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Contingency Childcare: by Shari Lifland
Clearly, contingency (or backup) childcare is an idea whose time has come, and currently, backup care is the fastest growing segment of the childcare market. Today, 15 percent of corporations offer back-up care, compared with only about 5 percent five years ago. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, some employees are more likely than others to have some kind of employer-provided childcare benefits:
The largest supplier of corporate-sponsored backup childcare is Boston-based ChildrenFirst, which designs, develops, and operates 25 facilities, either onsite or near a member's worksite, in major cities across the U.S. ChildrenFirst's client list of over 220 corporations includes American Express, Arco, Deloitte & Touche, Gillette, Sara Lee, and Target. The ChildrenFirst model is one very workable solution to an ongoing problem, and certainly warrants consideration by Human Resources professionals (as an employee recruitment/retention strategy and impediment to absenteeism) as well as by employees who seek solutions for work|family balance issues. Here's a brief outline of how the program works:
I recently had an opportunity to visit ChildrenFirst's backup care facility located in New York City's Times Square, which serves employees of Conde Nast, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Viacom, Fairchild Publications, Seagrams (now Vivendi Universal), and others. The center's maximum capacity is 38 children -- 14 infants/toddlers, 10 preschoolers (aged 3-5), and 14 school-aged (6-12) with age-appropriate areas for each group. On the day I visited, four children were using the center, and two parents were visiting and playing with their child. According to Peggy Altherr, vice president of ChildrenFirst: "The way that we describe backup childcare to employers is that it's like childcare insurance, the same as medical insurance. Our goal is to get every eligible employee who has a young child to at least sign up for the service, even if in their wildest dreams they can't imagine that they're going to need it. An employee might say, 'My spouse stays at home, so I have no need for this.' And then the spouse becomes ill, or has jury duty, or a doctor's appointment, and suddenly the employee is left having to care for the child." "We find that the average client company gets about a $2 to $5 return for every $1 they spend on backup childcare. Clients benefit in a couple of ways. One way is in productivity. If people aren't coming to work, they're not being productive. Another thing we've looked at is retention. There was a study done a few years ago that found that 25 percent of the employee population may be looking for a new position at any given time. And with the cost to replace an employee at between 100 percent and 200 percent of their salary, if even one person stays with a company because of a backup childcare benefit, there are substantial savings. It also enhances morale and the recruiting package. We've had clients tell us that backup childcare is becoming a must-have benefit, like medical insurance. And it's a benefit that pays for itself, because it gets people to work." Click here to read Shari Lifland's interview with JoJo Conlan, manager, Work|Life Services, Vivendi Universal, a client of ChildrenFirst backup childcare services in New York City. Ms. Conlan is also a parent-user of a ChildrenFirst center.
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