Why invest in Early Child Care as an Employer?
Early childhood education plays a vital role in our state, preparing children with critical learning experiences to support their development while supporting their families in working or seeking further education and training, ultimately improving their economic and social mobility. However, Hoosier families often face barriers in accessing child care due to local access gaps and affordability challenges. This dynamic leaves families in difficult positions as they make trade-offs about care decisions or leave the workforce altogether. The adverse effects trickle over into the business community, costing employers billions in recruitment challenges, absenteeism and high turnover rates.
Nobel Laureate James Heckman has found a 13% return on investment (ROI) for high-quality birth-to-five early childhood interventions. That means that for every dollar spent, we get a 13% return per child per year, and the returns compound over time.
High-quality early interventions generate returns by touching every corner of kids’ lives, for the rest of their lives. In middle childhood and adolescence, these programs improve children’s IQ and school achievement. In adulthood, they boost their health and income and reduce their likelihood of committing crimes. A recent study by Dr. Heckman found that one birth-to-five intervention increased disadvantaged children’s lifetime earning capacity by a whopping 25%.
Access to early care and education is vital to economic success – both for today’s generation of workers and tomorrow’s. So, what can you as an employer do to help your employees and your bottom line?
What can you do?
You may have seen first-hand how lack of access to quality child care has a direct impact on your employees, and, therefore, your business. Issues with child care can affect recruiting, retention, and employee productivity. So, what can you do to help solve these issues?
Understand your employee’s needs by having conversations with them about their current child care situation. You can begin these conversations with the employer survey.
Create a family-friendly work culture by incorporating supportive scheduling policies, creating lactation spaces for those that need them, and allowing time for parents to utilize the spaces during the workday without consequence. Flexible policies, particularly when it comes to remote work, is one of the most sought-after benefits for employees with children under five. When employees feel that they are seen as people, their engagement at work increases, along with your retention of them as an employee. Show your employees that you can care about them as a whole person: both an employee and a parent.
Incorporate family-friendly benefits into your compensation packages. This can include dependent care flexible spending accounts to allow employees to set aside tax-free funds to pay for child care; partnering with local, high-quality child care services to provide reduced tuition or reserved spaces for your employees; or help alleviate some of the cost of care by providing tuition reimbursement for families.
What’s the benefit?
Besides the economic impact, investing in early child care for employees allows employees to be present and more productive employees more often. Removing some of the barriers that employees face, especially in the first 5 years of their child’s life, can help reduce turnover for your company by keeping more employees in the workforce. Many employees end up leaving the workforce altogether due to child care challenges, like the cost of tuition or the impact it has on their attendance record at work. Investing in the work that early childhood professionals are doing allows employees to stay in the workforce, provides more affordable options for your employees, and invests in your local economy.
What are others in the community doing?
Early childhood education plays a vital role in our state, preparing children with critical learning experiences to support their development while supporting their families in working or seeking further education and training, ultimately improving their economic and social mobility. However, Hoosier families often face barriers in accessing child care due to local access gaps and affordability challenges. This dynamic leaves families in difficult positions as they make trade-offs about care decisions or leave the workforce altogether. The adverse effects trickle over into the business community, costing employers billions in recruitment challenges, absenteeism and high turnover rates.
Indiana created the Employer-Sponsored Child Care Fund, a $25 million program that provides seed funding for employers and local communities to expand employer-subsidized child care benefits to address growing local child care needs. Through the effort, the state hopes to increase child care access and support for working Hoosier families.
