The case for emergency child care

Juggling the demands of a job and a family schedule is a significant challenge for every working parent. Life with children is filled with surprises and disruptions, from fevers and 24-hour bugs to school holidays and summer vacation. For employees, it often means unplanned time off from work. For employers, it means a significant loss of productivity.

Working families need emergency child care for a variety of situations, including:

• Days when children must stay home sick
• Snow days and other weather-related interruptions 
• Spring break and summer vacation
• School closures for holidays or teacher trainings
• Extended hours or schedule changes at work
• Nannies or child care providers calling in sick
• Days or weeks when families are between caregivers 
• Conflicts that arise for stay-at-home spouses like doctor’s appointments or jury duty

Emergency child care programs sponsored by employers can be an invaluable resource for families, providing back-up child care at a moment’s notice. For working parents, emergency child care offers peace of mind that their children are in good hands. For employers, emergency child care helps to ensure business continuity while attracting and retaining the talent needed to ensure business performance.

Back-up care from Bright Horizons

Bright Horizons has been a leading provider of workforce development solutions for more than 30 years. Our strategic solutions help employers build high-performance workforces by supporting employees through every stage of life and every phase of their career. 

Bright Horizons' back-up care solutions enable employers to offer emergency child care that can alleviate the stress employees feel when care arrangements fall through and minimize the burnout, fatigue, and disruption that result from personal conflicts with work schedules.

Rather than providing employees with a list of caregivers they must contact on their own, Bright Horizons manages all the details of coordinating emergency child care, conducting background checks and vetting all emergency caregivers. Employees can access care from anywhere through our mobile app, online platform, or 24-hour call center staffed by round-the-clock consultants who are well-versed in back-up care arrangements.

Our options for emergency child care include:

• Center-based care. Bright Horizons offers back-up daycare and emergency child care at more than 3,500 high-quality child care centers nationwide, providing coverage where and when employees need it.
• In-home care. When employees need emergency child care at home, we provide access to in-home caregivers and other top-rated providers that are all vetted, on-boarded and trained by Bright Horizons.

Advantages of Bright Horizons emergency child care

For businesses, the back-up care advantage includes:

• Higher productivity. Emergency child care helps to minimize disruptions to workplace routines caused by emergencies at home. 
• Improved retention. Working parents who feel supported by their employers are more likely to remain with the company rather than leaving the workforce to care for a family or decamping to an another employer with a more family-friendly workplace culture. 
• Enhanced recruitment. Benefits like emergency child care are prized by top talent in every industry and enable employers to become a magnet for workers who have or who want to start a family.

For employees, the advantages of Bright Horizons back-up child care include:

• Less stress. Knowing they can easily arrange for emergency child care when necessary is a huge relief for working parents.
• Stronger performance. Without the distraction of care emergencies at home, workers are free to focus on turning in their best performance at work.
• Easy care coordination. Unlike back-up care programs that merely refer employees to resources or offer discounts to local services, Bright Horizons emergency child care programs take care of all the details. Employees need only contact our emergency care experts who will make all the arrangements.

Comprehensive workforce benefits

Emergency child care services are just one aspect of Bright Horizons’ comprehensive workforce development programs. We also offer:

• On-site child care. On-site corporate daycare programs provide employees with affordable, high-quality child care and help employers attract and retain talented employees.
• Elder care. Our elder care services support employees in every aspect of their elder caregiving experience, helping to reduce absences, improve performance, and relieve the stress of caring for elderly relatives on top of a full-time job.
• College coaching. We help working parents and their children navigate the complex and anxiety-filled process of preparing for and applying to college.
• Special needs services. We provide the resources that working parents need for children who struggle with emotional, developmental, or behavioral challenges.
• Additional family supports. From assistance with family needs and household responsibilities to tutoring and pet care, we provide resources that help employees manage life at home more easily.
• Education solutions. Our programs for tuition assistance, education access, and student loan repayment allow employers to use education benefits to drive recruitment, improve retention, and manage talent development.