Should I Offer My Workers Childcare?

With more and more parents having to return to the workforce due to the economy, it raises the question on if businesses—both large and small—should be providing childcare for their workers.

In order to decide if it’s right for your business, you need to carefully look at the pros and cons of offering childcare in your office.

Pros of having childcare in the office

There are many, many pros of providing childcare in your office for workers. Some of the main ones include:

• Reduced stress for the parents. Studies show that parents who are able to take their kids to work to an on-site daycare are less stressed, sleep better and are healthier overall. This means better and healthier workers for your business;
• You’ll attract quality workers. Since most companies—both large and small—do not offer daycares on-site, you will stand out and be attractive to qualified candidates with children. To those of us that are parents, it would be a dream come true to be able to take our little ones to work with us;
• It’s convenient. Providing in-office childcare makes the lives of your employees much more manageable and convenient. If the child is sick, the parent is right there to assist. Parents don’t need to spend months researching daycares and interviewing candidates, as it’s all provided for them right at work;
• Employees are less likely to call in. Employees call in to work for all sorts of reasons—but the main one is because either a child is sick or the child’s regular daycare is closed. Having daycare at work ensures the daycare will be open during working hours for the parent. 

Cons of having childcare in the office

Though there aren’t many cons, there are a few and they can definitely make or break your decision to have in-office childcare. The cons include:

• It’s expensive. The cost of having a daycare in your office is rather expensive, and this is the main reason most companies choose not to provide it for their employees. There are liability issues if something were to happen to the child, there needs to be a space for the children and professional childcare workers must be hired (and paid!).
• Childless employees may view it as unfair. If the childcare provided is free for workers, childless workers may ask for a raise to compensate for not using the daycare facility. This could potentially make for a hostile work environment;
• It can cause distractions. Parents may have a hard time focusing on work knowing that their baby is a few doors away. They may be overly paranoid and insist on checking in on them once per hour, making them less efficient to the company.

If you’re deciding whether or not to provide childcare for your employees, think long and hard about this commitment before jumping in.

Figure out if you can afford it and determine if it’s something that would be of use to your office. Look into what your state requires as far as licensing and hiring childcare workers.

The last thing your business needs is a lawsuit regarding childcare.