IRS to Open Employee Child-Care Center in Laguna Niguel

The Internal Revenue Service expects to begin remodeling its Laguna Niguel office next week for an employee child-care center, part of a pilot project in four U.S. locations aimed at reducing employee turnover.

The Ziggurat Child Development Center, tentatively scheduled to open in January, will apparently be the first day-care center in a building operated by the Government Services Administration in California, said Dennis Hudson, a consultant for the project. GSA provides office space for most government agencies.

“The IRS looks at it as a way to attract and retain employees,” said Dale Zemke, project coordinator at Laguna Niguel. “It is designed to improve the atmosphere and to enhance our ability to recruit in competition with private industry.”

The IRS office in the Chet Holifield (or Ziggurat) building has a high turnover because federal salaries aren’t competitive with the private sector, said Patricia Nelson, local chapter president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS workers and is involved in the four pilot projects.

The local IRS, with 2,164 employees, has 230 unfilled, permanent positions, Nelson said.

“We hope this one extra benefit will help retain employees,” she said. “Children will be close to their parents while they are at work.”

Zemke said he recently hired a woman who had refused another job because of the long commute but who accepted the IRS job with an equally long commute. The difference, she said, was the day-care project.

The center, in the building, will provide day care for 100 children to age 4, including infants. Tuition will range from $45 to $112 a month, depending on the child’s age and parents’ income. Eligible employees will receive tuition subsidies.

“We are hoping to outfit the center with . . . adequate books, crafts and arts materials--anything we can do to make it a good, quality learning experience for early-age children,” Zemke said.

A recent survey of 900 employees indicated that the center has a potential enrollment of 63 children, Zemke said, with any remaining slots open to children of other federal employees in the building.

The Laguna Niguel center is the service’s second. The first, in Andover, Mass., opened last February and is nearly filled to its 70-student capacity. Others will be in Houston and Hartford, Conn.

The Laguna Niguel project will be assessed after a year and could serve as a “blueprint for other locations,” Zemke said.

A GSA spokesman said there are 13 day-care centers nationally in GSA buildings, none in California. Other day-care centers exist for federal employees outside of the GSA, such as the military.

Last spring, the IRS allocated $200,000 for the Laguna Niguel project, and the IRS formed a committee of management and employees. The committee, Zemke said, found that many job seekers look for child care.

“It seems to be a movement out there,” Zemke said. “If employers care and want to listen, they’ll hear the message.”