The Benefits of a Rare Benefit--Child Care at Work

Every weekday morning, Edith and Kevin Porter travel 30 miles from their home in Walnut to Glendale Adventist Memorial Hospital. And every weekday morning, they are accompanied by their 19-month-old daughter Ashley.

Edith, a nurse whose shift in the maternity ward starts at 6:30 a.m., is the first to be dropped off. Then Kevin, a financial analyst in the business office, takes Ashley to the hospital’s child-care center in two stucco bungalows across the parking lot from the main building. He kisses his daughter goodby and is at his desk by 7 a.m.

Not every two-career family has such an ideal situation. But as the ranks of working mothers continue to grow, so do corporate concerns about child care. More than 5,000 companies nationwide offer some kind of child-care benefits, up from 415 employers in 1982, according to a recent survey by Burud & Associates, a national child-care consulting firm based in Pasadena.

More than 935 U.S. companies offer their own day-care centers or share them with another employer. These programs are convenient and reliable, parents say. And they know that they can be at their child’s side in minutes and can visit any time during the day.

Parents Fortunate

Many of the parents at Glendale Adventist and other on-site or nearby day-care centers in the San Fernando Valley area say they are fortunate.

“The child-care center is one of the biggest pluses of this job,” said Coco Ortiz, a pharmacist at Glendale Adventist who has a 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter at the center and a 5-year-old son who graduated last year. “I don’t know how other mothers cope without on-site care.”

“Quality child care is rare. And if you do find it, it’s usually all filled up,” said Lynn Yaden, a physical therapy supervisor at Glendale Adventist with a 4-year-old son in the program and a 5-year-old son in kindergarten.

Although only a few companies in the Valley sponsor child-care centers, those that do are convinced that they benefit in the long run. Studies have indicated that on-site care helps reduce absenteeism, increases employee productivity, and attracts and keeps quality personnel. Burud & Associates, which recently completed a cost-benefit study of Union Bank’s on-site center in Monterey Park, found that the bank saved between $138,000 and $232,000 its first year in reduced turnover, absenteeism and shortened maternity leaves.

Said Karl Brower, Glendale Adventist’s director of human resources: “The overall feeling is the child-care center is a stress reliever for parents. Supervisors say the parents can be more relaxed at work because they don’t have to run home or worry about their kids.”

And unlike baby-sitters, child-care centers don’t take days off, call in sick or go on vacation.

“Who takes your kids then?” Yaden asked. “The day-care center is much more reliable and consistent. So I can promise I can be at work rather than running around trying to place my kids somewhere.”

Even if her son becomes ill, Yaden said, “the center calls me and I can run over and make an assessment if I have to take him home right away or he can hold out for a few more hours.” If need be, Yaden said, she can keep her sick child next to her on the office floor for a few hours.

Like many parents, Yaden is only too familiar with child-care woes. When her older son’s after-school caretaker decided to quit, it took her 1 1/2 months to find another program.

“In the meantime, I had to work a split shift so I could stay home with him after kindergarten in the afternoons. When my husband came home in the evening, he took over and I went back to work.”

Sally Kilby, a marketing director for Glendale Adventist, appreciates the flexibility that the child-care center offers her.

“If I’m at a conference and going to be delayed, they’ll feed my two kids dinner. For me it’s made a two-career family possible.”

Open from 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. during the week, the Glendale facility can take up to 42 children. The waiting list has about 40 names.

The hospital subsidizes up to 15% of the tuition, which is $110 a week for infants and $78 for children 2 to 5 years old.

At Warner Center in Woodland Hills, a number of businesses, the Los Angeles Unified School District and Cal State Northridge opened the Warner Center Institute for Family Development, a 55-slot facility close to the area’s many office buildings. Tuition is $425 a month.

“I take my daughter out to lunch once a week and we both love it,” said Teresa Lima, an analyst for a health maintainance organization.

“There’s a lot of pressure on women in careers to do it like men and not worry about their kids. But I can’t,” said Lyn Philipps, an attorney with a Warner Center law firm who eats lunch with her 2-year-old son, Brendon, twice a week. “I feel much more comfortable knowing I can be there in an emergency and see him when I want. It makes me more productive at work.”

On-site or nearby child-care centers can be a very powerful recruitment tool, personnel directors said.

“We get twice as many phone calls from our recruitment ads when we mention we have a child-care center,” said Darla Phelps, personnel director at Simi Valley Adventist Hospital.

The Simi Valley hospital’s nearby child-care center, Family Connections, has 75 slots for infants, preschoolers and children who need after-school care. It gives them a “good edge in a competitive market,” said Brent Edgerton, hospital marketing director.

The popular day-care program, open weekdays from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., has more than 35 names on its waiting list. Tuition for Simi Adventist employees, sold in blocks of 10-, 20-, 30- or 40-hour increments, is subsidized close to 25% by the hospital. Forty hours is $84.80 for infants and $65.60 for preschoolers.

“It’s one more way to attract and keep employees,” Edgerton said.

Glendale’s Brower agrees. “Although we still have a shortage of nurses, we’re not in the same dire straits as other hospitals. We’ve definitely hired employees that we normally wouldn’t have been able to because of our child-care center,” he said. And, he added, the center has helped him hold onto a few employees too.

“I’ve had other job offers for better money and better positions, but I’ve turned them down,” Ortiz said. “I think about what I went through trying to find a good child-care center and now my kids are settled. Even if I went to another employer with an on-site center, I’d be low on the priority list.”