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Lack of childcare costs employers $300 billion a year

You`ve probably seen it happen many times in your office: Your colleagues` child falls ill, and there is no one available to help. The babysitter can`t be trusted, the partner can`t leave work and grandma lives in another state altogether. At the end, it`s your colleague who has to scramble for time, take half a day off work or even not come in at all. And with 53 million parents in the workforce, such lack of childcare is a common predicament.

Now a nationwide survey of over 1500 working parents shows that this lack of options for child care is impacting the productivity of many. One in 20 interviewees even claimed that concerns about child-care is having a seriously negative effect on their ability to concentrate on the work they do. It`s taking a toll on stress-levels, disruptions, work-performance and general well being, lowering job satisfaction on the way. All in all, the research suggests that the consequences of lacking child-care could be as high as $300 billion in lost productivity.

But the research hinted to the solution to the problem as well: Over 75 percent of the interviewees surveyed stated that greater flexibility at work, whether it would mean to be able to arrive later or leave earlier or to take half-days off, would take much of the stress out of handling child-care emergencies. The more control working parents feel to have over their work schedule, the lower their stress levels, and the less severe the negative effects of disruptions to the work day on productivity.