Steps Toward Balancing Work and Family
It's no secret that many parents are under intense pressure to balance their work and family obligations, pressure that results in everything from unscheduled absences to lower productivity. Employers have been seeking cost-effective ways to relieve such pressures, but solutions haven't come easily.
The problem is a global one. Most respondents in four global regions – including ten European countries, Russia, Japan and the United States - ranked achieving work/life or work/family balance either first or second among five job factors, the others of which were enjoyable work, job security, compensation and amenable coworkers. But U.S. workers, few of whom have access to government-sponsored child care, are particularly eager for help. A Business Week survey found that 90% of U.S. respondents think employers should take immediate steps to provide more work/family assistance.
There may be some good business reasons for providing such help. About one fifth of unscheduled absences are related to family matters, according to CCH's "Unscheduled Absence Survey." The same survey shows that HR professionals rank work/life programs as the best way of preventing absences.
Moreover, employers that help their employees find good child care may reap productivity gains, suggests a study of the efforts of the American Business Collaboration (ABC) for Quality Dependent Care, a business alliance for improving dependent-care opportunities. A survey of employees working at ABC-member companies found that 63% of the workers believe that their productivity is up because of the childcare programs that their employers provide.
Child care is, in fact, the core problem for many working parents, largely because of the expense. A recent study from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a liberal think tank, reports that fully 29% of U.S. working families with one to three children under the age of 12 do not earn enough income to consistently afford necessities such as food, housing, health care and child care. Placing a child in a daycare center full time can easily run $4,000-$10,000 a year, a figure clearly beyond the means of many low-wage families, even those with two working parents. "In 49 states, childcare costs are greater than the tuition of public colleges," states the EPI.
Even when they're able to find affordable child care, parents worry about its quality. Experts estimate that most U.S. children are in childcare situations that could be rated only poor or mediocre.
In the U.S., Ford Corporation has recently moved to the forefront of this issue. "It's leading the way," says Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute, in the New York Times. "It pulls a lot of things together in a more comprehensive way than a lot of companies are doing." The Times reports that "Ford's plan is widely viewed as the most comprehensive effort by an American corporation to help rank-and-file workers handle the balancing act."
Ford plans to create 30 Family Service and Learning Centers, which will contain high-quality child care, before- and after-school care, pre-teen and teen programs, adult and family education classes, wellness programs, and support networks to link workers, retirees, and families with community groups. The centers – which stem from a 1999 national contract between Ford and the United Auto Workers – will be available to over 300,000 people, including salaried employees. "Clearly, we see it as a competitive advantage," says Dennis Cirbes, Ford's director of corporate labor affairs. "We see these centers now and in the future as helping us be an employer of choice."
Ford's example may set a new standard in this area, boosting the supply of quality child care in the U.S. Such programs may also inspire social debates. "There's always been a gap between large firms and small enterprises with regard to health insurance coverage and pensions, and now we're seeing it with child care," says Sheila Kamerman of Columbia University's Institute on Child and Family Policy. In the future, childcare advocates may use such programs to highlight the gap between the childcare haves and have-nots in the U.S.
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For more on Ford's Family Service and Learning Centers, see
http://www.familycenteronline.org
To learn more about the American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care, see
http://www.abcdependentcare.com/
For more on the Families and Work Institute, see
http://www.familiesandworkinst.org/
To read the EPI's report on the hardships facing U.S. working families, see
http://www.epinet.org/press%20releases/hardships.html
The problem is a global one. Most respondents in four global regions – including ten European countries, Russia, Japan and the United States - ranked achieving work/life or work/family balance either first or second among five job factors, the others of which were enjoyable work, job security, compensation and amenable coworkers. But U.S. workers, few of whom have access to government-sponsored child care, are particularly eager for help. A Business Week survey found that 90% of U.S. respondents think employers should take immediate steps to provide more work/family assistance.
There may be some good business reasons for providing such help. About one fifth of unscheduled absences are related to family matters, according to CCH's "Unscheduled Absence Survey." The same survey shows that HR professionals rank work/life programs as the best way of preventing absences.
Moreover, employers that help their employees find good child care may reap productivity gains, suggests a study of the efforts of the American Business Collaboration (ABC) for Quality Dependent Care, a business alliance for improving dependent-care opportunities. A survey of employees working at ABC-member companies found that 63% of the workers believe that their productivity is up because of the childcare programs that their employers provide.
Child care is, in fact, the core problem for many working parents, largely because of the expense. A recent study from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a liberal think tank, reports that fully 29% of U.S. working families with one to three children under the age of 12 do not earn enough income to consistently afford necessities such as food, housing, health care and child care. Placing a child in a daycare center full time can easily run $4,000-$10,000 a year, a figure clearly beyond the means of many low-wage families, even those with two working parents. "In 49 states, childcare costs are greater than the tuition of public colleges," states the EPI.
Even when they're able to find affordable child care, parents worry about its quality. Experts estimate that most U.S. children are in childcare situations that could be rated only poor or mediocre.
In the U.S., Ford Corporation has recently moved to the forefront of this issue. "It's leading the way," says Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute, in the New York Times. "It pulls a lot of things together in a more comprehensive way than a lot of companies are doing." The Times reports that "Ford's plan is widely viewed as the most comprehensive effort by an American corporation to help rank-and-file workers handle the balancing act."
Ford plans to create 30 Family Service and Learning Centers, which will contain high-quality child care, before- and after-school care, pre-teen and teen programs, adult and family education classes, wellness programs, and support networks to link workers, retirees, and families with community groups. The centers – which stem from a 1999 national contract between Ford and the United Auto Workers – will be available to over 300,000 people, including salaried employees. "Clearly, we see it as a competitive advantage," says Dennis Cirbes, Ford's director of corporate labor affairs. "We see these centers now and in the future as helping us be an employer of choice."
Ford's example may set a new standard in this area, boosting the supply of quality child care in the U.S. Such programs may also inspire social debates. "There's always been a gap between large firms and small enterprises with regard to health insurance coverage and pensions, and now we're seeing it with child care," says Sheila Kamerman of Columbia University's Institute on Child and Family Policy. In the future, childcare advocates may use such programs to highlight the gap between the childcare haves and have-nots in the U.S.
====================================================
For more on Ford's Family Service and Learning Centers, see
http://www.familycenteronline.org
To learn more about the American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care, see
http://www.abcdependentcare.com/
For more on the Families and Work Institute, see
http://www.familiesandworkinst.org/
To read the EPI's report on the hardships facing U.S. working families, see
http://www.epinet.org/press%20releases/hardships.html