Child care is undeniably in crisis in the state of Kansas. Child care providers are struggling to make their own ends meet, resulting in higher costs of the services they provide. Families are struggling to afford these costs, and are thus forced to make the decision whether to stay home with their children, sacrificing income, or contributing exceedingly large portions of their paychecks solely to care for their children. In fact, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics declared that approximately 100,000 people in the United States are forced to make this decision every month, choosing to stay home and missing out on vital income in an increasingly tumultuous economy.
It is not only families, however, that feel the sting of this child care crisis. Businesses are also forced to contend with the fact that, because their employees are unable to access affordable, high-quality care for their children, they are forced to stay home or call in, resulting in disrupted operations for the businesses for which they work. Not only are business operations disrupted, but this has the potential for negative impacts on profit, as well as employee recruitment and retainment. Businesses in Kansas want to tackle this issue, not just for the sake of families, but for the sake of their ability to stay competitive and profitable in these unsteady times. It has become clear that, in order to maintain equilibrium and positive growth, businesses must assist families by investing in and offering child care benefits.
The mission of Child Care Aware of Kansas is to be a resource for families seeking child care, but the resources we provide go beyond just that of the family unit. Our agency seeks to create a central hub for child care resources that can be accessed by families and the communities in which they live, and by extension, the places that employ them. As such, we have created the Business Support Center, a new, online resource access point for businesses to find inspiration, information, and instruction on how to attain child care benefits.
In an effort to understand exactly what resources businesses need, Child Care Aware sat down with five representatives from five businesses in Kansas. These representatives shared their experiences in obtaining and implementing child care benefits for their employees. These businesses range from small, family-owned steel manufacturers to a school district, and this variety of perspective offered Child Care Aware of Kansas significant insight into what it is currently like for businesses to obtain child care benefits, the challenges they face, the triumphs they have experienced, and the resources from which other businesses like them will benefit.
Child Care Benefits
The businesses represented in these interviews offer a variety of child care benefits for their employees, thereby offering a unique perspective from their own accounts. Denise Juenemann, the director of a child care facility developed by Citizens Clubhouse, an extension of Citizens Medical Center in Colby, shared that this child care facility was created as a way to offer affordable, nontraditional child care hours to hospital employees. Clark Balderson, CFO and Chairman of the Board of Dymax, a heavy steel fabrications manufacturer in Wamego, offers a one-to-one contributions program for his employees, matching up to $2,500 a year for each participating employee.
At Salina Regional Health Foundation, an extension of Salina Regional Health Center, Marla McElderry, Executive Director, discussed the two benefits they offer employees: One, a child care center that offers employees a first opportunity at availability and then opens that availability up to the greater community of Salina. The second benefit is a FLEX plan for child care, in which employees can enroll for a contribution program in which SRHF reimburses employees $100 a month.
Nicki Englund, the program director of Top Flight Kids Learning Center, a child care center in Olathe, shared that their facility has partnered with the Federal Aviation Administration, and that they offer to pay for either half of their health insurance, make a contribution to an IRA, or to pay for half the price of their employees’ child care. Finally, at USD 405 in Lyons, Superintendent Bill Day gave insight into his district’s child care benefits program, which offers a weekly child care reimbursement for employees, totaling $1,000 per child, per school year.
Each of these businesses faced their own unique sets of challenges and successes, but their desire for resources was seen across the board. Among the most pressing challenges for each of these businesses, high costs, an unguided navigation process, and a need for a concentrated center of resources were among the most prevalent. Each business did confirm, however, that even with these challenges, the pursuit of obtaining child care benefits for their employees was a worthwhile venture.
It is the aim of Child Care Aware of Kansas to better understand what inspired these businesses to seek out child care benefits, as well as how they weighed the costs and long-term rewards. This understanding will help us to better provide resources that counterbalance the weight of the costs, as well as prove the relief of the benefits.
Challenges in the Process
For Citizens Clubhouse, Dymax, and USD 405, the catalyst for their decision to seek out child care benefits was a direct result of issues surrounding employee recruitment and retention. Juenemann of Citizens Clubhouse shared that the hospital by which her program is run noticed that many nurses were being “forced” to stay home or call in due to a lack of child care. She said, “It affects their entire life… It’s very, very stressful.” Dymax’s Balderson echoed this, stating that the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted employee recruitment, and that he was seeking a way for his business to be a desirable place of employment and to remain competitive in the marketplace. Day, Superintendent of USD 405, stressed the great need for teacher recruitment in the state of Kansas, sharing that there are currently as many as 1,000 teacher openings in the state. He wanted to find a way to make USD 405 stand out as an employer, and he found that offering child care benefits would do just that.
For most of these businesses, obtaining child care benefits was a self-guided process. While Salina Regional Health Foundation and Citizens Clubhouse had access to the existing benefits network and funding of their respective programs, others did not have the guidance of experts in the field of benefits to help them navigate this process. Day of USD 405 said that his process began with an internet search, and that internet search led to a months-long self-guided tour of the many ways that he could go about procuring child care benefits.
Dymax’s Balderson also felt as though he was on his own in his research, sharing, “I didn’t hit dead ends, I hit misleading ends.” He found the resources that most frequently came up in his search to be very broad, and that step-by-step instructions would have been invaluable. “[Small businesses] don’t have endless resources to figure it out,” he said. Some, like Top Flight Kids Learning Center, had “somebody willing to dig deep” to make these benefits a possibility, according to Englund, but even those willing to put in the effort are frequently overwhelmed by the challenge of navigating an unfamiliar system.
Even with the support of their existing network, Salina Regional Health Foundation and Citizens Clubhouse found themselves building their own template for obtaining child care benefits. McElderry, Executive Director of Salina Regional Health Foundation, shared, “We made it up ourselves, on the fly,” but that they were able to look to others for guidance and modeling. It remains no easy task, however, and Juenemann of Citizens Clubhouse stressed the time-consuming nature of navigating the system, saying, “I honestly do not think that you can get something like this done without hiring somebody to have their entire workload be [this process].” Though some businesses may have the ability to maintain a position for this role, smaller businesses with less funding find themselves struggling to keep up with the workload required to navigate this process, and as Balderson stressed, that is not possible for every business.
The process of obtaining and implementing child care benefits were certainly challenging for each of these businesses, and the unfamiliarity of this process with little-to-no guidance or resources made it even more difficult. Not only was the navigation a challenge, but each of the interviewed representatives stressed that the cost of child care benefits are high.
For Balderson, who employs approximately 70 people at Dymax, the cost comes out to $2,500 a year for each participating employee. “If you’ve got 10 people participating, that’s $25,000 a year [in cost to Dymax],” he said. For many small businesses, $25,000 a year is a significant financial investment.
For USD 405, the investment is $1,000 per child per school year, and requires the reallocation of the district’s resources to fund that investment. For larger businesses like Salina Regional Health Foundation, the costs of building a child care center was even greater. Not only do they cover the rent for the center, but they also cover the cost of maintenance, janitorial services, and other needs for the facility.
In addition to these costs, during the first three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Salina Regional Health Foundation allocated $150,000 each year to supplement the wages of the center’s staff, so that the facility could remain up and running during that time. No matter the size of the business, “You have to go into it expecting… to be at a loss every year, if you truly want to make it a benefit,” according to Juenemann. While there is significant financial cost up front, however, these businesses see the positive, long-term implications of financing child care benefits for employees.
Compounding Benefits
The rewards of offering child care benefits to employees are undeniable for these businesses. Each of these representatives shared that child care benefits were primarily used as a recruitment tool, but they have seen further benefits for the businesses themselves in terms of retention, profit, company culture, and community impact. Juenemann, McElderry, Englund, and Day each expressed that they have seen that offering child care benefits helps them to stay competitive in their respective fields, as it incentivizes potential employees to align themselves with companies that will help ease the burden of child care. McElderry shared that the Salina Regional Health Center, which houses the Salina Regional Health Foundation, has had a marked impact on physician and nurse recruitment at the hospital. Englund saw an increase in the employment of single parents, and disclosed that, upon discovering the new child care benefits that Top Flight Kids Learning Center offers, former employees reapplied to work at the center so that they might take advantage of those benefits.
Not only are these benefits attracting new recruits, but they are also incentivizing existing employees to stay with these businesses. Englund shared that her employees are “appreciative of the ease” that child care benefits provide, and Day confirmed this, sharing that he predicts that offering child care benefits will increase the “longevity” of teacher employment in his district. Juenemann offered insight into the relief that child care benefits offered existing employees at Citizens, and shared that some employees were not only able to stay at their jobs, but were able to increase their working hours. She said, “We’ve seen several people go from PRN to full-time. That was an amazing impact, to go from having one to two days of being able to work, to working full time.” Without these benefits, these employees would not be able to maintain these hours.
Juenemann continued, “Several of those families have made comments like, ‘If we didn’t have access to high-quality child are, we might have chosen to stay home with our kids.’” Balderson also shared that, as Dymax is a small business, retention of existing employees and creating longevity in their careers is a necessity. Of the retention that these benefits encourage, he shared, “It’s helping [employees] immensely.”
With a steady, consistent staff of employees, businesses are better able to operate reliably, therefore encouraging positive, sustainable, profitable growth. Juenemann shared that reframing the investment of child care benefits helped her to see it as a necessary cost. “It doesn’t necessarily make you money [immediately],” she said, “But it keeps the retention of your associates,” which ultimately leads to profitable outcomes. By “viewing it as a benefit and not so much as a cost,” Juenemann expressed, businesses can see that it is an investment in overall profit, rather than as a temporary loss of existing funds.
Balderson broke down this investment by calculating the total cost to Dymax every year, and then compared that cost to the overall profit made by retaining employees. Because Dymax matches contributions up to $2,500 per employee, he calculated that if 10 employees were to make those contributions, it would cost Dymax $25,000 a year. However, he took into account the profit that results from one employee. He said, “On average, one of our production workers produces goods that we ship of about $500,000 a year.” According to Balderson, if 6 of those 10 employees participating in the child care benefits program are production workers, “That’s 3 million bucks. If I don’t have those people, what’s my lost profit? It’s way more than $25,000.” These profit margins are undeniably worth the effort to retain employees by offering child care benefits.
In addition to recruitment, retention, and profit, these businesses see the implementation of child care benefits as an opportunity to, as Balderson called it, “a company culture.” He, specifically, saw a quick turnaround in employee morale when these benefits were introduced. “We’ve got some employees that, before this… [were] seemingly unsatisfied,” Balderson divulged. “Several of those have fully changed their tune.” Englund attributes this positive company culture to the valuation of employees. She shared, “We just try to make sure that [employees] realize how important they are… Every person here is what makes Top Flight what it is, and obviously, benefits are a big part of that.” Englund believes that benefits are a way to thank employees for their service. “I want the staff to always feel valued,” she said. This value not only encourages employees to continue with their place of employment, but also makes that place of employment a positive environment in which to work.
Beyond the immediate environment of these businesses, there is a noticeable impact on the communities in which they operate. By offering child care benefits to employees, those employees are able to work more reliably, increasing their own income, which is then distributed locally and beyond. In addition to a positive economic impact, businesses like Citizens Clubhouse and Salina Regional Health Foundation have found that, by opening child care centers to serve their employees, according to Juenemann, they are creating more availability in the already strained facilities that serve the community at large.
By offering a place for the children of employees to attend, community child care providers are able to have greater availability for other families who desperately need it, and these facilities also open more child care slots to community members outside of their businesses. By increasing the overall availability of child care in the community, more families are able to access safe, reliable, high-quality child care.
Additionally, McElderry shared that, by offering child care benefits to the employees of Salina Regional Health Foundation, they have been able to strengthen the effectiveness of their organization, whose mission is to “expand, manage, and distribute assets to improve the health of [the] regional community.” The model that Salina Regional Health Foundation built has already been of great help to the community, as another prevalent local business has seen their sustainable model and implemented similar child care benefits for their own employees. This implementation proves the model built by Salina Regional Health Foundation is a sustainable, community-wide benefits model. Through the acquisition and implementation of child care benefits, businesses are better able to serve and support their local communities.
Business Needs
Because these businesses largely had to navigate child care benefits without assistance, their representatives were well aware of exactly what would have helped their process, and what would be of use to other businesses who are seeking child care benefits for their employees. Above all, these representatives expressed a need for a manual or guide for those beginning the process. Balderson shared that “step-by-step help” would be invaluable, and Juenemann agreed. Though Citizens Clubhouse created a to-do list that helped them through their process, she stated that a comprehensive list of what businesses need to do to get started and to navigate each stage of the process would be particularly helpful. Englund also felt that researching child care benefits can be overwhelming, and having a resource that outlines exactly what businesses should be researching would be of great benefit. Juenemann shared that having a resource for accessing grants would have been helpful in their initial process, as well.
Additionally, Day shared that having a central resource for forms, policies, regulations, and other necessary checklist items would help other school districts like his, as well as businesses in other fields, to know exactly what is expected at each point in the process of obtaining and implementing child care benefits.
These representatives also shared that knowing what other businesses are doing to utilize child care benefits and the impact that they have would serve as inspiration and guidance. Balderson said, “Show them the benefit, then show them how to do it… Think entrepreneurially!” McElderry agreed, sharing that having insight into what other businesses are doing and what their success stories are would help others learn and find sustainable models that suit their specific needs. Day believes that categorizing a variety of businesses who have implemented child care benefits would also be helpful. He said, “[Put] together a list of people who are doing different things and divide it into categories of commercial, industrial, schools, government, [etc.]” so that businesses can intentionally look for others like them, and then see what has worked well in that field.
Business Support Center
Child Care Aware of Kansas has heard the voices of Kansan businesses of all fields, and we see what kind of good that employee child care benefits are already doing in the state. We believe that there is potential for a greater reach of these benefits, and our aim is to aid in that reach. We hope that, through our plan to offer a Business Support Center as a central child care benefits resource hub for businesses in Kansas, that we can support both families and businesses in accessing affordable, high-quality child care. The Business Support Center will be a convenient location for businesses to begin their research, to find inspiration from other businesses like theirs, and to access a variety of resources necessary for obtaining child care benefits for their employees.
As is evidenced by the experiences of Citizens Clubhouse, Dymax, Salina Regional Health Foundation, Top Flight Kids Learning Center, and USD 405, child care benefits help businesses stay competitive and relevant, aid in employee recruitment and retention, assist in sustainable, profitable growth, build positive company culture, and increase the effectiveness of business operations. In the midst of the child care crisis, there is hope for families and businesses, and we are working toward solutions that positively impact both.
