It’s no secret that working parents often struggle with balancing the responsibilities of work and life. Having access to on-site childcare can be a game-changer for parents. I know for me, it may have made the difference between staying in my full-time, in-person role versus leaving for a work-from-home freelance career.
The only daycare we could find for our children was nearly an hour from work for me and the daycare hours often didn’t match my work hours. This led to my husband doing most of the daycare drop-offs and pick-ups, even when it was super inconvenient for him, too. There were even times when he had to spend his dinner break picking up the kids and meeting me with them just so I could take them back to work with me for evening activities. Ugh! It simply wasn’t sustainable and this was one of the primary reasons I began to explore other career opportunities.
Had my employer offered on-site childcare, I probably would have stayed. If I could have brought my kids to work with me, we would have saved a lot of hassle every day. If I could have walked down the hall to breastfeed my baby, I wouldn’t have ended up crying over spilled milk in a closet. If I didn’t have to rush out the door to make it to daycare on time, I would have spent a few extra minutes at work in the afternoon finishing tasks.
While more companies are beginning to offer benefits like flexible schedules and paid parental leave, less than 10 percent of American companies currently offer on-site daycare to employees. But, companies like Google who have opened on-site daycare centers usually flourish and grow!
So, what exactly are the benefits of offering on-site childcare? Let’s take a look at how it can make life better for employees AND help businesses thrive.
Benefits to Employees
There are several benefits for parents who are able to take advantage of on-site childcare. It can immensely improve their mental health and overall quality of life. A few specific benefits are:
Fewer Distractions: Parents who know their children are being cared for on-site can focus better on their work since they won’t be checking their phone to see the daycare live-feed or getting updates from the sitter throughout the day. In fact, one study showed that 90% of parents using onsite daycare reported increased concentration and productivity on the job.
Decreased Anxiety: When their child is nearby, parents may be less likely to experience separation anxiety or worry about if their child is being well taken care of by their childcare provider.
More Time with Children: Employees may enjoy being able to pop-in and see their kids during breaks or eat lunch with them. They will also get spend more time with their children before and after work, rather than spending time driving to a separate daycare center.
Ability to Return to Work Sooner: Onsite childcare may encourage new moms to return to work sooner. This is especially true for breastfeeding moms who can feed their baby throughout the work day with the convenience of an on-site daycare center.
More Convenient: Employees will enjoy saving time on the commute to daycare and then work. A lot of stress also comes from traditional daycare hours often not matching up with work hours. An onsite childcare facility could be catered to match the hours and needs of your employees, making it much more convenient than most traditional daycares.
Financial Benefit: The average cost of childcare in the U.S. is more than $14,000 per year! If you are able to offer onsite daycare for free or at a reduced cost, employees will reap major financial benefits!
Benefits to Businesses
You may think most of the benefits of onsite childcare would be for the employees, but when employees are happy, business thrives! Here are a few benefits that a business offering childcare for their employees may notice:
Increased Productivity and Engagement: When employees are less distracted or worried about their kids, they can focus better on their work. They also tend to be more engaged with the team and the company’s mission.
Better Attendance and Timeliness: When children get to come with mom or dad, parents are less likely to be late to work. Onsite daycare has also been proven to improve employee attendance since parents aren’t likely to miss due to childcare issues.
Retention of Parents: Providing childcare onsite is a huge benefit to your employees, leading to higher retention rates. This is especially true for moms, who often have to quit working to care for kids. Studies have actually found that there is only a 2.2% turnover rate for employees using onsite childcare versus 9.55% for parents using other arrangements.
Recruiting New Employees: Having onsite daycare is a great recruiting tool! It can be a huge draw for new parents or young couples hoping to start a family soon, especially Millennials.
Improves Morale: Taking the extra effort to provide onsite childcare shows that you care and value your employees and can drastically increase employee satisfaction and morale.
Greater Loyalty and Commitment: When a company invests in the well-being of its employees and their families, it can foster greater loyalty and commitment among employees. Employees who feel supported are much more likely to stick around for the long-term!
Disadvantages and Other Alternatives
There are, of course, a few disadvantages to starting an onsite childcare facility. The main disadvantage is cost. It takes money to build or set-up a childcare center with all of the appropriate furniture, toys, and other ‘stuff’ kids need. It will require significant staffing, too. There is also the issue of liability and complying with any state or federal guidelines for childcare facilities.
If on-site childcare is not feasible for a company, there are other alternatives to consider that would still be helpful to families.
The most common alternative is to offer employees a child care stipend. This can help offset the cost of childcare and provide financial relief to families.
A similar option would be to partner with a nearby childcare center to secure discounts for employees. If there isn’t a daycare facility nearby, it would be a great investment opportunity for the business to help provide funding to build one!
For smaller businesses, it could be a good idea to partner with nearby businesses to open a daycare collaborative. If several businesses partnered to fund and staff a childcare center that would be in a convenient, centralized location for all of their employees, it could lead to growth and success for all of the businesses in the partnership!
Conclusion
Offering on-site childcare can be a huge benefit to both employees and businesses. While there are some disadvantages, I think that the benefits outweigh the potential problems companies could face and that some of the alternatives mentioned could also be great solutions if it is logistically not possible to open an onsite childcare center.
Companies that invest in the well-being of their employees and their families can experience growth and success while their employees who are hard-working parents reap the rewards, too!
Interactive Slideshow
I’ve compiled some of the information from this post into an interactive slideshow using Articulate Storyline. You can view the slides by selecting the button below or the image.
