Children's Services

Families At Work works with public and private organisations committed to workplace diversity and to recognising the importance of their employees' well-being.

Children's Services Strategies

Lack of support for employees who are parents can lead to:

loss of talent, knowledge and skills
lower productivity among employees
higher staff turnover resulting in increased costs to the employer as a result of the loss on investment made in employees, as well as the additional costs for recruiting and training replacements
a decline in the organisation’s reputation.

Source: Broderick, Elizabeth (Commissioner) Supporting Working Parents: Pregnancy and Return to Work National Review

Families At Work provides project based consulting services to companies exploring child care options for their people. We also provide consulting services to government at all levels, considering children's services social policies, now and into the future.

Each child care project is unique, based on the individual needs of the company we are partnering with. Most companies are interested in exploring;

identification of need - using surveys, employee focus groups or workforce demographic analysis
identification of issues employees may be facing with child care
how child care issues are impacting on the workplace and
what child care, flexible work strategy or workplace cultural considerations might help employees to manage these difficulties

Range of child care options

Families At Work will evaluate which child care options that can address both the needs of your business and the needs of your employees.

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Feasibility

We help the business assess how feasible it would be to implement their preferred child care options. This includes establishing the best fit for current and future organisational needs, the benefits and considerations of options, the tax implications for the company and the individual employee, and the costs of implementation.

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Risk and return on investment

An important part of any decision-making process is to understand the potential risks and return on investment of any strategy. We can help you clarify the implications of the strategy from a company and an individual employee perspective.

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Strategy Implementation

Families At Work can help a company implement its child care strategy. We will help you understand the steps, internal resources requirements and external partnerships you may need to put in place for start-up and ongoing management of the strategy. We can help you ensure there are clear and ongoing links between a child care strategy and organisational diversity strategies, business and employee value propositions. Families At Work understand that there must be a fit between business and employee needs.

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Post Implementation Review And Next Steps

Once a company's child care strategy has been in place for some time we can evaluate whether the strategies are still delivering what they were intended to deliver. The needs of the business and employees may change over time. We help you to understand if your strategy has the flexibility and robustness to meet these changes. Families At Work will help you understand could be changed, adapted or added to continue to ensure the needs of the business and its employees are being met.

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Case Studies

The National Retailer

A national retailer who was considering a child care centre at its head office location asked us to assess the feasibility of the project.

Our research for them included current and future employee population analysis to ensure sustainability of a child care centre into the future, identification of suitable childcare sites, feasibility study, and risk and return on investment.

The company used this information to develop its internal business case for Senior Executive. The child care project has been given approval to move to the next stage

The Commercial Developer

We worked with a developer was considering the inclusion of a 60 place child care centre in a new business park.

Our report provided detailed information on an analysis of current supply and demand for child care in the areas surrounding the site, an examination of current and future need (30 year projection) for child care in the areas surrounding the site, and an assessment of the proposed siting of the centre considering legislative and local government requirements.

Using this research the developer was able to make a decision on whether to include a child care centre or not based on potential sustainable demand for child care.

The Multinational Technology Company

A multinational technology company was experiencing employee attrition when employees could not locate suitable child care and so were unable to return from parental leave. We identified the range of child care options to assist these employees return to work including;

Contacting local child care providers about the possibility of reserving child care places and;
The risk and return on investment for this strategy.