A recent survey by Deloitte & Touche revealed that 4 in 10 executives plan to use the current economic difficulties as an opportunity to recruit top talent for their companies, reports Fran Durekas, founder and chief development officer of national childcare provider Childrens’ Creative Learning Centers (www.cclc.com).
It’s no secret that some of that top talent is available right now. However, what steps can companies take to attract them? Durekas says that childcare programs may play a pivotal role. “Many companies are exploring innovative solutions to attract that talent,” she says. “A top aspect of that is an investment in early childhood education centers and benefits. These companies found that this kind of investment is important in order to retain and attract the type of leaders they were hoping to leverage in this environment.”
Childcare services can directly impact a company’s ability to hire, as Stanford University, one of CCLC’s clients, learned. “They have a large number of tenured professors who are retiring,” Durekas explains. “They had the foresight 4 years ago to make some decisions about how they’re going to be aging out these professors, and what their recruitment challenges were going to be.
“They needed to draw young professors, and most likely they’re going to have children. They asked, ‘How are we going to bring them to a community and a university where there is no availability of child care?’ So they built a new center specifically designed for faculty, post-doc, and administration. We opened that center in September 2008.
“The focus was to attract new talent, mostly from the East Coast. They’re competing in recruiting against Harvard, and Harvard has three on-site childcare centers. It’s really about looking at your competitive landscape.”
It is likely that many of your employees and recruits also have childcare needs. Durekas says that “14% of U.S. workers have children under the age of 6, prime years for needing childcare services. So 18% of employers with 1,500+ employees offer childcare on-site or near-site, and 93% of employees say that childcare is an important factor in considering a job change.” And she offers the following eye-opening statistic: “$3 billion are estimated to be lost to U.S. companies each year due to childcare-related absences.”
Some employees do not have childcare needs and may resent company funds being spent on such services—especially now. “We do hear from those employees,” says Durekas. “I always ask them if they are happy that their manager is able to show up; or if they are a manager, are they happy their employees are showing up because this benefit is provided to their company. That really resonates with them, that childcare services are a benefit that doesn’t just impact people with children; it impacts the whole organization.”