Unreliable childcare is harming employee performance, driving demand for better benefits

Harrah recently spoke with HR Executive about her 20-year tenure with KinderCare and the increasing value of childcare benefits and employer support for working parents.

HR Executive: How does your own journey with KinderCare reflect the company’s investment in employee growth and mobility?

Harrah: One of the things that I love about KinderCare is that we have so many people on our leadership team who have grown up within the organization. When you think about what we do—educating children, supporting working families and moms—having that internal succession planning really helps us build a talented team.

I started my journey as a staff attorney and then, about 10 years in, moved into HR. I loved being a lawyer for the company for 10 years, but I love that in my seat in HR, we really get to care for the full circle of culture.

HR Executive: What are some of the greatest people transformations the organization has undergone in your time with KinderCare?

Harrah: The biggest transformation was about 14 years ago. We started a partnership with Gallup and what we call our engagement and culture journey. It started with really listening to our employees in a whole new way, saying, “What is it that you need from us? What can we do better?” We measured employee engagement using the Gallup engagement survey, and we do that every year. We action plan on it every year at every level in the organization.

When we first started, we had one actively disengaged employee for every actively engaged employee. Now, fast-forward, we have one actively disengaged employee for every 20 actively engaged employees. That’s a difference you can feel when you’re going into meetings, when you’re going into centers.

You have a team that’s actively running in the same direction. Prior to that journey, prior to really digging in and having conversations, KinderCare had a great mission and purpose, but we didn’t have the family culture we have today.

HR Executive: How is your team working to align the people and business strategies?

Harrah: It’s one of the gifts of what we do at KinderCare. We have about 40,000 teachers who are working to support children, educate children, support families every single day.

In HR, our job is to hire them, nurture them, train them, build benefits programs for them. Fundamentally, how our teachers show up, the continuity of care that they provide to our families and to our children ultimately is what drives growth in our organization. That happens through our teachers and our workforce, and that’s the bread and butter of what we do in HR every day.

HR Executive: How are you tending to the wellbeing of your employees and families?

Harrah: It’s critical to what we do. It’s been critical for a lot of years, but I think COVID caused us all to really understand just how important wellbeing is.

A couple of years ago, we gave free mental healthcare to all of our employees, regardless of whether or not you’re on our healthcare program. Just this last year, we expanded that to offer it to the families of our employees. When we think about what allows employees and team members to bring their whole selves to work, it is the security of knowing that your family members are in a good place.

On the family side, one of the things we’re having a lot of conversations about is the change in the workforce. You have more young families deciding to work part-time, working split shifts so they can have more time at home with their children. As we think about how we’re building our programs within KinderCare and within our centers, we’re spending a lot more time thinking about, what does a part-time offering look like? How do we support families and meet them where they are in this time of remote work, gig work? How can we shift how we operate to meet families where they are?

Related: Child care takes center stage as more parents return to office

HR Executive: What are the unique wellbeing considerations for a predominantly female workforce?

Harrah: About 95% of our teachers are women. One of the things we talk a lot about is having strong return-to-work practices. In the U.S., we talk a lot about family leave and the ability to take time away from work when you have a child, but we don’t talk as much about what it looks like when you return to the workforce.

One of the things that we offer is a very significant childcare discount to all of our employees—so that they can have confidence that their children are in a place where they are being educated and nurtured. Another very practical day-to-day practice that we have is really pausing and checking in with our teachers; they are on for eight hours a day with 2-year-olds. Our leadership team, our center directors are making sure that they’re checking in with their team throughout the day. Do you need a quick break? Do you need some time? Do you need to just run to the restroom, have a conversation with a co-worker? It’s being in tune with the basic needs of your team in the moment.

Harrah: As we partner with organizations to think about what they can offer in the form of a childcare benefit—by the way, about 80% of CHROs say that that is an increasingly important benefit in their portfolio—it is front and center with figuring out how to get individuals to get excited about coming back into the office. I think that’s one of the legacies of COVID.

HR Executive: Where do you see the broader conversation about childcare benefits headed?

The reality is that when many of us were working from home during COVID, we took a look at how our lifestyle shifted. I think for many people—and we hear about it almost daily from parents—it helped them realize the importance of having a place to have your children thrive, be educated. For others, there was some thought process on how do we adjust our schedules to maybe work four days a week, three days a week and then have some focus time at home with our family. That again is one of the things that we’re seeing, and we’re thinking about how to meet each individual family with the needs that they identified. I think COVID was one of those pause points where families really thought about, what is it that we want coming out of this?

HR Executive: As a parent yourself, what do you think are the most impactful ways employers can help their working parents feel seen?

Harrah: I love that you said “feel seen” because I do believe that is what offering a child care benefit of some sort does for your employee workforce. There’s a lot of conversation now about how do we help employees bring their full selves to work, their most productive selves? Part of that, if you’re a parent and I am—I have a 19-year-old and a 15-year-old, who both went to our programs themselves—part of bringing your whole, full self to work is the confidence that your children are thriving. I just read a quote about once you have kids, it’s like your whole heart is outside your body—and it does feel like that. So, in order to be your most productive, best self at work, you’ve got to feel like your children are thriving.

What we’re seeing from employers is a variety of things. One is offering a discount for high-quality, accredited childcare—and that’s a particularly strong way. If you have a dispersed workforce across the country, it’s an equitable way to offer a benefit. Others are taking it a step further and are looking for dedicated space in existing childcare centers; they have 10 to 30 seats that are for their employees to use for their children. Others are building on-site child cares, and that is a really incredible way to have your teams be able to both be at work but also have their children right there with them. In particular, for moms with infants, the ability to be able to nurse and have time with your infant on your break is pretty fantastic.