In-house child care

jbanda

We are a manufacturing company with about 300 employees,our plant Manager just asked me about getting some information about in-house child care, and I have no idea where to start, anybody currently offering this benefit to your empoloyees and would like to share any ideas or suggestions.

thanks in advance.

Roberta

You should start with the "Human Services Department" or "Child and Family Services" in your state to get an idea of what the regulations and laws are. The start-up and staffing costs can be quite prohibitive. Another possibility may be to contract with an established daycare provider already in your area. If nothing else, perhaps the provider could give you some guidance and estimates on requirements and costs.

Also, you should be researching other childcare facilities and providers to get an idea of the "going rate" for child care in your area. If you go to the trouble of establishing a child care for your company, you want to make sure that employees are willing to use/pay for it. You might want to consider an employee survey to judge interest. For example, what would your employees consider a "fair" rate per day/week? How many children would be consistent?

Good luck!

bsa

Texas has a regulatory agency for daycare facilities. I don't know any specifics, but I understand that there are many, many rules. Roberta has the best idea to contact a local daycare for assistance. You might even make an offer to provide the space, if they would provide the expertise.

Human Resources Manager

In Minnesota, an in-house daycare facility is obligated to comply with the state requirements for either an in-home daycare provider or a large daycare provider (like a Kindercare or Children's World) depending on how many children would be involved. The restrictions are quite prohibitive and make the undertaking difficult and expensive. Good Luck!

System

With only 300 employees, I doubt it would be worth the trouble (and responsibility) of running a daycare center. Maybe you could accomplish the same thing by getting a nearby center to reserve spots for your employees.

James Sokolowski
Senior Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers

Gillian

We recently completed a work/life survey and had almost a 60 % response rate out of 375 employees. On the child care portion of the report the consultant recommended that we look at consortiums, partnerships, referral services etc. It was stated in the report that we were "too small" to make an in house child care center cost effective.

Rockie

You would be much better off to contract services with a local day care enter. The expense is great and the liability enormous if you try to run your own day care center. I worked at a hosptal with 1600 employees and we could not justify what it would cost to set up a center and pay liability insurance.

moneyman

We looked into this years ago (I don't remember the resources) but we discovered that the liability insurance was astronomical to have a daycare facility on the premises. It was a nice idea, but wouldn't be worth the price to accomodate a few employees.