| Corporate Sponsored Day Care Offers Relief |
By: Mary Lee Shalvoy, Education Columnist
On 1/21/06
Putting your child in day care is one of the most traumatic experiences a mother can endure. You can’t win — either you feel guilty about someone else taking care of your precious one or you feel guilty that you aren’t worried about someone else watching your kid.
| "Some centers offer parents of school-age children an option for school and summer holidays, if space is available. " |
It is completely normal if you are feeling either (or a mix of both) of those. Once resolved about placing your child in day care the question arises: How do you find the best childcare for you and your child? One solution might be right in your own office building.
Though I didn’t go this route for my own family, I think I would have felt greatly relieved to have my children in day care in the same building where I work. Just the ease of us all being in one place at one time is an enormous time saver. Having to run downstairs, instead of battling traffic on a freeway to pick up my child before the $2 a minute late fees go into effect, would eliminate a huge stress factor.
If you work for a company that offers in-house childcare, consider yourself lucky. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, “A very small percentage of private industry establishments operate onsite child care centers for the children of their employees.”
Of the top 100 companies to work for in the U.S. as designated by Fortune Magazine, 33 offer onsite childcare. That’s one-third of the cream of the crop. This might be an opinionated leap, but it makes me think that the overall numbers are much lower.
Fortune reports that one company, SAS International, based in Cary, N.C., has two centers onsite and offers care at the lowest price of $300 per month to its employees.
Bright Horizons Family Solutions, number 94 on the Fortune top 100 list and a company in the business of providing childcare, operates centers in 90 of the Fortune 500 companies. Bright Horizons also has 65 clients on the Working Woman 100 Best Companies and nine of the top 10 companies on that list.
Again, I am making assumptions when I say that one of the top qualifications for the Working Mother Magazine list would be an attitude about and actions toward offering childcare. (See: www.workingmother.com)
All is not lost for the corporate mother with young children because the numbers for onsite centers are growing. Research from Bright Horizons states that in 1986, there were an estimated 1,000 on-site child-care centers in the US, most of them sponsored by hospitals, universities, government agencies and real estate developers. Today, 20 years later, that number has jumped to 8,000 organizations—including more companies in the private sector—offering childcare on or near their workplace.
Although on-site childcare can be expensive, it offers considerable rewards for employers, employees and the children, too. La Petite Academy, Knowledge Learning, Bright Horizons and regional companies such as Precious Time in Virginia all provide services to corporations large and small. These companies report the benefits their clients experience by offering on-site child care, including attracting and retaining employees (both fathers and mothers), reducing absenteeism and tardiness caused by unreliable child care arrangements and improving the quality of employees' work and productivity by lessening distractions about their children while they are working. These companies also report the improvement of morale by demonstrating that the employer cares about them as employees. Children benefit by having Moms and Dads nearby and less stressed at the end of the day.
Corporate employers can operate childcare centers or can outsource this service to a non-profit or for-profit childcare provider. The employers usually pay all start-up costs, the operating loss that general happens in the launch phase before full enrollment, and some portion of ongoing operational expenses. While most employers subsidize the center so that employees can afford the program, parent fees cover the balance of the center's operating expenses.
Like traditional childcare, onsite centers usually serve infants (6 weeks) to pre-kindergarten (5 years). Some centers offer parents of school-age children an option for school and summer holidays, if space is available. Onsite centers can also include emergency or drop in care for employees who normally use other childcare.
Hours of operation for a corporate daycare center typically adapt to employee's work hours, roughly from 6:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. I was surprised to find some employer-sponsored centers are open during evenings, weekends, and legal holidays.
If you are one of the fortunate few to have their children in a corporate onsite daycare center, let me know. Please send tales of your experiences to me at the NoteNiks.com Editorial Desk. I want to hear how great it really is.
|
|
|
|
