Benefits of Work/Life Programs

An investment in child care not only helps your employees access high-quality care for their children, it can also boost recruitment, improve retention, and lower absenteeism.

Approximately 9% of all employers provide on-site or near-site child care centers; 11% of employees say they work for employers who do so.

Powerful Recruiting Tool

In a study of employees with children in company-sponsored child care programs, 93% of respondents said that the work-site child care was an important factor in considering a job change.
19% of respondents had actually turned down another job, rather than lose their work-site child care, and 25% of those who turned down other job opportunities were managers. (Benefits of Work-Site Child Care, Simmons College Graduate School of Management, 1997).
Organizations that offer child care often top the lists of “Best Places to Work.” It demonstrates a commitment to the employees and leadership in the community and results in enhanced morale, image and the resulting ability to attract new talent. In one survey, 85% of employers that offered child care programs reported more positive public relations.
(National Child Care Information Center).

Reduced Turnover

According to BT Alex. Brown, a typical child care center can save up to $500,000 each year in reduced turnover costs (based on 10 employees retained per year at a cost of $50,000 per turnover).
Bank of America (Nation's Bank) found that offering a $25 per week child care subsidy brought turnover among users down from 46 percent to 14 percent. (Work and Family Trend Report, 1999).
ECS, an environment insurance company in Pennsylvania, reported that after 18 months not one employee with a child in their on-site child care center had left the company. (Work and Family Trend Report, 1999).

Reduced Absenteeism

In 2006, unscheduled absenteeism climbed to its highest level since 1999, costing some large employers an estimated $850,000 per year in direct payroll costs, and even more when lost productivity, morale and temporary labor costs are considered. “Family issues” account for 24% of these unscheduled absences. (2006 Unscheduled Absenteeism Survey by CCH Incorporated).
A national survey of working adults found that 59% of employees and their spouses missed between three and ten days of work in the last year due to the lack of adequate backup child care or elder care options. (Workplace Options, Public Policy Polling, 2007).
U.S. employers lose $3 billion a year due to child care related absences. (Amy Gage, St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist. Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility speech, 1998).
Ransom & Burud found that a child care program can reduce turnover by 37% to 60%. (Productivity impact studies of an on-site child development center, Los Anglees, CA. Burud & Associates, 1988).
Reducing absenteeism through convenient child care can save a company upwards of $60,000 per year (based on 2 days served per employee, 100 employees served by center and a $300 average daily wage).

A Washington DC law Firm, Arnold & Portner, saved $800,000 in one year by providing backup child care (including sick care). (Bimonthly Communicator, 1998).

Backup Child Care Statistics*

A national survey of working adults commissioned by Workplace Options (WPO), found 59% of employees or their spouses missed three to ten days of work in the last year due to the lack of adequate back-up child or elder care options.
A survey conducted by the North Carolina firm of Public Policy Polling asked responds how valuable backup child care would be, 93% of respondents said "clearly valuable" or "extremely valuable."
When asked how comfortable parents would be about using a back-up care program, 85% said they would be comfortable using such programs.
Companies that invest in back-up care support services realize huge savings as a result of reduced absenteeism and higher employee productivity and retention.

*Data source: Hospital Business Week, March 2007

Guided Discovery™ Curriculum facilitates learning in a play-based, thematic and multicultural manner for each age group, providing quality early childhood education for employers’ families.