The value of back-up care
Many employees today are caring not only for young children but for aging parents as well. And because caring for these family members often includes emergencies and unforeseen events that require time during the workday, employees are frequently forced to skip client meetings, miss deadlines, or sacrifice billable hours in order to attend to the needs of their dependents.
The average employee faces a number of dependent care issues each year, including:
- School vacations and educator professional days
- Illness of a child, spouse, or parent
- Snow/weather delays and cancellations
- Emergencies related to elderly relatives
- Sick leave or vacation time for nannies and other care providers
- Scheduling conflicts for a stay-at-home spouse, including doctors’ appointments or jury duty
One of the faster-growing employee benefit trends, back-up care programs can dependably fill in to provide care during these situations, helping to resolve issues with employee absenteeism and loss of productivity.
But the right program must do much more than simply provide employees with a list of numbers to call when they need care. A superior back-up care program must offer access to an extensive network of centers and caregivers at a moment’s notice, sourcing options on the employee’s behalf and performing background checks and vetting on potential caregivers. And most importantly, the right back-up daycare or elder care solution must instill confidence in employees that their loved ones will be safe and well-cared for during their care experience.
Back-up care solutions from Bright Horizons
Bright Horizons back-up care can quickly solve child and elder care gaps to help keep employees from missing work. When employees have a breakdown in their normal care arrangements, they can call a Bright Horizons contact center 24/7 to speak with a care consultant who will research all viable options to find the best solution. Bright Horizons takes care of all the details – time spent by the employee is limited to the initial phone call. By leveraging our expertise in education and dependent care, we are able to successfully find solutions for employees that work on multiple levels.
Bright Horizons back-up care solutions provide:
- Center-based care that provides high-quality care when and where employees need it. Bright Horizons center-based care includes more than 3,500 high-quality centers nationwide that provide consistent and high-quality family care when needed.
- In-home care at virtually any location, provided by caregivers from Bright Horizons and other top-rated providers from hundreds of partner agencies that have been vetted, onboarded, and trained. In-home care provides employees with the peace of mind and the support they need at critical moments when they’re torn between meeting work deadlines or caring for a child, a parent, or a spouse.
Benefits for employers and worker
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With back-up care from Bright Horizons, your organization can:
- Ensure business continuity during unpredictable events such as school closings, teacher strikes, and events in your employees’ lives that would otherwise cause them to miss work.
- Enjoy complete back-up care coverage with one of the largest networks of vetted caregivers.
- Enhance recruitment and retention by demonstrating loyalty to working families.
For employees, the back-up care advantage includes:
- Peace of mind from knowing they can find high-quality care when emergencies happen and regular plans fall through.
- Affordable back-up care that won’t cause financial stress.
- Career support, enabling employees to take on more responsibility at work without worrying about their ability to care for children, parents, and spouses.
Additional solutions for employers
Bright Horizons additional programs for employers include:
- Onsite child care that provides high-quality child care and early education for children of employees, improving recruitment and enhancing retention.
- Elder care that provides access to services for employees caring for an aging parent or relative.
- College coaching, supporting parents in the complex and taxing process of preparing a child for applying to college.
- Special needs services, providing working parents with the resources to help children succeed academically and beyond.
- Additional support for working families that includes assistance with family, pet care, or household responsibilities, enabling employees to more effectively deliver on their goals at work.
- Workforce consulting that helps to build a sustainable talent pipeline and that identifies and removes obstacles in the workplace environment that can hinder performance.
- Tuition EdAssist solutions, a powerful recruitment, retention, and talent development program that includes a tuition reimbursement program and provides education coaching, discounts at educational institutions, access to higher education for employees, and help with student loan repayment.