Workers’ childcare needs are increasing as they return to the office, and in turn some are looking to their employers to enhance caregiving benefits.
Nearly three-quarters (74%) of working parents are back in the office full-time or in a hybrid arrangement, according to a survey conducted by KinderCare late last year in partnership with Harris Poll. Some of these workers expect employers to offer caregiving benefits as they roll out RTO policies, with 44% wanting subsidized and 41% wanting on-demand childcare.
HR leaders can survey their employees ahead of a RTO to ensure they have the proper caregiving support in place, and consider remaining flexible for workers dealing with scheduling conflicts.
Employers bet on the office. A number of large employers, including JPMorgan, Amazon, AT&T, and Dell, have called workers back into the office five days a week in recent months.
These companies already provided childcare benefits, but have not detailed whether those perks will change or expand now that workers are back in the office.
In some cases the RTO policies have caused headaches for employees with childcare needs. When Dell told its sales team they were expected to adhere to a full-time RTO policy with only a few days’ notice, one employee told Business Insider he saw parents “freaking out.” Some workers told the publication they were worried about getting their kids into daycare or after-school programs that were already filled for the year.
How full-time RTO affects childcare needs. Upwards, which partners with employers to match employees with a network of caregivers, has seen firsthand how full-time RTO can complicate childcare arrangements, said co-founder and CEO Jessica Chang.
“We’ve seen parents scrambling to find childcare for early morning drop-offs,” she said, noting that employees’ needs may increase when they have to drive an hour to arrive at an office by 9am. Another mother she’d heard from had to find someone to take her kids to after-care because she could no longer do so herself.
Stricter schedules are making parents second-guess whether they can stay in the workforce, Chang said. “A lot of parents are asking themselves, ‘If I return back to work full time and I also have to pay more expensive childcare costs, is it worth it?’”
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As the workplace changes, HR leaders can expect the “support structure” their employees rely on to change as well, said Priya Krishnan, chief digital and transformation officer at Bright Horizons, which provides employer-sponsored childcare. One tool some employers are relying on to sweeten the deal for full-time RTO is on-site childcare, which typically involves a more significant investment.
“We’re seeing employers talk about [on-site childcare] as an amenity and an attraction tool to bring people back to work,” Krishnan said.
Since the pandemic, the way companies view childcare benefits has shifted from a “band-aid” solution to a “long-term play,” Chang said. To ensure employees are properly supported as they come back into the office, she recommended giving them plenty of time to absorb and plan for RTO. It’s also worth surveying employees “to really figure out what, truly, their caregiving responsibilities or challenges are, and then putting in that care support so that it's a gradual process.”
The ROI on childcare. It’s likely companies are feeling more emboldened to enforce strict RTO policies due to the current labor market, which is markedly cooler than it was in 2021 and 2022, when demand for workers pushed job openings and quit rates to record highs.
“The market has definitely turned,” said Rohshann Pilla, president of talent and recruiting firm Aquent Talent. “Employers know that, and that is why they’re taking the opportunity to do this, and they’re taking that risk,” she said of the shift to full-time RTO.
It’s worth noting that not every perk parents value is expensive. The most common benefit parents said employers should offer more to employees as they roll out RTO mandates was “flexible start and end times,” according to the KinderCare survey.
Pilla added she believes employers that continue to offer some degree of flexibility will have the upper hand in the talent market. Working parents, she said, “will prioritize flexibility over a base salary.”