Childcare Centre is a Good Thing

The Call to Implement Workplace Nursery

Though workplace childcare was emphasized by the Malaysian government in mid 2018, progress has been painfully slow. Most employers are not ready to pick up the challenges despite having the right resources and even a tax incentive. Parents are left with home and licensed childcare centres to turn to.

Read excerpts of The Star news report for your information.

“Having childcare centres at the workplace not only helps encourage more women to return to work but can also play a part in keeping children safe, says Hannah Yeoh. The Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister said only 54% of women are in the workforce compared to about 80% of men.

Welfare Budget Well Spent on Childcare

“If we can get women to return to the workforce while offering them childcare solutions, Malaysia won’t have to rely on foreign workers. At the same time, our own population will be productive and may not have to rely on welfare,” she said, adding that RM1.7bil is spent on welfare aid for 400,000 recipients in the country. With RM10mil, we can roll out 65 childcare facilities at government agencies. So we hope next year, we can have more,” she said.

Private Sector Encouraged to Set Up Affordable Childcare Centres

She also appealed to private companies to not only set up childcare facilities at their premises but to also open them up to low-income earners in the B40 category. A person who earns a minimum wage of RM1,500 cannot afford to spend RM300 to send their child to a registered childcare or taska.

So, many parents decide to give up working to look after their kids at home,” she said. The other alternative is to pay a neighbourhood babysitter who is likely not registered. Because there is a market for it, parents don’t report them and abuses tend to happen,” Yeoh added.

She said the private sector also has a role to play to ensure that organisations do not exploit children in their fundraising efforts.

CSR in Childcare

With all the money spent on your CSR efforts, there is a need for the ministry to work with you to start monitoring organisations that receive your funds,” she said. Yeoh was speaking at the CSR Malaysia Awards 2019, where 50 Malaysian companies and government-linked companies were honoured for their corporate social responsibility efforts. She also presented social activist and chairman of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, with the CSR Malaysia Lifetime Achieve­ment Award for his outstanding community work.

Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/07/12/childcare-centres-at-workplace-a-good-thing#qWOWxjG8cFhTxe2J.99

The Success Story of Patagonia in Providing Workplace Childcare

Let’s learn from this success story. Patagonia CHRO Dean Carter saw Onsite Child Care as an mutual benefit and was fully committed to the project. Child care began at Patagonia when Malinda Chouinard parked a trailer in front of the Great Pacific Iron Works in 1983 so that her friend and colleague Jennifer Ridgeway, the head of marketing and advertising, had a place to retreat to when she needed to nurse her colicky newborn. Malinda had cofounded the Great Pacific Iron Works with her husband, Yvon, in Ventura, California. They later changed the name to Patagonia (which fits more easily on a down jacket).

The Chouinards believed that providing onsite child care was a moral imperative. Their early employees, like Ridgeway, were friends and they looked at their lives holistically. “I began to make unilateral decisions for which I had no budget, no authority, and zero preparation,” Malinda writes in Family Business, a hard-cover book from 2016 that delves into Patagonia’s child care experiment.

The decision to invest in child care has been easier because Patagonia is privately held and doesn’t have to surrender to the needs of the next quarterly report to shareholders. “Even in times of economic struggle the program was never cut,” writes current CEO Rose Marcario, “because [our founders] believed in providing a supportive work environment for working families. Taking care of our tribe is part of our culture.”

The result? “I think the kids whom come out of here,” Yvon once told Inc., “are Patagonia’s best products.”

Dean Saw the Benefits of Onsite Childcare

Workplace child care isn’t child’s play. It presents challenging compliance and licensing issues, increased liability, and the need for sufficient space and facilities. And it can be expensive — at least at first glance. But Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario has said that high-quality child care isn’t “as expensive as you’d think.” She pointed first to tax benefits, which allow the company to recoup about 30% of the net cost of the child care programs. There are other benefits beyond tax breaks and employee loyalty and engagement.

A healthier relationship results from workplace childcare

“When you do the homework,” Dean says, “you see that every study that has ever been done on this points to healthier children, healthier parents, better relationships between parents and children, better gender parity on pay, better gender parity in opportunity, more women in management.” To bolster his final two points, Dean can point to Patagonia, where half of the workforce is women as is half of upper management.

And as companies struggle to achieve work-life balance — the workplace Holy Grail that will attract candidates, improve retention, and lower absenteeism and medical costs — they could do worse than consider onsite child care.

Conclusion to Workplace Childcare

Final thoughts: Child care is a great benefit for everyone. But Patagonia sees things differently because it frames them differently. “The philosophy is,” Dean says, “we’re going to run this company like we’ll be around for a hundred years.” The company’s child care commitment arises from that. “If your employees’ kids are going to lead your company someday. Dean also believes that onsite child care benefits everyone, not just working parents. “Even for the people who don’t have kids,” he says, “you bring your best self to work around children.” Dean assures other companies that if they do it, and do it right, they’ll have no regrets. “There is no greater benefit,” he says, “you can give to your working families and to the rest of the organization than onsite child care. Period.”

The Malaysian Childcare Centre- Workplace or Private

What more is there to say? Employers especially MNCs should learn from this success story. We are certain that should employers partner with the private childcare centres, the government initiative will be realised sooner than expected. Kudos to the Family and Community Development Ministry.

Thank you for reading or listening. Stay tuned.