The Benefits of at Work Daycare Outweigh the Cost



Benefits of Employer Provided Childcare

Should Human Resources offer at-work daycare as a benefit to employees?

Mark Jones, Jennifer Lester, Morgan Wilk

TABLE OF CONTENTS

                                                       

                                                          Page

List of Figures………………………………………..…………3

Executive Summary ……………………………..……………4

Problem and Purpose of the Study……………….….…...…4

Introduction……………………………………….…………....5

Methods and Procedures…………………………….……....6

Research…………………………………………………….…9

Findings…………………………………………………….....12

Summary…………………………………..…….……..…..…14

Conclusion…………………………….……………….…..….15

References and Appropriate Citations…………………..…16

List of Figures

Page

Fig. 1-Kiowa County Memorial Hospital

Q & A Questionnaire .………………………………………….7

Fig. 2-Number of Employees that could possibly use employer provided daycare……………………………………9

Fig. 3-Graph of Employee using Employer Provided Daycare…………………………..………………………..……10

Fig. 4- MLMH Employee Survey…………………….……….11

Executive Summary

In the society in which we live, the workforce is composed of more women than in previous decades. Our team has spent the past few weeks researching the results and benefits of employers offering an on-site child care facility. As an employee benefit, it is easy to see that any company that implements this new-age amenity will not regret their choice. A report from the National Conference of State Legislatures concluded that issues concerning childcare were found to cause more problems with employee satisfaction and missed work than any other family related issue. In the following pages you will find that cost is not a notable issue when the company is able to retain employees. This allows the organization to save money on training by reducing company turnover. Our long list of advantages to having an on-site childcare facility is sure to be enticing to any parent or person who may consider a family in their lifetime. We invite any employer considering on-site childcare to read this report, as well as, review the coordinating website at: . You can also view our teams formal you tube presentation at: .

Problem & Purpose of Study

The purpose of this study was to investigate the pros and cons of having an on-site childcare facility from both the employer and employee viewpoint. We hope to provide some insight and answer the question of whether or not human resources should provide daycare for employee’s children. Based on our findings we also will provide you with our recommendation.

The reason for the need of this paper is because most organizations do not even consider this as an option, where it would prove to be an added benefit for the satisfaction of their employees. This would result in being a sought after organization giving them more power in hiring and retaining employees. Currently, parents as employee stress about many things such as scrambling to find a trustworthy child care provider, having to rearrange the work day around transportation to and from daycare, and in some cases the employer will lose the employee all together just so the employee can be at home with the children. They also could find another job that is more suitable to orchestrate around families needs.

The Benefits of at Work Daycare Introduction

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the issue of employer provided daycare. More families are composed of double income households. This is creating more childcare issues not only for the individuals involved, but also for the organizations. There are many cases where women are held back from promotion due to the need of finding suitable childcare. We have also read reports concerning organizations not having enough need to provide childcare because women are not in dominant roles, or they are in the minority. As previously stated, our society consists of both parents working, which concludes that men could easily take on the roles of utilizing the employer provided childcare if it were an option. To wager the need for child care based off the prevalence of women and their roles in the organization could be considered discrimination. Employees of any gender would be eager to utilize on-site or employer provided childcare.

There are also reports that indicate the cost and liability to provide a daycare are overwhelming and not suitable to many organizations. Some businesses are too small, not centrally located, and a variety of other acceptable reasons. We do not think that every single place of employment should or could open their own on-site daycare facility. So while we agree that not every organization has the resources to provide this benefit, it is very reasonable and obtainable for many.

What we will show you is how companies that have implemented this benefit for their employees have in turn benefited greatly with evidence generated from our survey. We also conducted a survey with employees who have an on-site daycare at the hospital where they are employed. The productivity in the businesses increased, the turnover decreased, and employees had higher satisfaction. This hospital is now sought after for employment by potential employees (men and women), because it meets the standard of living for their families. The employees with this luxury enjoy shorter commuting times, increased morale, and a greater contentment with a work/life balance. All of this is a result of having a safe and reliable daycare for their children.

This report will also define how fairly easy it is to open your own onsite daycare facility by merely complying with your Department of Health and Environment and State Fire Marshall Standards.

Method & Procedures

Our method consisted on extensive research online of various blogs and journals. We pooled together our findings of the pros and cons of businesses providing an on-site child care facility.

Our procedures consisted of conducting a survey which we emailed to the hospital administrator the Kiowa County Memorial Hospital. The Kiowa County Memorial Hospital is located in Greensburg, KS. When a massive tornado nearly destroyed 95% of the town on May 4, 2007 they decided to make an on-site daycare an addition to their new facility (). The following questions are exactly what we sent to the administrator to help us understand first-hand the impact of having on-site daycare and the impact it has on the employees and the administration of a business.

Figure 1-Questionnaire

(Our survey questions are in black, Kiowa County Memorial

Hospital Administrator Sweet’s answers are in blue.)

1. How and why did the idea of onsite, employer sponsored daycare come up when you were planning the new KCMH? After the tornado, we were back operating within 2 ½ weeks in the tent hospital.  Staff wanted to work, but there were no daycares left in the community and people were reluctant to leave their children.  We checked with the state and they were very helpful in helping get a licensed day care for 12 children in the tents.

2.  Does having employee’s children on site a distraction for some employees?  No I don’t believe it is a distraction at all.  It actually seems to strengthen the relationships of staff, as they see the children growing and changing.

3.  Who works in the daycare?  Do you have a dedicated daycare staff or do employees work share?  How is this arranged?  We have a dedicated staff in daycare.  Since we are licensed for 23, our daycare actually has to meet quite a few requirements for staff, curriculum, etc.  We only offer daycare Monday – Friday, 6:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.  For staff on other shifts, we can offer daycare while they sleep if necessary.  We also only provide care while they are working, either on site or off site at meetings.

 4.  Is there a mechanism in place for employees children that are ill?  Does the daycare still take them or do employees have to find alternatives for sick children or miss work?  We do not have a sick room for children. They must go home if they are sick, running a fever, etc.

5.  Is there an impact on the health of daycare children at your site due to the proximity to sick patients?  How is this mitigated?  There is no impact.  They have their own area and are not allowed in patient areas.

6.  What is the cost to employees for daycare? There is no cost for employees.  As a critical access hospital, the daycare is considered an employee benefit and thus is cost reimbursed under the cost report.  

7.  Does your daycare facility take children other than employees children?  If you take other children is there a difference in the cost for non employee families?  We do not take non-employee children, as this would affect the cost reimbursement status.

8.  Given the time that has gone by since the daycare has opened would you have an onsite daycare again if you could do it over?  If not, why not?  Daycare is the best decision we ever made.  It is a great recruiting tool, as well as retention.   At one point, we had 8 employees deliver within 6 months.  They came back much sooner, because they had complete access on site.  We allow breast feeding when needed, as well as access at any time to their child.

 9.  Would you do anything different regarding the facility and set up of the physical daycare space itself or in any of the other arrangements (staff, cost, funding, etc.)  We would build more storage. Other than that, the daycare location has worked very well.  There many regulations regarding daycare, such as square footage for each child, limitations on furniture items, bathroom requirements etc.  Building from scratch, made it easier.  I would hate to meet all the requirements in a space already built.

 10.  What is the best part of having onsite daycare for your staff?  What is the worst part?  The best part is really, just the access to the kids.  I do not know any worst part.  The kids have become a big part of our facility.  They trick or treated the employees.  They participate in our facility activities.  Since they are our children, there is always staff available to help if needed.   We kind of joke, if your child is going to get hurt at daycare, they might as well be at the hospital!  When we had our summer hospital picnic, it was hard to tell what child belonged to what staff member.  Everyone is comfortable with all the kids.

11.  Do you have any outside sources of funding that helped you get the daycare up and running?  Do you have ongoing sources of funding outside of the hospital that help to keep the daycare funded now?  Since we did not have a daycare prior to the tornado, we could not use FEMA rebuilding funds for that area.  We applied to funds thru the KS Commerce Department tax credit programs.  We also had some USDA grant funds to use.

 12.  What is the source from which your daycare is regulated?  State rules federal, county, association?  Daycare is regulated by Kansas Department of Health and Environment Day care licensing.  There are strict guidelines and inspections to insure compliance.   We also monitored closely by the State Fire Marshall for compliance.

Mary Sweet | 

     Kiowa County Memorial Hospital | Administrator

     Greensburg, KS

    Office: 620-723-4201  |  Cell: 620-546-6037  |   msweet@

Research

Finding reliable and safe daycare can prove to be highly problematic. A report conducted by the National Conference of State Legislatures established that issues concerning childcare were found to cause more problems than any other family related issue (Monroe, 2012). A cost-benefit study conducted by the Union Bank in Pasadena, California showed its institution’s on–site daycare saved the company $138,000 in reductions from turnover and absenteeism (Hahn, 2007). After interviewing some 1,000 employees and studying hundreds of employer-sponsored child care programs, Rachel Connelly, Deborah S. DeGraff and Rachel A. Willias concluded that on-site day care is not only affordable but profitable to companies that implemented this modern employee benefit. The estimated savings in their studies were $150,000 and $250,000 in wages for two select companies (Hahn, 2007).

        Our findings are consistent. Multiple sources confirm that companies providing on-site childcare increase staff loyalty, morale, and commitment to organizational goals. It also promotes closer relationships among staff members as their children get to know each other and other staff members. Businesses that have already put on-site child care into practice are seeing less absenteeism, less turnover, less time spent on training new employees and an increase in the amount of time affected employees stay on the job. One report estimated up to 1/3 of working families will consider changing jobs for better or more convenient child care (Kelly Services, 2012). Employees attain greater family and employment stability when they have flexibility in their work schedule and when they have their children nearby.

The responses in the survey provide additional research to our study.  Thirty surveys centering on employer-sponsored daycare were distributed among thirty employees of Medicine Lodge Memorial Hospital in Medicine Lodge, Kansas. Of the thirty surveys handed out, twenty-eight were answered completely and returned to the group.  

|Number of Employees that could possibly use employer provided daycare |

|Fig 2 |

|Employees with daycare age children |15 |

|Pregnant Employees/working on having a family |6 |

|Desire families in future |7 |

Of the twenty-eight responses we received we found many similar responses and a few responses that varied widely. Of the parents that currently or recently had children requiring daycare, half (50%) utilized family members other than their spouse to provide that care. Thirty-three percent used licensed daycare services in a daycare provider’s home. Seventeen percent had a spouse that provided care for their child (alternating shifts when necessary).

Some of the information considered when surveying the employees of MLMH regarding employer sponsored daycare was focused on the roles that men and women fulfill as parents and how that has changed over the last several decades. It is felt that with the percentage of women that make up the workforce today (47%), the role of women being the primary childcare provider would undoubtedly change. Evidence shows there are more men taking on the role of primary childcare provider in the last decade, but it would appear that women still overwhelmingly fill this role. Mothers that were surveyed at MLMH predominately felt they could and often did fulfill both roles of “breadwinner” and primary childcare provider in their respective families. An enormous amount of time could be spent researching the roles of men and women in today’s workforce and the impact it has on families, but that is not the objective of this paper.

The question of women being an indispensable part of the United States’ GDP (gross domestic product) and how the roles of women have changed over the years is a valid one: How does it impact the life of families and the business community that employs men and women today? There is an apparent drought of qualified daycare providers especially in rural communities in Kansas at this time. This drought has an enormous impact on the employability of parents and, more specifically, mothers. The overall economic impact on rural communities is unknown but deserves more research and could even be seen as a civil rights / women’s rights issue.

| |

|MLMH Employee Survey Fig 4 |

| |

|Do you believe that the families in your community have access to quality daycare services? |

| |

|No – 100% of respondents |

| |

|What is the most significant barrier to daycare in your community? |

| |

|Not enough daycare providers – 82% of respondents (23) |

|State regulation unnecessarily too strict – 36% of respondents (10) |

|Not enough reliable / quality daycare providers – 14% of respondents (4) |

|No facilities / funding for institutional daycare – 4% of respondents (1) |

|*Some respondents gave more than one answer to this question. |

| |

|3. There are a growing number of companies offering daycare services to their employees. Do you believe this to be a good idea? If so would you utilize |

|employer based daycare services? |

| |

|Yes – 100% of respondents (28) |

|Yes – 100% of respondents (28) One respondent stated that she would but only if her mother could no longer provide daycare services or temporarily couldn’t? |

| |

|What is a fair price to pay for fulltime (food provided) daycare services per child, per month? |

| |

|Average of all respondents’ answers was $350 per month per child. |

|Answers ranged from $100 per month at the lowest response up to $560 per month as the highest response. |

|Two respondents responded that they did not know and were not figured in the average. |

| |

|What would the benefits of employer sponsored daycare be from your perspective? |

| |

|Less stress on child & employee/easier arrangement for getting to work–85% (24) |

|More reassuring for parent and child / reliable safe place for children while parent is working |

|Employee recruiting / retention tool |

|Daycare always available when you are scheduled to work |

|Could continue to breastfeed your child |

|Able to see your child during the workday |

|Able to eat lunch with your child, schedule permitting |

|Don’t have multiple babysitters |

|Create more jobs in the community |

| |

|What would the drawbacks of employee sponsored daycare from your perspective? |

| |

|None – 100% (28) |

|Employees visiting child too much |

|Family issues becoming work issues |

|Employer liability |

|Kids getting sick more due to daycare location |

|Losing your job would also mean losing your daycare provider cost |

| |

|Who is the primary child caretaker in your family? |

| |

|Mother – 100% (14 current parents) |

| |

| |

| |

(This survey data was gathered from a rural hospital in Medicine Lodge Kansas.)

Although the findings may not apply to all businesses in every type of population center, it is hard to imagine any environment in America today that has fulfilled all of the daycare needs of its community. It is important to remember that having enough daycare slots available is only part of the equation. Qualified, reliable daycare providers are also very important considerations. A safe and nurturing environment is an obvious must-have in regard to the care of children. We believe, in the daycare equation, quality should trump quantity even though both traits must be attained in order to have sufficient daycare for any population.

All survey respondents felt there was a lack of quality daycare available in the Medicine Lodge community. The employees surveyed at MLMH clearly see employer sponsored daycare as a positive. Those surveyed provided a wide range of answers in regard to what they felt was a fair price to pay for daycare. The majority of respondents felt the ease of getting to work and the reduction of stress in the parents’ daily life would be the greatest benefit to employer sponsored daycare. The biggest drawback to employer based daycare appeared to be the risk of employees being distracted by their children being on campus. When asked who the primary child caretaker in their family was, the fifteen respondents that currently had children stated “the mother”.

Some additional questions were raised during our research that we felt were appropriate to address are as follows:

· On –site child care should not in any way affect or be confused with the importance of maternity leave. While on-site child care does make the transition back to work for a woman easier than an employee who has to find other means of child care, women still need to take maternity leave as they currently do for the benefit of the mother and the child. Another benefit of returning to work with a newborn and having an on-site child care facility is that the employee could nurse as needed and frequently check up on the new addition to the family.

· On-site child care should not be confused with a “sick-care” facility. If a child is sick, he/she needs to be away from the other healthy children. An option for our facility is to provide a closed off section for a sick child so the parent could still finish their work day (Cal, 2010).

· On-site child care start-up requires your business to get in contact with the Health Department and your State Fire Marshall and begin the childcare within the guidelines set by these entities; otherwise, your efforts could result in fines, incident reports, lawsuits or worse, a fatal incident.

· On-site child care doesn’t have to be an all business expense. There are many grants and funds available. The Kiowa County Memorial Hospital received funds from USDA grants and tax credit programs (Sweet survey, 2). Investigation into what funding is available is the first thing needed to kick off the creation of your company’s on-site day care.

From research and surveys we composed a list of reasonable pros and cons for organizations as well as the employees regarding employer provided childcare. As you can see from the con’s list, it is easily overcome. The benefits greatly outweigh the problems, and would become an asset to the individuals involved, thus the organization.

Problems for on-site child care (The Cons)

· Liability of child safety is on the business.

· It is an expense to the organization.

· Work environment may not be safe enough in which to allow children.

· Staff may not be a suitable age group to benefit from putting in a facility (older generation)

· Working environment may not have room for the facility.

· Finding employees for the day care will require cost and additional requirements through the state that the business may have to supply (CPR and First Aid Training).

· Lose your job, and lose your daycare at the same time.

Benefits of on-site child care (The Pros)

• It promotes a higher morale among staff and leads to higher productivity.

• It is convenient for the employee (no extra time and transportation spent to and from off-site day care) and employer (less tardiness and absenteeism).

• New moms can come back to the work force sooner being able to nurse their newborn.

• Providing an on-site daycare to employees is an incentive to work at the establishment (bonus for the employee), which then gives the business more options when hiring their staff (bonus for the employer).

• Reduces child anxiety and separation issues having the access to reunite parent/child quickly.

• Enhances the company’s image and thus in a way provides advertisement as it sends a “family friendly” image to customers/clients.

• Gives the business “staff security” as the turnover rate declines, thus saving more money by not having to invest money in training new staff members.

• There are incentives for businesses that provide childcare for their employers. This is stated in a blog by Open Congress.

Official Summary

5/31/2012—Introduced Child Care Public-Private Partnership Act of 2012 - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a business-incentive public-private partnership program of grants to businesses and consortia to:

(1) pay start-up costs to provide child care services, or

(2) provide additional child care services needed by the employees of such businesses. This would require nonprofit business organizations receiving such grants to provide technical information and assistance to enable businesses to provide such services. This also gives priority in grant selection to businesses with fewer than 100 full-time employees.

Summary

This report assesses some of the more significant cons coming from the business point of view. First and foremost, determine if your work environment is safe to host an on-site daycare? Many questions arise when you think about changing anything in a work environment especially when it comes to children. Is a business liable for child incident reports? We found that on-site childcare facilities fall under the same state regulations as any other childcare facility and are held to the same standard. Is an on-site childcare facility a worthwhile investment? We found there are funds and grants available to help with start-up costs. These funds can off-set some of the financial burden in starting a new service for your employees.

Implementing an on-site childcare facility would be of great advantage to employees and their families. A place of business offering the benefit of on-site care is an attractive and effective recruiting and retention tool. High morale, increased productivity, and a positive, supportive work environment would be created with the tendering of this service. Our survey findings support the many benefits to on-site childcare.

Conclusion

As described by the title of this paper, “The benefit of employer provided childcare”, we collectively found in our research that having an on-site child care facility for employees children is worth the investment.  If you are a person with children needing to go to day care so you can work and provide for your family then why wouldn’t you want to be able to get you and the kids dressed and only have to make two stops: one to work and one home. We live in such a fast paced world that getting to omit one frustration out of the day would be great for any employee. All over the U.S. employer sponsored on-site daycares are popping up as businesses are catching on to the benefits it can bring to their business and the more they pop up the more familiar they become and the more questions that arise from them being around. As employees we are sitting here wondering how we could go into work tomorrow and flash this report around to make our family child care issues go away. As employers we may read this and think it sounds too hard to try to implement but also know of many employees we’ve lost over the years due to family needs. Our recommendation is as long as a suitable environment can be built or provided in existing structures that businesses should provide day care as a benefit to their employees and to profit the business as well.

References

Ackley, Joshua. Girl Scouts Declares 2012 the Year of the Girl. 13 Dec 2011. Retrieved 10

Nov 2012.

Adams, Courtney Lee. Day Care: An Office Affair; Con: Get Real about What Employers

Can Do. Bloomberg. 2012. Retrieved 1 Nov 2012.

CAI. How Providing Child Care Can Benefit Your Company As Well As Your Employees.

7 Sep 2010. Retrieved 1 Nov 2012.

Francis, David. Why Do Women Outnumber Men in College? 14 Nov 2012. Retrieved

14 Nov 2012.

Geiger, Matthew J. Pros and Cons of Offering Childcare in the Workplace. 9 May 2010.

Retrieved 29 Oct 2012.

Hahn, Cliff. Day Care: An Office Affair; Pro: Happy Parents, Kids and Corporations.

Bloomberg. 2012. Retrieved 1 Nov 2012.

Illinois Child Care: Options for Employers. Illinois Department of human Services and

Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. 2004. Retrieved 1 Nov 2012.

Issues in Labor Statistics. Nd. Retrieved 29 Oct 2012.

opub/ils/pdf/opbils24.pdf

Jones, Mark. Survey. 2012.

Lowey, Nita. (2012, Mar 8). Child Care Public-Private Partnership Act of 2012. Retrieved from

Spencer, Susan. As Gender Roles Change, Are Men Out of Step? CBS NEWS. 17 June 2012. Retrieved 10 Nov 2012. [pic]

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Employees using employer daycare Fig 3

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