Is it too late to a make a prediction for the new millennium? Sometime in the next 1,000 years companies are going to see the value in on-site day-care facilities for employees.
In any organization you’ll find a significant number of parents with child-care needs — even dotcommers have kids. While time is a sought-after commodity for most employees balancing heavy workloads with personal lives, for parents the issue is acute.
One solution has been flexible hours combined with opportunities to work at home. This has created a blending of work and personal life — the morning at work, the afternoon at home, working in the evening and on weekends and the freedom to be absent during the hours of 9 to 5 when required. But despite this new freedom, time is still in short supply. Household chores are done at midnight after the kids are in bed. Work can occur anytime in any place. For some people it’s becoming necessary to wake up half an hour before they go to bed just to fit it all in.
On-site day-care can help solve these problems. What better solution for harried parents who spend extra hours every week ferrying children to and from day care, whose hours may not even mesh with work needs?
On top of the time savings an on-site facility offers, there’s the peace of mind of having your children nearby and safe in the building. Parents can spend lunches and breaks with their kids, making more time for families. And the quality of care is improved when child-care workers are aware that parents can drop in at any time. Corporate support can also ensure resources are available to offer a high standard of care.
Aside from being a socially responsible employer (not always a big sell in the boardroom), what’s in it for employers? As work-life balance advocates point out, relieving stress through paying attention to an employee’s family needs improves worker productivity and avoids the costly implications of burnout.
But, in a time of skilled-labour shortages, there’s also a payoff in terms of recruitment and retention.
Imagine the feeling of walking a hot new potential hire around the premises when he mentions he has preschool kids. And his wife also works. And your in-house child-care facility is on the next floor.
And what about retention? People will more carefully weigh changing employment when it means relocating children away from day-care playmates and comfortable surroundings.
For contract workers or part-time staff with the occasional need to visit the office, there’s the opportunity to drop a child off for an hour or two to accommodate meetings.
Employers may even be able to tap into that large pool of unskilled labour by offering single mothers with few job opportunities due to child-care responsibilities a chance to enter the workforce.
While there are savings for employers in terms of recruitment and turnover costs, the expense of providing on-site child-care may still seem prohibitive. Employers can pool resources to help save costs — a half dozen small- and mid-sized companies in the same area can get together to offer the service in convenient location. There are examples of companies taking this step — a centre has been set up for the high-tech tenants of the Kanata Research Park near Ottawa, and Husky Injection Moldings in Bolton, Ont. owns and operates a facility for employees’ children. But the idea is still in its infancy.
If employers can see the value in on-site fitness centres that many employees are too tired to use, isn’t there room for a facility that gives parents peace of mind?
In any organization you’ll find a significant number of parents with child-care needs — even dotcommers have kids. While time is a sought-after commodity for most employees balancing heavy workloads with personal lives, for parents the issue is acute.
One solution has been flexible hours combined with opportunities to work at home. This has created a blending of work and personal life — the morning at work, the afternoon at home, working in the evening and on weekends and the freedom to be absent during the hours of 9 to 5 when required. But despite this new freedom, time is still in short supply. Household chores are done at midnight after the kids are in bed. Work can occur anytime in any place. For some people it’s becoming necessary to wake up half an hour before they go to bed just to fit it all in.
On-site day-care can help solve these problems. What better solution for harried parents who spend extra hours every week ferrying children to and from day care, whose hours may not even mesh with work needs?
On top of the time savings an on-site facility offers, there’s the peace of mind of having your children nearby and safe in the building. Parents can spend lunches and breaks with their kids, making more time for families. And the quality of care is improved when child-care workers are aware that parents can drop in at any time. Corporate support can also ensure resources are available to offer a high standard of care.
Aside from being a socially responsible employer (not always a big sell in the boardroom), what’s in it for employers? As work-life balance advocates point out, relieving stress through paying attention to an employee’s family needs improves worker productivity and avoids the costly implications of burnout.
But, in a time of skilled-labour shortages, there’s also a payoff in terms of recruitment and retention.
Imagine the feeling of walking a hot new potential hire around the premises when he mentions he has preschool kids. And his wife also works. And your in-house child-care facility is on the next floor.
And what about retention? People will more carefully weigh changing employment when it means relocating children away from day-care playmates and comfortable surroundings.
For contract workers or part-time staff with the occasional need to visit the office, there’s the opportunity to drop a child off for an hour or two to accommodate meetings.
Employers may even be able to tap into that large pool of unskilled labour by offering single mothers with few job opportunities due to child-care responsibilities a chance to enter the workforce.
While there are savings for employers in terms of recruitment and turnover costs, the expense of providing on-site child-care may still seem prohibitive. Employers can pool resources to help save costs — a half dozen small- and mid-sized companies in the same area can get together to offer the service in convenient location. There are examples of companies taking this step — a centre has been set up for the high-tech tenants of the Kanata Research Park near Ottawa, and Husky Injection Moldings in Bolton, Ont. owns and operates a facility for employees’ children. But the idea is still in its infancy.
If employers can see the value in on-site fitness centres that many employees are too tired to use, isn’t there room for a facility that gives parents peace of mind?
