It really does take a village to raise children and if we truly care about our employees and their families, then employers should be a part of that village, too.
Imagine needing care for your children and there are no options outside of your family and personal network. For working parents living in child care deserts, this is likely their reality. Child care deserts exist when the demand for quality child care far exceeds the availability of such programs and facilities.
The Center for American Progress estimates that nearly 51% of Americans live in child care deserts. Over half of the population lacks the basic resources needed for working parents to thrive. Affordable and quality child care shouldn’t be hard to come by, and care deserts shouldn’t exist in the most affluent country in the world.
If your employees are living among child care deserts, this could potentially strain both their performance at work and their mental health. As an employer, you can help the working parents in your organization by offering child care benefits, and the Helpr app can support you in delivering quality and accessible child care for your employees.
69% of women who chose to leave work after their child was born say they would have stayed if they had more help. We believe employers should be a part of that help. So how does Helpr support your staff and company through child care opportunities? Let’s dive into the ways Helpr supports families living in child care deserts throughout the country.
Providing a Care Network
The Helpr Care Network is a database of thousands of in-network caregivers that have been properly screened and vetted in key North American cities. The app supports parents in planning for childcare options when those plans fall through. You can access care in as little as three hours if needed.
Supporting the Village
As an employer, offering your team a care subsidy can help tremendously with consistent care opportunities. On average, families have between four and five trusted caregivers in their villages (or networks). This included family, friends, and other caregivers like sitters or nannies.
But when living in child care deserts, families often rely on their personal networks for child care. Helpr allows families to upload their own caregivers into the app and use the child care subsidy provided by you, the employer, to pay them.
Our Care Consulting Program
The Core Care Consulting program is a subsidized employee benefit. As an employer, you can opt in to connect the working parents on your team with Care Consultants through Helpr. A care consultant will work with families to find the best primary care options for them.
Helpr Care Consultants provide a compassionate approach in sourcing and selecting care programs and nannies using parents’ guidelines. Our consultants will learn a family’s budget, schedule, location, as well as their care philosophies and any special interests they’d like to incorporate in their care. The Care Consultants then connect families with great options according to their parameters.
In addition to connecting families to primary care options, Helpr can also recruit and conduct full screenings of qualified candidates for parents.
Support the Working Caregivers on Your Team
Care deserts can exist in rural and urban landscapes. There are a lot of ways in which employers can support working families and it’s in your best interest to invest in the working parents.
Employers who are empathetic to working parents’ complex situations often have a lower turnover rate and higher employee satisfaction scores. If you’re an employer and looking to offer more accessible and efficient child care benefits for your team members, reach out to get started.
