Two words: retention and morale.
That was the subject of a recent Wall Street Journal article in which prominent business leaders weighed in on why they offer onsite child care, and the value it brings to their organizations. "The benefit can be 'really sticky' for companies looking to increase retention," Bright Horizons CEO Dave Lissy told the paper.
Among the key points in the article:
Child Care Helps Women Have Careers And Children
Burns & McDonnell, an engineering, construction, architecture, and consulting firm in Kansas City, Missouri, said they've lost numerous working mothers to full-time motherhood, a problem since a quarter of its workforce is women. The company's chief executive says partnering with Bright Horizons to open a center this past spring was a big step toward the goal of a 1/3-female workforce. "We need to work harder to convince these moms that they can have both," Chief Executive Greg Graves told the paper. "They can have great careers and still be terrific parents."
Child Care is Not Just a Working Mother Issue
Women may be the most impacted by child care, but MIT Sloan School of Management Professor Erin Kelly pointed out there are substantial - and growing - benefits for retaining men as well. "More and more dads are intimately involved in these decisions [around child care]," Professor Kelly told the paper, "and struggling with them as well."
Child Care is an Overall Competitive Advantage
Home Depot, another Bright Horizons client, called its 66,000-square-foot on-site child care an overall advantage. So much so that they have prospects asking about the center during interviews. For existing employees, having on-site child care helps everyone - men and women - work better "Our associates can only do their best work," said HR VP Arlette Guthrie, "when their home life is taken care of."
But perhaps the best synopsis came from a reader. Commenting on the idea of child care at the office, a fan wrote, "There are absolutely no negatives for this approach. It is a total No Brainer and, frankly, about time."Read the entire article here.
