It’s often overlooked, but childcare support has the potential to provide invaluable productivity growth and stability for businesses.
Childcare support is essential to any business, yet it's taken the pandemic to make us wake up to this. The Covid-19 pandemic shed an unforgiving light on childcare, magnifying existing barriers to access - from flexibility to affordability.
With recent coverage of surging work-life balance perks and early results from employers incorporating childcare into their hybrid working infrastructure, the potential for childcare to be a driver of continued growth and productivity enhancements is more evident than ever.
Why childcare needs to be prioritised
Working women, parents and mums have been speaking out, and there is strong consensus demanding of attention:
- In a study released earlier this year by Deloitte, 1 in 4 women agreed childcare support is the top benefit employers can provide to improve gender equality
- Research conducted by on-demand childcare provider, Bubble, found 96% of parents say it’s important or vital for their employer to offer childcare support
- It’s estimated that access to emergency childcare reduces childcare-related absenteeism by £568 per employee—with the potential to save the private sector £7.4bn yearly
What needs to change?
Without on-demand access to childcare, nine-to-five workdays remain in conflict with children’s schedules. As we have seen throughout the pandemic, hybrid and remote working options alone cannot solve the unique challenges working parents face.
Business leaders must be clear about why the introduction of childcare is a priority. Meeting employee demands for enhanced work-life balance and family support requires tangible benefits options, a more family-friendly culture, and improved data collection to inform continued strategy planning and decision making.
Discover the impact family support can have on your organisation, by accessing the downloadable report ‘The ROI of a Family Support Programme’ here.
