New childcare services could have multiple positive effects, like keeping more working parents with their current employers enabling primary caregivers of all types who stepped away from the workforce a path to returning and better positioning companies to retain and attract new talent in a contracted labour market. “Now that employers are calling their employees back to the office, we are seeing an uptick in interest for on-site childcare services,” says Stephen Kramer, CEO of US-based childcare provider Bright Horizons. Among the slew of possible family benefits is a growing demand for on-site childcare – an employer-sponsored day-care centre located in the workplace.Īlthough Jessika’s employer is not currently planning on introducing the benefit, increasingly, some companies are considering – and even opting in – to make her dream a reality. Looking after kids has been particularly difficult to navigate over the last two years, due to school and day-care closures.
This has given many workers leverage over both existing and prospective employers to negotiate benefits that better suit their priorities, many of which were reshuffled amid the pandemic. “It’s hard to even fathom,” she says, but on-site childcare is “the dream”.Īs employees continue to quit jobs en masse in search of better ones, employers are scrambling to retain talent and fill empty seats. Jessika says this set-up would radically reduce her stress, while allowing her to feel excited about going back to the office. A dedicated space for her baby at the office would give her a way to breastfeed during the day, reduce her out-of-pocket expenses and cut down on extra commuting. What she wants is employer-sponsored on-site childcare. “Mine is the income we can’t lose,” she says.
It’s important Jessika keeps her job as an impact associate at a private health trust, since she is the primary breadwinner in the family. Before her April due date, Jessika and her husband have to figure out who can watch the baby while they’re at work. Her soon-to-be new-born is on seven different year-long waiting lists for local childcare centres, and her husband, a beer brewer, can’t work from home. She’s seven-and-a-half months pregnant and has a five-year-old daughter in Kindergarten. After almost nine months working remotely due to the pandemic, Jessika, a 35-year-old living in Asheville, North Carolina, US, has been called back to the office – and she has no idea how she’s going to manage childcare.
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