With the rising demand for flexible childcare solutions, organisations are rethinking their approach to supporting working parents. Daycare benefits have transitioned from a perk to a critical factor in employee well-being. This was the central theme at an exclusive webinar by People Matters in association with ProEves on Empowering Working Parents: The Rise of Flexible Daycare Solutions in the Workplace.

As ways of working evolve with Return to Office (RTO), hybrid, and virtual working, daycare benefits are redefining how organisations empower, attract and retain top talent. Gaurav Gupta, Regional Benefits Leader, APAC, Amazon elaborates, “2017-18, only 17% of surveyed organisations said that they would be launching the child care benefit, but post 2022, child care benefits became a larger conversation to get employees back to office”. Ketika Kapoor, Co-Founder and CEO, ProEves, agrees— “70% to 90% of organisations say they have a plan for child care benefit or already have a childcare benefit program”. 

The current state of childcare benefit 

How ProEves enables childcare benefits

The key to effective child care benefits implementation is to don the employee lens: 

• Pan-City Coverage: ProEves enables child care with pan-city coverage, i.e. employees can avail of any of the child care centres on their network within and across cities, considering their long commute distances. 
• Customisation: Today, employees work remotely, hybrid, in the office, travel one-off on work, or even work in a different city. To provide employees with suitable options, ProEves created a daycare network including metro, tier1 and beyond tier-1 cities. 
• Needs-based: Childcare needs to be curated to deliver personalized benefits as per child’s diverse age brackets and support systems. An employee may not enrol in child care benefits, due to parental or nanny support. But may want “emergency daycare” support on specific days. These “edge cases” define the employee experience. 
• Compliance and Operations: The recent legal guidelines allow organisations to offer child care near home, in the absence of having a daycare within 500 meters near the office. Organisations prefer a platform approach to offer employees diverse choices while complying. 
• Funding applications: Funding law says that providers have to fund childcare benefits. 70% of organisations are funding the benefit partly or up to a cap (50%-60%). Employers can decide on a free cap basis the average daycare fees, or as a percentage of the child’s activities during the day (learning activities, preschool tuition, extra-curricular, care). 

The business benefit and social impact of child care benefit

While participation rates versus total eligible population are still scaling, it is early to measure the impact of child care benefits on employee morale or employee productivity. Interestingly, child care benefits are fast becoming a leadership agenda.  

“The belief that my children are well taken care of while I go to the office is driving organisations to actively work on how best they can make this program available to their employees”, says Gaurav.

ProEves is the largest platform for child care benefits management for organisations, working with ~7000 parents every month. Regular parent feedback surveys help understand the needs and possibilities better.  

• 90% of parents say childcare benefits have really helped them focus on work or get back to work.
• 70% of parents say childcare benefits have started to give them a stress-free work environment by taking out the “worry.”  

“Child care benefit is an important tool to get employees back to active working, effective working, and productive working. Parents upfront tell us that they're feeling very reassured”, adds Ketika. It is in the interest of organizations to devise a childcare benefit strategy. 

How to draft and deliver childcare policy

To draft an impactful, sustainable, and scalable childcare benefit policy, leaders must look at: 

• Data Collection and Data Analytics: An in-depth data analysis helps identify eligible population sets, cohorts, city and country spreads, etc. 
• Labour Law and Guidances: With the upcoming Labour codes and existing laws, organisations must ensure compliance and alignment. The national minimum guidelines and protocols highlight the need to support employees - as an organization, do you show the highest intent to comply? “In the absence of daycare within a 500m radius as recommended, you may find the nearest centre within 1-2 km, or provide support near to home for the parents, but do not shy away from launching the benefit”, says Ketika. 
• Market Positioning and Scale: Answer questions like “where do we position from a market standpoint?”, and “how much funding to put into this program?”. To normalise childcare opt-ins, build scale across corporate, retail, etc. sectors. Plus, include children up to 10 years and night care. 
• Inclusion: Legally, childcare benefits apply to permanent and contract employees. Gender wise, as per the Maternity Benefit Act, one legal cohort believes it caters only to women employees which is being challenged in current times. Another cohort finds application to men and women employees, because State Laws proclaim gender inclusivity. 
• Employee Experience: Organisations must equip employees to raise childcare concerns. And help them find quick solutions. Making onboarding and selection of care facilities seamless and fast should be a priority. Proeves employee assistance program helps with this. 
• Education & Awareness: Childcare is a new concept employees are often unaware of. ProEves started consistent employer and employee communication by answering questions like, “What daycare spread is available to you as an employee?”, “How does a daycare look?”, “What is the day like for your child and for you as a parent?”, “What are the kind of engagements that the daycare allows you?”, etc. 

A platform-led approach with a dedicated partner can help organizations kickstart and manage their daycare benefits offering. “This is especially beneficial for resource-crunched organizations like start-ups through entire employee life cycle management and phased scaling as budgets open up”, shares Ketika. 

The way ahead

Childcare benefits can drive powerful socio-economic transformation. But change must begin at the top. Direct leadership messaging can help - leaders/managers share stories of sending their children to daycare.

To normalise childcare benefits in the Indian context, parents must be able to view daycare as an enabler which helps them deliver more effectively at work by removing “worry”. Leaders must ask, “How can we support an individual employee and guide them towards making childcare decisions?” At the core of childcare benefits for the future, we need a perfect blend of empathy with compliance.