@ Daycare center at work?

[ChillyMcFreeze]

I feel like this is a more appropriate place than regular randoms... My work friends had a farewell lunch for our friend who is due in 1 week. Tomorrow is her last day because the admin couldn't seem to work with her on childcare/hours/etc. it's deplorable to me that they couldn't come up with any workable plan. So over lunch, we just kind of decided to propose implementing a daycare on campus. (We're tiny--only 200 employees--but many are young women and we have lots of students with kids.)

do any of you have a daycare at a comparable sized company? What works and what doesn't? Any advice to get this off the ground?

[bears]

I know it was proposed at one of my previous employers and they said it wasn't feasible due to liability/insurance costs.

[mich1]

Mar 26, 2015 19:04:56 GMT -5 bears said:

I know it was proposed at one of my previous employers and they said it wasn't feasible due to liability/insurance costs.

Yep, I heard this more than once.

[karinothing]

I started the process at my work, but I work for the feds and we have a set step by step program to have one at your agency. Here is a link to our process, it might be somewhat applicable to the private sector. www.gsa.gov/graphics/pbs/startupguide.pdf

[ChillyMcFreeze]

Mar 26, 2015 19:04:56 GMT -5 bears said:

I know it was proposed at one of my previous employers and they said it wasn't feasible due to liability/insurance costs.

Thanks, that's something to consider.

[StrawberryBlondie]

It's been proposed many times at my company of 5000+ employees and is shot down every single time.

[Deleted]

Mar 26, 2015 19:31:28 GMT -5 @soudesafinado said:

A bunch of us fought the good fight for this when our new building was under construction and lost. Nevermind that we are a 24-hour organization, with odd-hour shifts and at least half of us are deemed essential during snowstorms, meaning bring yo' ass to work.

But but but you work for granolaville!

[twotrue]

We have a daycare at my work and I also won a business plan competion with a business plan for starting a green/eco friendly daycare. The big hurdle will be regulations. My employer, while a nonprofit has a school and is already used to many state regs. Essentially your employer will be setting up a small business. The one at my work (which I used when DD was born and until she was about 15m) has only two rooms. Birth to 18m and then 18m to 5y (or kinder) so it doesn't take up too much space. In NY all daycares must have outdoor space. The daycare has its own dedicated play area seperate from the rest of the school. My employer actually wants to provide a daycare at our secondary office but there is not green/outdoor space available (think strip mall type building). In NY daycares also can't be in buildings that were ever used for dry cleaning, gas, etc. It's unlikely your company is in one of those types of buildings but you might want to check. There could be regulations that it needs to be a certain distance from certain things (like here I think there is a rule about gas stations). If you find the physical building wouldn't pass the most basic regs than unfortunately it might not be worth the fight. On the other hand if your employer has the potential to run the daycare at an offsite but near by location than that might solve some potential issues. Keep me posted on how this goes! The day I won the business competition was the day I found out I was pregnant with twins so starting the business just didn't seem feasible at that time. Someday I'd love to do it though.

[2curlydogs]

The only place I know of that does something like this around here is SC Johnson. And it's not attached to their main campus but at a separate facility. You have to pay, too. It's not like it's rolled in. But I think it's cheaper than the better alternatives around.

Even H's employer, for all their incredible perks, doesn't do this.

[ChillyMcFreeze]

I'll get it out of the way that I don't have high hopes. We can't even pay our own people adequately, never mind create a position for a daycare manager. What I'm hoping for is to open the admins' eyes that they employ a whole lot of women of childbearing age, so they need to make these issues a priority. It's a shame how many of your big orgs have shut down this idea.

[twotrue]

You may want to get HR in on this. My HR department uses the daycare as a huge selling point to people. Yes, we pay for it, but it's still less expensive than many options. Your HR managers might see the benefit in terms of recruitment.

[pumpkincat]

We have a daycare onsite that is run by Bright Horizons. They cover all of the dealing with regulations stuff that needs to happen (with assistance from our company for infrastructure stuff). It's still pretty pricy to use.
There are a few benefits. I like that I can pop in at any time. Nursing mom's can go down and nurse and go back to work instead of having to pump. They do direct debit from our paychecks.

Now there are a few downsides too... One, if your kids ends up being a biter, they're not biting some random kid, they could be biting a coworkers kid. Awkward. We had layoffs a few months ago. This caused two problems. Some of my son's best friends immediately had to leave. They also had to have extra security on site in case someone went nuts..they had extra security at the daycare, which was great, but also caused some anxiety that I hadn't thought of when placing him there.

[nikki25]

 I work for the government and we just built a new 100+++ million dollar justice center and sooo many of us proposed for this exact concept. Honestly, most of the employees are women and women with children. It would alleviate so many time contrainsts and other very ordinary issues with daycare off premise especially since many have very strict/normal hours where it would just make sense and I am sure very cost effectively for the gov. But, no, the commissioners and state shot it down but don't worry they had enough funds to fucking fly in Italian marble from Italy whiling failing to provide..umm...handicap access among other major ADA violations. But, you know, Italian marble makes for such a great ice staking rink in the middle of winter with wet boots/shoes. Only 4 people have seriously harmed themselves in the 7 weeks we opened  I fucking hate that place. Maybe it is best there is no daycare, lol.

[msmerymac]

My mother works in early childhood Ed and once ran a corporate center. At a company that was rather larger, though.

It was actually run by (and she was an employee of) another company, but it Eason site and all spots were for the company.

Another option would be to find a nearby center and see if you can contract with them to reserve spots for your company, and maybe see if the center can work hours around yours.

[meij]

I worked at one (large employer in a small city) but the actual company really had nothing to do with the center. We were managed and funded through the school district and one of the hospitals. I was considered an employee of the school distrct.

There was no discount to employees using the center, just convenience factor of being on campus. Maybe there is a way to have something on campus but managed by an outside company.

[StrawberryBlondie]

My DD goes to a daycare that's on a corporate campus. I think 99% of the kids that go there work at said company or my company.

In DD"s day care's case, its entirely about convenience for the employees of said company. Its not cheaper or anything.

[Deleted]

DH's company has this at his office location. It is run by Bright Horizons and was the most expensive option of any we saw.

[origami]

Mar 26, 2015 19:18:42 GMT -5 ChillyMcFreeze said:

Mar 26, 2015 19:04:56 GMT -5 bears said:

I know it was proposed at one of my previous employers and they said it wasn't feasible due to liability/insurance costs.

Thanks, that's something to consider.

ours was denied because we wanted to use part of our existing facilities, but the rules for DCs meant that they would have had to add doors/walls in certain places and remove them elsewhere. so basically the costs for becoming code compliant were too much.

[MDmomof2]

I honestly think it's great that you are trying this, but a day care center at work is going to be a tough hill to climb. Can you start smaller by proposing family-friend policies such as work from home options or flexible hours?

[Deleted]

My H works for a early childhood center run by the parent company. It's purely seen by the company as a benefit to employees to recruiting/retention. They definitely make absolutely NO $$ off of the center, it's probably technically a loss. His company has opened 2 centers for their employees now, and they both have 12 month waiting lists, so they definitely are something employee's want.

But like PP posters said, between liability/insurance and the cost of finding and maintaining good teachers, it can be very expensive.

[karinothing]

Oh also, one thing that DH's old work used to have was an on sight nanny. They employees hired a nanny and she was given a large corner office that was set up like a playroom/daycare center. So she just watched the kids there during the day. They were all infants I think. Might be an option

[ringstrue]

I'm in an office park and there is one here that I used to use. I wonder if an alternative would be to attract a daycare close to your work and setup some sort of partnership?

[delawarejen]

We had a Bright Horizons for years, but it's closed now. They opened a new one down the road that's open to the public, but our employer was able to negotiate some perks at the new place (preferential placement, an earlier opening time to accommodate our shifts). It was popular, with about a year wait list for infant spots, and they were less likely to close for bad weather. It was pretty expensive though. There would also be issues with having coworkers as fellow parents. Ours didn't offer before/aftercare or summer care for school aged children.

[msmerymac]

Mar 27, 2015 5:40:08 GMT -5 @mrsspunky said:

DH's company has this at his office location. It is run by Bright Horizons and was the most expensive option of any we saw.

All Bright Horizons locations are expensive, but the programs are good, and so are the wages, which means they attract quality employees. 

[wawa]

Re: Bright Horizons - my employer offers a perk through them of 10 backup care days per year which has been AMAZING. That might be something else to pursue for people pushing employers to be more family friendly. It's very much a win-win type situation, since it takes the stress out of random daycare closings for us (like when my DCP is sick or closed for a weird holiday that not all centers close for. Like ALL OF SPRING BREAK.) and means for my employer that those are 10 days that I'm in the office when otherwise either MH or I would have to be home.

They're fantastic to work with from my side. No idea how much effort or expense is involved in setting up the benefit from the employer side.

solutionsatwork.brighthorizons.com/employer-back-up-child-care/back-up-child-care

They have a bunch of materials to help make the argument to your employer on there.

I am really curious what the existing schedule was for your colleague that is leaving though - like what accommodations did she need from the admin in order to return to work that they couldn't offer her? I take it your in a non-typical 9-5er type field?

[swsaradee]

Bright Horizons operates the children's center here in my building. Most people do not realize that the company actually subsidizes the operation of the center. We pay anywhere from $8K to $20K per month to offer it to our employees.

[ChillyMcFreeze]

Mar 27, 2015 9:51:59 GMT -5 MDmomof2 said:

I honestly think it's great that you are trying this, but a day care center at work is going to be a tough hill to climb. Can you start smaller by proposing family-friend policies such as work from home options or flexible hours?

That's actually what I'm hoping for. My colleagues want to pursue the daycare idea, and great for them, but I just hope to start a discussion about becoming a family-friendly workplace. And considering the nature of my work (which I've disclosed but don't want to broadcast), you would think that would be a no-brainer.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Mar 27, 2015 13:13:38 GMT -5 wawa said:

Re: Bright Horizons - my employer offers a perk through them of 10 backup care days per year which has been AMAZING. That might be something else to pursue for people pushing employers to be more family friendly. It's very much a win-win type situation, since it takes the stress out of random daycare closings for us (like when my DCP is sick or closed for a weird holiday that not all centers close for. Like ALL OF SPRING BREAK.) and means for my employer that those are 10 days that I'm in the office when otherwise either MH or I would have to be home.

They're fantastic to work with from my side. No idea how much effort or expense is involved in setting up the benefit from the employer side.

solutionsatwork.brighthorizons.com/employer-back-up-child-care/back-up-child-care

They have a bunch of materials to help make the argument to your employer on there.

I am really curious what the existing schedule was for your colleague that is leaving though - like what accommodations did she need from the admin in order to return to work that they couldn't offer her? I take it your in a non-typical 9-5er type field?

We have this too. Unfortunately for us, the facility that does the back up care is my DD's daycare.

[wawa]

Mar 27, 2015 18:08:27 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

Mar 27, 2015 13:13:38 GMT -5 wawa said:

Re: Bright Horizons - my employer offers a perk through them of 10 backup care days per year which has been AMAZING. That might be something else to pursue for people pushing employers to be more family friendly. It's very much a win-win type situation, since it takes the stress out of random daycare closings for us (like when my DCP is sick or closed for a weird holiday that not all centers close for. Like ALL OF SPRING BREAK.) and means for my employer that those are 10 days that I'm in the office when otherwise either MH or I would have to be home.

They're fantastic to work with from my side. No idea how much effort or expense is involved in setting up the benefit from the employer side.

solutionsatwork.brighthorizons.com/employer-back-up-child-care/back-up-child-care

They have a bunch of materials to help make the argument to your employer on there.

I am really curious what the existing schedule was for your colleague that is leaving though - like what accommodations did she need from the admin in order to return to work that they couldn't offer her? I take it your in a non-typical 9-5er type field?

We have this too. Unfortunately for us, the facility that does the back up care is my DD's daycare.

Huh. I'm allowed to use any bh approved center. Shorti goes to a non bh national chain for backup care.

[irishbride2]

Many of our local companies outsource to the ywca. The y runs in house daycares for companies.