Durekas says that childcare programs may play a pivotal role. “Many companies are exploring innovative solutions to attract that talent,” she says. “A top aspect of that is an investment in early childhood education centers and benefits. These companies found that this kind of investment is important in order to retain and attract the type of leaders they were hoping to leverage in this environment.”

Childcare services can directly impact a company’s ability to hire, as Stanford University, one of CCLC’s clients, learned. “They have a large number of tenured professors who are retiring,” Durekas explains. “They had the foresight 4 years ago to make some decisions about how they’re going to be aging out these professors, and what their recruitment challenges were going to be.

“They needed to draw young professors, and most likely they’re going to have children. They asked, ‘How are we going to bring them to a community and a university where there is no availability of child care?’ So they built a new center specifically designed for faculty and post-doc and administration. We opened that center in September 2008.

“The focus was to attract new talent, mostly from the East coast. They’re competing in recruiting against Harvard, and Harvard has three onsite childcare centers. It’s really about looking at your competitive landscape.”

It is likely that many of your employees and recruits also have childcare needs. Durekas says that “14% of U.S. workers have children under the age of 6, prime years for needing childcare services. So 18% of employers with 1,500+ employees offer childcare onsite or near site, and 93% of employees say that childcare is an important factor in considering a job change.” And she offers the following eye-opening statistic: “$3 billion are estimated to be lost to U.S. companies each year due to childcare-related absences.”

Some employees do not have childcare needs and may resent company funds being spent on such services—especially now. “We do hear from those employees,” says Durekas. “I always ask them if they are happy that their manager is able to show up; or if they are a manager, are they happy their employees are showing up because this benefit is provided to their company. That really resonates with them, that childcare services are a benefit that doesn’t just impact people with children; it impacts the whole organization.”

Aim for Quality, Flexibility in Childcare

Durekas is quick to point out that there is a difference between child care and quality child care. When seeking a provider, she advises that you look for accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

She also suggests that program flexibility is important. At her Stanford University center, for example, the parents value learning through play: “They want to see less of an academic focus and more of a developmentally based focus. So you’re not going to see computers in the classrooms and a lot of math drills.

But at the Electronic Arts center, we have computers in the classrooms with very age-appropriate curricula and software that the children can use. The company wants to make sure children are exposed to the things that their parents are using every day, and computers are a very large component of that.”

True, most companies cannot afford to build and operate a company-owned childcare center. Even so, Durekas says, you can help parents with their childcare needs. Her company, and many others, offer backup child care for when a parent/employee’s regular provider is unable to provide care temporarily.

Smaller companies may also buy a number of spaces at another employer’s center, joining with other like-minded companies to create a quality program.