Bringing the family to work

Within the next year or two there’s going to be a huge increase in the number of companies that want to provide their employees with in-house child care, predicts Valerie Nease.

The phone in her office rings all the time with people looking for information on Copper House, the child-care centre she runs for Husky Injection Moldings, in Bolton Ont., 20 minutes north of Toronto. The centre is entirely owned and operated by Husky.

People want to learn how they run the centre for employees because they are beginning to realize it’s a good business decision, Nease says. “It makes good bottom-line sense.”

Few if any would question the notion that the greatest stressor for working parents is concern about children — the research is unequivocal. And finding good affordable day care is one of the greatest problems working parents face.

In keeping with the mindset that money spent on making employees happy, comfortable and as stress free as possible will be recouped through better performing staff, Husky opened the centre for the children of employees four years ago. “The company truly understood that it is a value-added service,” Nease says.

Earlier this year IBM announced it will build a child-care centre for employees in the Toronto area as part of a US$50-million global corporate fund for developing and supporting work-life programs.

Child care for IBM employees has been an issue since the 1997 Global IBM Women’s Forum, says Susan Turner, director, diversity and workplace programs for IBM Canada. The group of senior female executives committed to the advancement of women at the computer giant, determined there was a need for day-care support but delayed action until more information was gathered.

After a needs assessment conducted in 1999 suggested two-thirds of IBM employees were troubled by inadequate day care options, the firm decided to build a centre in conjunction with the new software development lab it is building just north of Toronto. Unlike Husky, IBM will turn the operation of the centre over to a private vendor. More than 170 children of IBM employees are expected to use the centre once it opens in June 2001.

Anytime you can relieve some of the stresses and concerns that come naturally with being a parent, particularly of a young child, the employee will be able to concentrate more completely on work and will become more efficient, says Nease. With that in mind, Copper House is treated like every other business unit at Husky because anything that supports staff is considered a means to the end of greater profit, she says.

When Husky CEO Robert Schad first suggested the idea six years ago, the senior management team thought he had lost his mind, admits Nease.

But now, anytime customers are taken on a tour of the plant they stop by the Copper House. When they do, they’re usually amazed at the service being provided to Husky employees, which in turn contributes to a better overall image of the company in the eyes of the customer, she says.

After surveying the workforce and concluding there was a need for child care (an important first step, says Nease, since it is often just assumed there is a need when sometimes there’s not) she was hired to get the centre off the ground.

Initially they considered contracting with a child-care service provider, a common approach for such endeavours where the business funds the start up of the centre and guarantees a certain number of spots for employees but it is still run much the same as any other for-profit centre.

Instead the company opted to bring everything in-house. Consequently, all of the employees of Copper House are employees of Husky. What this means is that the centre is run strictly to satisfy the needs of Husky employees and nobody else, says Nease. The hours of operation are structured around parents’ schedules: if they have to be at the airport for an early flight they can drop the child off extra early at the centre or if they are in a meeting they don’t have to worry about getting out by a certain time.

The fees are also below the private day care average, with a pre-school fee of $650 per month for pre-school children. The objective is to free Husky employees as much as possible from day-to-day concerns. This means Copper House staff will meet with teachers or accompany children on field trips, or take them to dental appointments. A hairdresser even comes in every six weeks to cut the children’s hair.

They are licensed to accommodate 94 children at any time but service about 175 once part-timers are taken into account, and parents in an emergency can always count on the centre for support. If the caregiving partner of an employee suddenly feels ill or throws a back out, the employee can bring the child in and Husky will be able to take him or her for the day.

Earlier this year the landlords of the Kanata Research Park, outside of Ottawa, opened a day-care centre right in the middle of the high-tech park, open to any of the employees of tenant businesses. The president of Kanata Research Park Corporation, Bronwen Heins, saw the importance of creating a connection for employees to their workplace and the long-term benefits of family friendly practices, says Kim Hiscott, director of the day-care centre.

Having their children so close to where they work provides parents with a level of comfort they wouldn’t otherwise have; it makes it very easy for parents to drop children off as they head into work, for example, and parents are encouraged to drop in for lunch with their child any time they want. “It provides them with a sense of security knowing that their children are close at hand and it’s also important in creating a sense of community,” says Hiscott.

They plan to introduce a video system so that parents can see their children at work, and e-mail will be used to make the daily summaries, required by the Ontario Day Nurseries Act, interactive so that parents and caregivers alike can contribute to the child’s portfolio which will detail the child’s development.

With 15 staff, the centre provides full-time care for 106 children but also offers services for a far greater number. Hiscott hopes to eventually convince employers at the campus to support the resource centre as a benefit to all employees who are parents, not just those in need of day care.

For something in the range of $30 per employee, per year all employees would have access to a host of parenting and family resource programs the centre can provide, says Hiscott.

Getting started

Each province has different licensing requirements and regulations for running a day-care centre, including acceptable caretaker to child ratios, minimum space requirements and so on. Begin with the agency that licences day cares in order to get a sense of what will be needed, says Hiscott. Then hire a director as soon as possible. Not only will the director be responsible for staffing the centre, but in Hiscott’s case she played a vital role in overseeing renovation of the building, intervening when the contractor was about to put all of the sinks in at adult height and making sure electrical outlets were put in a safer spot. “Sinks and plugs and water are not a good idea,” she says.

Originally slated to cost about $1.2 million to get started, the project eventually came in at about $1.5 million. Most of that was paid for by the Kanata Research Park Corporation though the Regional Municipality of Ottawa did give them a grant. Today the child care is paid for by employees:

•toddlers — $240 per week;

•preschool — $180 per week;

•kindergarten — $150 per week; and

•school age — $65 per week.

However, a subsidy from the Corporation of $130,000 per year means the centre is basically rent free and able to provide a higher level of service then would otherwise be possible.