PEOPLE
At Bright Horizons, our business is providing solutions that help people; children, families, adult learners, employers, and each other work together to be their very best. To achieve this mission and to deliver results, we put our HEART principles at the forefront of everything we do. Our HEART principles — Honesty, Excellence, Accountability, Respect, and Teamwork — are the underlying tenets of our culture and are guided by the core belief that our people are the foundation to building and sustaining an organization that makes a significant impact in the lives of the children, families, and adult learners we serve.
Our Employees
You're the difference
In a business that’s all about people, it’s our people that make the difference. At Bright Horizons, our employees are more than a job title or a role. Teachers in our centers are the educators a child looks forward to seeing each morning for care, education, and support. Our corporate home team is the force behind the systems, programs, and partnerships that make everything we do possible.
This is important work, and it’s why we work to make sure all our employees have the tools and the support needed to build a successful career.
Our commitment to our employees includes compensation and benefits that support every area of their lives and flex to fit individual needs — allowing our best and brightest to focus on what matters most. Just as important, we celebrate our employees through awards, team celebrations, and simple, heartfelt thanks. Above all, we want our employees to know their voice matters, their ideas are prized, and their individuality is seen and embraced. At Bright Horizons, we are building better futures for children, families, and communities, and it all starts with our people.
Workforce Composition
As an organization built around people, having diverse talent throughout our organization and across leadership levels helps us recruit and retain talent and reduce turnover and enhances all our offerings and service lines and the education we deliver daily to children and families.
Culture & Inclusion
Bright Horizons is an organization made up of employees, children and families from many cultures, backgrounds and experiences. We believe that fostering a workplace where all employees feel welcome and have a sense of belonging, as well as where everyone's unique differences are celebrated and valued, is vital to the Bright Horizons mission and culture.
We look to create open and inclusive environments for all employees by listening to our people, utilizing our employee resource groups, and deepening cultural awareness through learning opportunities. We believe our approach to building and maintaining a strong culture and inclusive environment helps us recruit and retain talent, reduce turnover, and enhance all of our offerings and service lines as well as the education and services we deliver daily to children, families and adult learners.
Employee Resource Groups
Bright Horizons supports a variety of opportunities for employees to connect with others, Through our Employee Resource Groups, which are open to all employees, we help our team connect across lines of teams and geographies. These groups provide spaces for employees to share stories, build connections, and engage in conversations that strengthen our culture.
Listening to Employees
Gathering continuous feedback is an essential part of our culture. We regularly listen to employees through our annual employee experience survey and through other periodic surveys and forums. Hearing directly from our employees helps us understand the employee experience, including evolving priorities related to workplace environment, employee relations, pay and benefits, flexibility, and career growth opportunities, all of which are critical to our mission to remain an employer of choice and a great place to work. We champion a culture of belonging and appreciation through our engagement programs, including Better Together activities and through the Bright Horizons Foundation for Children®.
Talent Acquisition and Total Rewards
We believe we are the company that other companies look for to help find solutions and provide need-to-have benefits for their workforce to enable their employees to excel both personally and professionally. We deploy proven solutions that recruit talent, support employees, advance careers, and maximize employee performance. Through ongoing initiatives such as our 100 Days of Heart onboarding program, our employee referral program, our alumni recruitment portal, and partnerships with high schools, colleges and universities, Bright Horizons and our dedicated talent acquisition team help address the challenges in attracting top talent in our field.
Bright Horizons works to ensure our compensation and benefits align or exceed industry standards to attract and retain talent. We offer a wide array of benefits for our employees and their families including:
- Competitive pay and healthcare benefits
- 401 (k) retirement plan with company match
- Paid time off
- Wellness initiatives with benefits relating to nutrition, stress management and financial well-being, mental health, work-life balance and an Employee Assistance Program
- Child care tuition discounts for both Field and Home Team employees
- Tuition assistance programs, including the Horizons Teacher Degree Program which provides direct, no-cost access to an early childhood education degree
- Access to back-up care, EdAssist, College Coach and Sittercity
- Paid parental bonding leave
Training and Career Development
We invest in our employees’ career growth. Employee training and development opportunities are critical to our success as they help develop leaders within our organization and support the delivery of quality services to our clients, and the families and learners we serve. We provide a robust, ongoing employee training and career development program that is available to all employees through our online training university. We are also invested in long-term employee success and are committed to advancing talent from within by developing the next generation of leaders at Bright Horizons. By creating clear pathways for career development, through leadership training and development, we support and encourage upward career mobility in both our Field operations and throughout our Home Team.
Horizons Teacher Degree Program
A central program offering is our Horizons Teacher Degree Program. The program, which is a first-of-its-kind offering in the early education field, removes financial barriers for employees pursuing a degree, by allowing employees to earn a CDA (child development associate certificate), associate or bachelor’s degree in early childhood education at no-cost and with no out-of-pocket expenses, including tuition, fees and books. Through the Horizons Teacher Degree Program, approximately 3,500 teachers have enrolled in the program and almost 1,000 teachers have received their associate’s or bachelor’s degrees.
Bright Horizons College Tuition Program
Bright Horizons Launches Free College Tuition Program for Early Educators
Employee Relief Fund
Bright Horizons is a community of employees that strives to support each other, and the Bright Horizons Employee Relief Fund is one important way we show it.
In 2019, we launched the Employee Relief Fund: a cooperative program with the Bright Horizons Foundation and funded by Bright Horizons employees and supporters. The Employee Relief Fund offers grants to employees facing significant financial hardship resulting from an unexpected and personally catastrophic event. Grants are tax-free and never need to be repaid.