My Company Went viral for Offering Our Employees Free Child Care. It should be the norm. – ryan

Well she had her first child, Taylor Capuano Found Herself Bringing inly a Couple of Hundred Dollars (AFTER Accounting for Her Child Care Costs) Despite Working As A Senior-Level Marketer. Its Little Wonder; Acciting to the US Department of Labor‘S Statistics from 2022, Families Across the Nation Spent anywhere from $ 6,552 to $ 15,600 annually on full-time day care for just one child. Fast-forward Three Years and Those Costs Have Risen, With some estimates Bringing it to upwards of $ 36,000. This reality MANY MANY-DAY PARENTS STRUGGling to pay for child care. It also means that for MANY, the most cost-effective option in two-pahet Households is for one parent to stay while the other works-something isn’t is an option for single-part Households.

By the time she welcomed her second child, capuano and her sister, casey capuano sarai, Had founded the brand b-alternatives Body cakes. As moms and employers, the systems decided to make a $ 36,000 Annual Child Care Benefit ($ 3,000 per month) for all employs with children under public school age (typically 5, by the start of the School year). or Video of the Sisters Announcing The New Benefit to their team went viral in May, Ignating New Conversations About what businesses can do to maker their employs’ lives better. In this interview with Yahoo Life’s Priscilla Blossom, Capuano Shares How Her experience As a working mom inspired the move – and why she’s hearted to see her team take off to be with their kids.

When i first Became a mom, i was working full-time. It was during the start of Covid, so we were were all WORKING From Home, Which Made My Experience a Lot Easier. I wasn’t commuting into the office. I ALSO HAD More flexibility to go to doctor’s Appointments and Other Related Things.

My no at the time was supperive, though i think that had a lot to do with the pandemic. I remember the maternity leave policy involved partially paid time off for up to three or maybe four months. It was a reduced salary, SO i dream up taching six months off, which felt really important to my mental health. But Most of that time was unpaid, or at the least only party Paid, so finaniLy it was all that supportive. And i think that the norm, in the grand scheme of things. The Company Where I WORKED WORKED WAS PROBABLY ON THE BETTER SIDE OF THE SPECTRUM SPECTRUM, but I have felt like it was such a big stressor to take time off.

My sister and i started cakes body three years ago, and then we bith had babies in the last year. It was a very Different Experience Going Through it as an Employe of Cakes Versus as an Employee in Corporate America. I have a lot more financial freedom now. I ALSO HAVE A LOT More flexibility in terms of having the freedom to work be need to work and to be a present mom I need to be a present mom.

The situation inspired us to be able to offer this child care benefi was having babies ourselves, and seeing our juggling a tears of work of work. To go through that experience so recently, and then also have a team with many young parents, it just felt like a no-brain to offer that.

We have 30 Employees Right Now, and About 20% Have Kids Under the Public School Age. We have also have many more who I Expect Will Have Kids in the Coming Years. I JOKED WE MIVE Experience a baby boom in the next nine months, so we’ll see!

We have haven’t put pen to paper on a lot of our workplace police and philosophies; We’re Kind of Building It As We Go. It was really imported to us to make sura than the policy was in line with the actual cost of child care. A lot of the reimbursent programs casey and i saw be offering only $ 300 a month. We recagated that Wold Cover Only About a Day or Two of Child Care, Not a Month.

It was also important to us that it was really easy to enroll in. We did not want to create hoops for these young parents to Jump Through, Because there’s Already So ​​Much Admin Associated with Being a Working Parent. Basically, They Self-Report How Much They’re Paying a month in Child Care, and thatn they re-enroll every year. It’s a Pretty Simple Program.

There’s no amount of time someone needs to have at the cake in order to enroll in the program. The goal is to be able to retain amazing working pars and also attact amazing work pars to cakes with the financial and emotional stress of the juggle child. SO light we have about 20% or so of our employs who are eligible for the benefit. Its been incredibly emotional.

I Think we’ve had a really supperive culture for working pars. For Example, The Friday Before Mother’s Day, We had a bunch of the Our Employees Sharing Photos of Thermves on the Company Slack in the Day of their Kids’ Mother’s Day School parties. It was amazing to see that the team already felt comfort time off for these Personal Commitments. No One Asked to take the time off; they just did it gcause they kew it was going to be celebrated. To me, that just speaks volumes about the level of support they Feel.

And it makes me really proud to have set that culture for our team, because i do the sun thing. Be i have a commmitment with my kids, or a personal commmitment when i’m going to work or going to therapy, i always make it a priority to just sound, “i have an appointment. I Will Say, “I am Leaving Early Today My Daughter has a swimming lesson,” or “i’m going to therapy.” I Think IT’S Really Important for Leaders to Make It Known When You’re Taking Time to Prioritizes Your Family, Because It Gives Your Employees Permision to Same.

We’ve Had so many Bigger Businesses Critique US, Saying That Once You Give This Benefit To Employees, You’re Not Going to Be Able to Take It Back. And i Just Say: You Get to Create the Environment that you want as a business owner. We have a very profitable company. That is a result of hating a really dedicated and effecative team. We see this as enhancing our bottom line and enhancing output. It ‘Important to Think About Employees as an Investment, Not a Cost. They are the Ones Who Are Building Your Company.

Our goal in sharing this is that we were going to live in a World Where Partments have Access to Affordable Care No Matter What Company They Work for. I WOULD LOVE ONE DAY TO HAVE AFFORDable Child Care Be as Common As Parental Leave – THOUGH THAT ALSO HAS Room for Improvement. I just hope people can see the story and start to challenge the thught that is an an impossible benef to give your team. Because Actually You Can Find a Way to Make It Work – and Not Only Work But Improve Your Company and Your Bottom Line.

As my dad said when I was first starting out: “Your Employees Are Your Most Valuable Clients and Customers. When Your Employees Valued and SEEN, they will take care of your customers, and your business will.”