Many companies are looking for ways to help their staff handle childcare. Many people say they would like to find employer sponsored childcare. While it can be clear as why this would be a benefit for the employees, it might be harder to see the benefits to the business but they are there.
- Providing childcare childcare to your workers can save you money. It may seem to be very counterintuitive but it really does. In 2005, a study was conducted entitled, “Kids at Work.” Connelly, DeGraff and Willis conducted the in depth study whose findings were that companies who provided corporate childcare saw savings that ranged between 50% and 200% of the money they put in to run the childcare at work programs. The trio looked at hundreds of programs and companies and found that despite the costs associated with providing employer sponsored childcare, the businesses saved money. A lot of these savings were due to reductions in absentee rates and turnover, which is a huge cost problem for many businesses around the United States. The help to companies’ bottom line did not end there, however. After talking to these firms, they discovered that employee morale was much higher. This was not just for working parents, who wanted to find employer sponsored childcare. All workers at a company that provides this benefit to their staffs were happier. They were even willing to contribute anywhere between $125 and $225 each year.
- It really does increase productivity and morale. There is a reason that working parents all would like to find employer sponsored childcare. Overtired parents would prefer to not have to make an extra stop in the morning and at night. Giving them that time back by offering employer sponsored child care programs gives those people a chance to recharge their batteries. This means they are more able to focus on their jobs when they are at work. The ability to check on their children during the work day means they are more focused because they are not thinking about how their children are doing at an off site daycare center. By making working parents feel more connected to their children, they are also more connected to their jobs.
- Companies that provide childcare in the workplace saw less absenteeism and turnover. Nearly 90% of companies surveyed by the National Conference of State Legislatures say that they can see that childcare problems, concerns and issues cause people to be late to work or to miss it altogether. Approximately 80% of those businesses reported problems with childcare cause people to have to cut their workday short. This data just back up what was reported in the “Kids at Work” study. This makes a lot of sense. Parents need to find a way to get their kids off to their childcare facility in the morning and then home again in the afternoon. If they are relying on someone else to take their children in and bring them home. If anything happens with those arrangements, the parents have to go deal with the issue. If the facility closes due to inclement weather, the parents have to go handle that. These issues are eliminated when the children on being cared for where the parents work.
- This is a great recruiting tool. When parents are looking for a job and they find employer sponsored childcare, it is seen as a great benefit. Working Mothers magazine put out a list of the “Top 100 Companies for Working Mothers.” Of the 100, of the companies that were listed provided some sort of childcare to their workers. Simons College’s Graduate School of Management also looked at this. They found that 93% of the working parents they talked to said that the ability to find employer sponsored childcare was a key reason they would leave their current job for another position. Finding onsite childcare was a big part of the decision to leave one job for another for 42%.
There are a lot of reasons for companies to think that offering such a benefit as childcare may not be something they can do but there are also very real benefits to doing so. This helps employees and their employer’s bottom line.