According to a recent survey administered to 500 parents, over three quarters of parents believe that being offered more help with childcare by their employers would increase their productivity. Despite this, nearly three quarters of parents are not given any assistance with childcare by their employers.
For employers the benefits are twofold—an overwhelming 86 percent agreed if they were provided childcare, loyalty to their employer would increase. A near unanimous 94 percent of parents surveyed said that it is either ‘important’, ‘very important’ or ‘vital’ for employers to offer childcare support.
These findings are likely to become even more significant in the current climate. Covid-19 has highlighted the importance of childcare, with almost three quarters of parents stating that they will either need more childcare or that their existing childcare will need to become more flexible. Sam, who works in Financial Services, said:
“The difficulty is flexibility and should another lockdown happen, it is nearly impossible to homeschool and work.”
Another respondent, Sarah, noted that as there are “No breakfast or after school clubs currently [it is] really difficult to find childcare.” Other parents agreed, stating that their “wraparound care” has been stopped and they have “no idea when it can get up and running again.”
Women who’ve been on maternity leave during the pandemic have particularly struggled, with one parent telling us:
“I was on maternity when COVID lockdown hit. Trying to find a nursery where you can’t even go inside to visit or do settling in sessions is horrible, and is making me so anxious, to the point where [I’m] thinking of quitting my job.”
Survey correspondent data:
- Over a third of respondents’ employers are large enterprises (39.1% are companies with 500+ employees); a third are small enterprises (33.7% are companies with 1-50 employees); just over a quarter are medium enterprises (27.2% are companies with 50-500 employees)
- The most common industries were Media & Creative Industries (18.5%), Healthcare (13.7%), Education (13.7%), Financial Services (11.7%) and Consulting/Professional Services (11.3%)
