers realized that potential employees are no longer willing to work around the clock when they have a family. They want the proverbial home-life balance that once seemed impossible.