Nichols Corporation on Site Childcare

¶ … Childcare Facility at Nichols Corporation

Transmittal Letter

The Chief Officer, Nichols Corporation

Report Submittal on Benefits of On-Site Childcare Facility at Nichols Corporation

This letter is a transmittal notice of the Benefits of On-Site Childcare Facility at Nichols Corporation being submitted to the Chief Officer, Nichols Corporation.

The report is based on a research on the benefits a childcare on-site facility would have on the employees, the employers, and the entire corporation. The report takes a review of previous literature on the topic, describes the research setting and instruments used, the results of the research, and recommendations for the Nichols Corporation. The report is not only useful for Nichols Corporation, but also any other reader who is interested in the topic, as a source of information, or even a basis for a new research.

It is hoped that the report is useful and a vital resource for decision making.

Yours sincerely,

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: The Positive Impact of Workplace Childcare 5

1.1. Statement of the Problem

1.2. Purpose and Scope of the Work

1.3. Statement of Methodology and Why it is Chosen for the Study 7

2. Literature Review 7

2.1. Data Collection Method 7

2.2. The Review of Relevant Studies 9

3. Methodology 10

3.1. Description of the Phenomenological Approach 10

3.2. Description of Survey/Interview 10

4. Findings 11

4.1. Description of Survey/Interview Results 11

4.2. Categorization of Findings Using Inductive Reasoning 12

5. Discussion 12

5.1. Discussion of Findings 12

5.2. Ramifications/Consequences of Findings for the Company 13

5.3. Recommendations for Further Research 14

References 15

Executive Summary

Formerly, individual employee benefits were given emphasis; now, however, family provisions have become the focus of corporate 'welfarism'. While company-sponsored family leaves and childcare are the core elements of modern-day corporate 'welfarism', a majority of studies have stressed exclusively on the latter element. Working parents usually face childcare-related issues, which limit their workplace productivity and result in frequent absenteeism. This study's objective is to find ways to delimit the aforementioned situation and offer working parents an opportunity to attain high productivity, while at the same time, continue meeting childcare needs. The study intends to demonstrate how the provision of on-site childcare benefits both workers and the organization in question (i.e., Nichols Corporation), by allowing workers the time to put more efforts into their jobs and, thus, attain enhanced productivity. Other benefits include: stress elimination and comfort, convenience, practicality, ease, and security to workers with kids, fostering a much more positive overall workplace atmosphere. Further, the study endeavors to prove that childcare facility will be cost-effective, rather than expensive, for an organization, as it decreases employees' burden and accords them greater time and energy to focus on their jobs. Various techniques may be utilized in phenomenological studies, including conversations, interviews, action research, personal text analysis, and participant observation. Workers of the company were randomly chosen and mailed survey packets, which comprised employee as well as coworker surveys. The chosen workers were requested to mark both surveys with any random code. Study findings are consistent with what has been found in prior researches, with regard to on-site childcare's effects. One difference, however, is that multivariate models were employed to generate present results, using a representative workplace sample as well as control variables for other factors linked to employee performance and retention. Other variables also appreciably impact staff turnover, relative productivity, and absenteeism. Use of non-core employees decreases the likelihood of high rates of absenteeism in workplaces, but raises employee turnover; rise in weekly labor costs decreases the likelihood of high rates of absenteeism in workplaces and raises relative productivity of employees; higher absenteeism rates coupled with decreased turnover is more likely in unionized workplaces; and workplaces supervising worker performance directly are associated with enhanced productivity.

1. Introduction: The Positive Impact of Workplace Childcare

Because of demographic transformations in present-day workforce, there has been a re-emergence of the welfarist HR management approach. Formerly, individual employee benefits were given emphasis; now, however, family provisions have become the focus of corporate 'welfarism'. While company-sponsored family leaves and childcare are the core elements of modern-day corporate 'welfarism', a majority of studies have stressed exclusively on the latter element. Schandl (1992) quotes figures, which indicate that a key worker benefit in recent times is childcare. During the late eighties, more than 3,500 major U.S. corporations provided their workforce with some or other kind of childcare assistance; out of these corporations, 775 sponsored on-site childcare. In fact, Hartley & Keyser (2002) claim that employers in Canada have, since 25 years, supported childcare in various forms (Brandon & Temple, 2007).

Existing research has a narrow scope, which makes it difficult to generalize the degree of company-sponsored childcare across different industries. Allen, Spectpr, and Bruck (2002) maintained that there has been a growth in company-sponsored childcare in America, despite their tabulations being created out of choice-based countrywide samples gotten at different instants of time. The authors discovered that 71% of organization-sponsored childcare initiatives could be found in hospitals, 20% in unions and public agencies, and 9% in the industrial sector, in 1978. By contrast, the proportion of programs found in the industrial sector and in hospitals in 1982 was 47% each, with the remaining found in trade unions and public agencies (Brandon & Temple, 2007).

0. Statement of the Problem:

Workers with children to care for usually face childcare-related issues, which limit their workplace productivity and result in frequent non-attendance (Louv, 1992). This study's objective is to find ways to delimit the aforementioned situation and offer working parents an opportunity to attain high productivity, while at the same time, continue meeting childcare needs. (Payne, Cook, Diaz, 2012).

0. Purpose and Scope of the Work:

The study intends to demonstrate how the provision of on-site childcare benefits both workers and the organization in question (i.e., Nichols Corporation), through allowing workers the time to put more efforts into their jobs and, thus, attain enhanced productivity. Other benefits include: stress elimination and comfort, convenience, practicality, ease, and security to workers with kids, fostering a much more positive overall workplace atmosphere (Abraham, Bowdidge, 1990; Kane, 2004). Further, the study endeavors to prove that childcare facility will be cost-effective, rather than expensive, for an organization, as it decreases employees' burden and accords them greater time and energy to focus on job tasks (Oyer, 2008).

0. Statement of Methodology and Why it is Chosen for the Study

The study utilized survey methodology for base-decision generation on unbiased information. One unbiased decision-making technique is the use of surveys, which enable gathering of unbiased data and rational decision-making on the basis of assessed outcomes. An evaluation of outcomes made it possible to instantly deal with areas of importance, instead of wasting precious resources and time (Abraham & Bowdidge, 1990).

1. Literature Review

1. Data Collection Method

Temple & Brandon (2007) examined information from the AWIRS (Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey). The survey gathered information to allow the summarization of industrial relation patterns and analysis of differing workplace efficiency and equity outcomes. The study consisted of one principal survey that examined 2,004 places of work from all industries, excluding agriculture and defense, having a minimum of 20 workers, from all territories and states, and a smaller one that examined managers from 349 workplaces having 5-19 employees on their payroll. The principal survey's sample was chosen via stratified multistage probability sampling of Australian workplaces. Survey response rate was 871%. Four distinct questionnaires made up the principal survey; on-site managers in charge of routine industrial relations were administered three of these. Data employed in the above analyses are derived from three out of four survey modules: General Management Questionnaire, Employee Profile Questionnaire, and ERMQ (Employee Relations Management Questionnaire) (Brandon & Temple, 2007; Payne, Cook & Diaz 2012).

Settles, Sheng, and Zhao (2011) applied the NSCW 2002 (National Study of the Changing Workforce) for their analysis, as the sample it employs represents the overall American population. A countrywide cross-sectional sample of 3,504 dual-working individuals was interviewed from October 2002 to June 2003, through phone calls, made to a region-wise non-clustered, stratified random sample produced through random-digit-dial means.

Payne and coworkers (2012) employed a technique involving preschool kids' parents, employed at one of the large southern U.S. universities. Subjects were recruited via e-mail to take part in a childcare satisfaction and needs survey during the autumn 2008 semester. The HR department identified 1,162 employees (46% women, 87% married, and 60% Caucasian) as carrying a minimum of one pre-schooler on their insurance. After the administration sent out cover emails urging them to participate, all the above employees were forwarded an email invite containing an anonymous questionnaire's web link. Several listservs of supporting on-campus organizations (such as, Women's Faculty Network) were also sent the e-mail-invite-plus-link, potentially broadening the survey population. Survey response rate was roughly 35% (407 employees). The study limited analyses to parents of pre-schoolers, employed by the university, who submitted a fully-completed questionnaire (Skouteris, McNaught & Dissanayake, 2007).

2.2. The Review of Relevant Studies

In a report by the American Business Collaboration, published in 2000, 63% member employees testified to increased productivity when utilizing quality dependent care. 29% employees with children faced some form of breakdown in childcare over the past3 months, linked to tardiness, reduced focus on the job, and absence (Bond, Galinsky and Swanberg, 1998). On an average, U.S. working parents have to skip 9 work days per annum; with progress of kids from preschool to primary-school age, this figure rises to 13. The absences, in addition to turnover, prove expensive to companies; they are valued at 1.5 times the yearly salary for exempt workers and 75% of yearly wage for hourly employees. Employee absenteeism arising from childcare breakdowns costs American organizations 3 billion dollars a year (Keyser & Hartley, 2002).

It has been reported by 54% organizations that providing childcare facility positively affects workforce absenteeism, eliciting a 20-30% drop in missed workdays. Moreover, childcare provisions are capable of bringing about a 37-60% drop in turnover (Ransom & Burud, 1988). One of the main driving forces of client retention is personnel retention; the former, in turn, drives organizational progress and returns. One research revealed that a reduction in personnel turnover by 7% resulted in over $27,000 increases in company sales, and nearly $4,000 increases in company profits per worker (Huselid and Becker, 1995). Organizations that have implemented childcare services or plan to do so in future must know how to gauge such programs' value as ROI (return on investment) (Zhao, Settles & Sheng, 2011).

Watson Wyatt, in the year 2000, completed an extensive study that investigated 405 NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) and NASDAQ firms. A positive link was observed, by the Linking Human Capital and Shareholder Value study, between the development of superior returns to shareholders and HR effectiveness of the firm (Watson Wyatt Worldwide, 2001). Numerous questions were asked by the study with regard to how firms conduct HR practices, including development, staffing, remuneration, and communication. Respondents had to answer 150 queries, regarding their work lives and opinion of their place of work. It was noted that high organizational human capital index was related to high shareholder value; likewise, low organizational human capital index was linked to low shareholder value. It was further demonstrated by Watson Wyatt that the correlation was so marked that a considerable improvement in thirty principal human resource practices was linked to a market value increase of 30% (Watson Wyatt Worldwide, 2001).

3. Methodology

3.1. Description of the Phenomenological Approach

Various techniques may be utilized in phenomenological studies, including conversations, interviews, action research, personal text analysis, and participant observation. The only general principle is one of maximum depth and minimum structure, constrained in practice by opportunities and time, to balance retention of focus on key issues to be studied, and preventing undue researcher influence. Establishing empathy and rapport is crucial for acquiring in-depth information, especially when examining issues in which respondents have a powerful personal stake (i.e., childcare) (Bruck et al., 2002; Huselid and Becker, 1995).

3.2. Description of Survey/Interview

Workers of the company were randomly chosen and mailed survey packets, which comprised employee as well as coworker surveys. The chosen workers were requested to mark both surveys with any random code, and were told to hand over the coworker survey to a colleague. The selected employees and their colleagues had to independently complete their respective questionnaires, followed by returning them independently to researchers through pre-stamped, preaddressed envelopes. After both completed surveys were received, they were brought together via the random employee-created code. Participation in the study was anonymous and voluntary. After a fortnight of forwarding the initial questionnaire, researchers mailed reminder letters for response rate improvement (Kane, 2004; Louv, 1992).

4. Findings

4.1. Description of Survey/Interview Results

Organizations providing childcare services almost typically offered remuneration above award wages to their staff, just like those that didn't offer childcare facility. There were also differences perceived in utilization of non-permanent or non-core labor. Workplaces offering childcare services will more likely employ non-core labor than others; however, those providing family leave will be less likely compared to others to employ non-core labor. Additionally, females will more likely be represented among non-core employees in companies offering childcare services. Unionization is witnessed in a greater share of organizations with family leave facility and organizations without childcare provision. On-site childcare benefit reduces probabilities of high absenteeism and increases probabilities of managers judging employees as fairly more productive. Though on-site childcare option decreases employee turnover, its effect is not statistically significant (Keyser & Hartley, 2002; Bond et al., 1998).

4.2. Categorization of Findings Using Inductive Reasoning

When employees are satisfied with the company's childcare program, their anxiety regarding their children during work hours will be less. Personnel must have lower strain-based family interfering with work (FIW) levels. In specific, the study suggests that quality-linked childcare satisfaction (CCS) dimensions will have a negative relationship with strain-based FIW. Job demands can leave employees with children dissatisfied with how much childcare they are able to personally provide. It is imperative that working parents find caring invested caregivers. It is believed that when parents aren't happy with attentiveness given to their child by the caregiver appointed, they will experience strain. The aforementioned proposition is in line with the findings of Becker and Huselid (1995); these researchers recognized an association between reduced anxiety regarding separating from one's child and satisfaction with the amount of care a caregiver accords to one's child. Parents may be led to think they aren't adequately fulfilling their parental responsibility, by failing to provide personal care or, at least, being able to find a suitable caregiver (Louv, 1992; Oyer, 2008).