Bottleneck: Caught between the Baby and the Briefcase

Ask a working parent about child care and you'll almost certainly hear tales of stress and logistical difficulties. Ask a business owner about child care and you'll hear about the toll that parental struggles and missed days takes on the bottom line, not to mention employee morale.

According

In a recent NH survey sponsored by Providian Financial Corporation, nearly 25 percent of parents reported that at least one parent had to quit a job or switch from fulltime to part-time work due to child care responsibilities.

With more than 73 percent of all NH women between the ages of 16 and 65 in the workforce according to the U.S. Census Bureau, an adequate child care system is becoming a basic pan of the state's business infrastructure. Belknap County businesses ranked child care right up with the adequacy of highways and roads and planning/zoning issues as the top three problems faced in their area in a survey conducted as part of a recent business visitation program.

THE CHILD CARE CRISIS

Child care difficulties and their impact on business have been magnified by the strong job market, As NH and the nation enjoy record. breaking employment, the demand for child care services is steadily rising. At the same time, the booming economy that provides so many jobs for working parents simultaneously siphons employees away from the low-paying child care industry to higher paying occupations.

Since parents typically pay 100 percent of the cost of child care, providers have little leeway to entice workers with higher wages or benefits that would increase rates. As it is, the average NH family spends 18 percent of its annual income on child care, according to the Providian survey.

Some centers and home-based providers are simply giving up the struggle to attract employees or make a decent profit, and are closing down. The NH Children's Lobby says the state lost 400 child care slots in the past year. Child care resource and referral networks are reporting serious shortages of available openings, particularly for infant care and care during nontraditional business hours.

"We've lost an employee recently because a child care provider closed down, and we almost lost another," says Matt Cookson, director of public affairs at PC Connection in Merrimack. "If child care needs are being met, it's just barely."

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

Child care dilemmas are nothing new. "Twelve years ago, we did our first survey about child care," says Katharine Eneguess, a vice president at the Business and Industry Association. "This is a third wave of discussion about what to do." The difference now, says Eneguess, is that all businesses more clearly understand the contribution that good child care makes to productivity.

Large employers led the way years ago in offering benefits, but smaller companies are now following suit with their own cost-efficient supports to parents.

"Small companies are getting very creative at managing work schedules," says Eneguess.

Small companies typically accommodate the needs of working parents on an ad hoc basis. If an employee needs to leave early, come in late, or stay home with a sick child, everyone else picks up the slack.

Most larger companies establish formal work/life benefits based upon employee polls. Source Electronics Corporation in Hollis hired a consultant to determine the benefits most needed by employees. The human resources department used the data to develop a benefits package that included everything from vision care to a subsidy to offset 25 percent of the cost of child care at an adjacent center. The company gave the independently operated center a start-up loan in 1997 after employees expressed an interest in on-site care.

JacPac Foods in Manchester was considering on-site day care until the company surveyed employees and discovered they didn't want it. "We found that employees preferred to leave children with family members or family providers," comments Chuck Hungler, senior VP at the company. Instead, JacPac helps employees make child care arrangements by referring them to FamilyWorks Child Care Resource and Referral, a program of Child and Family Services funded in part by the state's Department of Health and Human Services.

Any child care benefits, from simple solutions such as referral services, to carefully orchestrated flexible work schedules, help working parents. The biggest employer dividends, however, come from the most visible option: on-site care.

Schoolmusic.com in Amherst couldn't pay top dollar for highly-skilled staff, but it could offer employer-paid onsite child care. "We've attracted qualified employees specifically because of our child care benefit," says company President Julie Baker.

Similarly, Neil Kingston of Measured Progress in Dover has found his company's on-site day care gave him a competitive edge when recruiting nationally.

THE BIG PICTURE

Companies are now routinely offering benefits that working parents only dreamed of 10 years ago (see chart, page 14). But even that might not be enough. "Benefits are nice, but employees need to find child care first," laments Chris Pressey-Murray at The Child Care Project, a resource and referral agency in Hanover.

Some businesses are already taking steps to look beyond their own corporate needs to offer initiatives that will address the child care crisis in general.

Belknap County businesses have joined with social service organizations and other entities to study alternative methods of financing child care.

PC Connection has proposed a pilot program in Merrimack to address ways in which the community might best meet the needs of the child care industry. Providian Financial Corporation dedicated $5 million to improving child care in NH.

GOVERNOR'S COMMISSION

A portion of the Providian donation was used to establish the Governor's Business Commission on Child Care and Early Education. Gov. Shaheen established the commission in April 1998 to harness the resources and expertise of NH's business community to improve child care in the state. A group of 16 business leaders led by co-chairs Donna Lencki, former CEO of Healthsource NH Inc., and Kathy Bogle Shields, VP of community development for Providian Financial Corporation, worked for eight months to identify issues and make recommendations.

The commission concluded that NH businesses could help address the child care issue in two ways. "First, employers can offer family-friendly work policies that provide greater flexibility to working parents," the commission wrote in its report. "Second, business leaders can act as community resources to help local child care providers build their own capacity to deliver quality, affordable care."

The Business Partners for Child Care and Early Childhood Education was formed in February 2000 as a permanent entity that will enact the recommendations of the commission. According to Stefany Shaheen, interim director of the new organization, initial efforts will focus on two areas: recognition programs to encourage companies to help their own employees address child care issues and a "community ambassador" program to encourage partnerships between businesses and child care providers.

Few leaders envision companies coming out of the woodwork to give multi-million dollar donations or establish on-site day care centers. But most hope that the business community will step forward to offer its expertise and in-house resources to help child care providers stay in business and do their jobs better.

"Businesses can easily do in-kind contributions or let child care providers tap into their financial or human resources expertise," explains Lencki, a founding member of Business Partners for Child Care and Early Childhood Education. "We're looking at the simple things that businesses can do to help."