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The Bottom Line With Child Care
When parents can’t access or afford child care, they miss days at work, are forced to reduce their work hours, and experience extra stress — and our economy suffers. Employers can play an important role in pursuing solutions that help families and will benefit their bottom-line in long term. Family friendly policies — from flextime to providing onsite child care — help businesses find and keep the best workers.
Good For Employers
Businesses that adopt family friendly policies see an increase in:
– Employee engagement
– Employee retention
– Workplace productivity
Good For Employees
When your employer implements family friendly policies and practices, they communicate their support for you. This is a collaborative effort for all involved and, once a healthy system is in place, balancing the needs of work and family encourage everyone to recognize the benefits of a supportive, productive, and reliable workplace.
Good For The Economy
Business leaders understand the importance of child care to ensure a reliable and productive workforce. They also understand how family friendly investments today avoids workforce turnover tomorrow.
percent ROI for comprehensive, high-quality, birth-to-five early education
percent of Montana businesses say they cannot grow because of a lack of child care
percent of workers 40 and under would leave their jobs for one with more family-friendly benefits
dollars spent by some parents for one child’s annual care
percent of Montana counties are considered child care deserts, where less than a third of demand is being met
percent of parents say they missed time from work because of a child care related problem
million dollars -- the economic burden of inadequate child care in Montana from 2019 to 2028
percent of Montana businesses have a hard time recruiting and retaining a qualified workforce due to a lack of child care
Family Forward Montana
Family Forward Montana – one of Zero to Five Montana’s strategic initiatives — works to facilitate solutions to help employers, and their employees, find a pathway to achieving their best work. Employers can play an important role in pursuing solutions that help families and will benefit their bottom-line in long term. Family friendly business practices are workplace policies that help parents balance their work and family responsibilities. Some family friendly policies include flexible schedules, remote work options, offering a stipend for child care, or even providing on-site child care. Though all of these policies take some planning, they all contribute to an employer’s ability to recruit and retain the most qualified workers while supporting healthy families Want to learn more about becoming a family-friendly business?
Reach out to us at [email protected]!
Child Care is a Workforce Investment
Families and employers depend on quality child care to support parents returning to work, and to lay the foundation for tomorrow’s workforce. It is key to understand how investments in child care help support the school readiness of children, which increases the likelihood children will perform or exceed grade level expectations. This means higher high school graduation rates which translate to a well-educated workforce ready to support a strong economy.
Articles About the Economic Impacts of Child Care in Montana:
Montana's Economic Recovery Depends on Child Care
The Impacts of Child Care on the Montana Workforce
Lost Possibilities: The Impacts of Inadequate Child Care on Montana
Child Care as a Workforce Issue (presentation)
Child Care Deserts: An Analysis
Take Action to Improve
Outcomes for Children & Families
Child care is one of the bigger obstacles now in retaining and attracting a workforce,Â
it is becoming a struggle for a lot of employers and they’re not alone.
– Tracy D. McIntyre
Executive Director Montana Cooperative Development Center
You Can Make a Difference
We believe investing in our children today is the most important pathway to a healthy, thriving Montana tomorrow. Click the button below to learn more about how you can get involved.