HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999-12-13 City Council (21)City of Palo Alto
City Manager’s Report
TO:HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL
FROM:CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT:CITY MANAGER’S
OFFICE
DATE:
SUBJECT:
DECEMBER 13, 1999 CMR: 443:99
LETTER OF INTENT TO CONTRACT WITH CHILDRENFIRST
TO PROVIDE BACK-UP CHILD CARE AS AN EMPLOYEE
BENEFIT
This is an informational report and no Council action is required.
BACKGROUND
In response to the City’s recent experience with staff turnover and the difficulty filling
vacant positions, the City Manager initiated discussions with staff members in all
departments to better understand employee issues and concerns. An interdepartmental
committee, comprised of representatives from the Human Resources, Community
Services, and Administrative Services Departments and the City Manager’s Office, was
formed in 1998 to explore ways the City might address its employee retention and
recruitment challenges through the provision of "work/life" benefits, including child care
and elder care.
The Work/Life Committee researched different types of programs to address employee
work/life needs, such as child care, as well as the cost-benefit to organizations that
institute such programs. The Committee found that employers in the Bay Area and
across the country meet the child care needs of their employees in a variety of ways,
including information and referral, employer-sponsored child care centers and back-up
child care. The Committee further found that employers that offer child care benefits to
employees have experienced an improvement in job satisfaction, commitment,
performance and retention.
The Work/Life Committee identified several ways the City of Palo Alto might improve.
morale and productivity by addressing employee child care needs. The City is currently
in the final stages of a Request for Proposal (RFP) process to select a developer and
operator of a downtown child care center (CMR:276:99). This center will be built on
land provided through a development agreement with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.
The issue of reserving spots in the new downtown center for the children of City
CMR:443:99 Page 1 of 3
employees will be explored when the contract is finalized. An additional program
identified to meet the child care needs of City staff, City membership in a back-up child
care center, is described below.
DISCUSSION
Through its external research and discussions with City staff, the Work/Life Committee
learned that many parents face significant stress when their regular child care
arrangements fall through and they must find back-up care. Breakdowns in child care
arrangements are not infrequent and can arise in a variety of circumstances, for example:
when the child’s school or child care center closes for a holiday or in-service day; the
nanny is sick; or there has been an unanticipated change in the employee’s work
schedule.
According to national statistics, mothers lose an average of eight and a half days a year
and fathers lose five days a year of work due to child care problems. Child care-related
absences cost U.S. companies an estimated $3 billion annually. In addition, studies have
shown that employees look for benefits like child care when making decisions to change
or stay in their jobs. Motivated by such statistics, more and more employers are
providing back-up care and other types of child care services. In fact, back-up child care
is the fastest growing segment of the child care industry. Employers have found that
back-up care benefits not only those employees with children who use it, but also their
co-workers whose workload is not adversely impacted by the absenteeism caused by
child care problems. It is estimated that every one dollar invested in back-up care yields
three to four dollars in savings due to improvements in productivity, retention and
recruitment.
As the Work/Life Committee was exploring back-up child care as a potential benefit for
City employees, it discovered that ChildrenFirst was planning to develop a back-up child
care center in Palo Alto. ChildrenFirst is the national leader in the design, development
and operation of back-up child care centers. These centers provide quality care in an
educational and safe setting for the children of parents whose employers are members of
the center. ChildrenFirst centers serve children from the age of 12 weeks through 12
years. The back-up care provided by ChildrenFirst is intended to supplement, rather than
replace, regular child care arrangements when, for whatever reason, these arrangements
break down.
Members of the Work/Life Committee met with ChildrenFirst’s senior staff and toured its
San Francisco center. The Committee was impressed with several aspects of
ChildrenFirst’s operation including:
¯The focus on high quality, developmentally appropriate child care (not babysitting)
¯Exemplary safety standards
CMR:443:99 Page 2 of 3
¯Well trained and qualified staff
¯Staff sensitivity to the family stress that often accompanies the need for back-up care
¯Thorough outreach to inform employees about the program and sign them up
¯Excellent program administration, including record keeping and regular reporting to
members regarding their employees’ participation
¯Regular cost-benefit analysis showing savings to the City based on employee usage
ChildrenFirst plans to open a back-up child care center in the Palo Alto Square area in the
Spring of 2000 and is currently talking with Palo Alto and other major employers in Palo
Alto about becoming members. In order to secure slots for City employees, the City has
entered into a participation agreement and paid a refundable $5,000 deposit from the City
Manager’s Contingency Fund. This agreement and deposit are contingent upon the
Council’s approval of a Budget Amendment Ordinance (BAO) for an annual membership
($21,000 net of the $5,000 deposit) and resolutions amending the City’s compensation
plans to add back-up care as an employee benefit. Staff plans to bring the BAO and
resolutions to Council in March 2000. The agreement and deposit are also contingent
upon ChildrenFirst’s success in opening the Palo Alto center. Since the center would be
in a Planned Community Zone which does not currently include child care, ChildrenFirst
has applied to the City for a zoning amendment. The City’s consideration of this zoning
application is, of course, independent of any City interest in ChildrenFirst as a provider of
benefits to City employees.
RESOURCE IMPACT
The cost to the City of an annual membership is $26,000. If City employee participation
in the Palo Alto ChildrenFirst center increases and exceeds initial estimates, a higher
level of membership will be negotiated to allow more usage at a higher cost.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
City membership in a Palo Alto ChildrenFirst center will represent the addition of an
employee benefit that will be included in the City’s compensation plans.
ATTACHMENTS
A. ChildrenFirst Brochure
PREPARED BY: Audrey Seymour, Senior Executive Assistant
EMIITY HARRISON
Assistant City Manager
CMR:443:99 Page 3 of 3
Meet the
school vacations
provider illness
maternity transition
jury duty
snow days
changes in flex schedule
business travel
doctor appointments
closing of full-time center
Your employees must choose
between their job and
their child’s care every day.
Give them a winning solution.
Your employees care...
about their jobs, about their families.
They are working and parenting all at once and face real competition
to do both well. If their regular child care breaks down for any reason,
they face an impossible choice: staying home or coming to work.
Now there is an easy choice called ChildrenFirst.
You care...
about your employees, about your company.
The choice to offer backup child care keeps your talent working during
their time of greatest need, so that your corporate engine can continue
to run.That choice is ChildrenFirst.
We care...
about your bottom line, about children.
One company provides employers with a solution that pays for itself
in months, guarantees parents with peace of mind and convenience,
and nurtures children with the highest quality program. One company
has pioneered the field of backup child care.
That company is ChildrenFirst.
The solution is backup child care.
Why employers are choosing backup child care.
D id you know that child care-related absences
cost employers $3 billion annually? By giving
employees the option to come to work when
the babysitter calls in sick, employers increase productivity.
Corporate-sponsored backup child care translates into less
absenteeism, better staff retention, lower training costs, and
higher morale. That’s why backup care is the fastest growing
segment of the child care industry.
An KOI story
companies love to tell
Glients tell us that they receive a full
return on their investment in less than a
year. Unlike full-time work-site centers,
companies don’t have to spend milBons
of dollars to meet business objectives.
A company may participate in a
consortium membership for as little
as $30,000. The flexibility of a
consortium membership accommodates
companies of all sizes and types.
Whether you have 100 employees or
10,000, whether you operate in a single
location or in many; Children_First
can structure a membership to meet
your needs.
The benefit that
benefits everyone
Backup care complements other human
resource initiatives. Besides the obvious
productivity savings, companies are
finding backup child care can be key to
retaining valued employees and avoiding
recruitment and training costs. Backup
child care helps you:
¯IKelocate employees with
minimal business disruption;
¯Accommodate flexible work schedules;
¯Enable critical business travel;
¯Ease maternity transition.
Backup child care gets rave reviews from
parents and even from co-workers
without children who appreciate having
the full team present. It makes the difficult
job of balancing personal and professional
concerns easier. No wonder more and
~ore employees want to work for and
stay with a company that provides backup
child care.
Why backup child care? Because you
care.., about your employees, about your
bottom line.
Backup
Capital cost to employer
Typical number of parent employees served
child care serves more and costs less*
Backup Full-time Work-siteChild Care Center Child Care Center
$0 Up to $2 million
All 100
Typical number of registered children served 2000 150
No one does it better.
Why ChildrenFirst is America’s leader in backupchild care.
tom the day the doors opened in 1992, our name
has been synonymous with quality. In partnership
with business, we pioneered the field of backup
child care. We set the standard for excellence and we continue
to raise the bar. We think that the unique needs of backup
child care are so important that we focus on it exclusively.
backup child care, here’s how weI/Vken it comes to
define quality:
Sample qf the more than 200 cliems we serve
¯ American Express Company
¯ ARCO
¯ Colgate-Palmolive Company
- The Cond~ Nast Publications, Inc.
¯ Dayton Hudson Corporation
¯ The Gillette Company
¯ PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
¯ Sara Lee Bakery
¯ Skadden, Arps
¯ Taco Bell Corp.
¯ Viacom Inc.
Outstanding nurturing
The connection between teacher and
child matters most.We hire educators
that possess the human qualifies we deem
important to outstanding nurturing:
patience, commitment, tolerance,
optimism and perseverance. Their
attention to detail is unparalleled.
Trained professionals
Every one of our child care center
employees is a screened early childhood
professional.
¯100% of center directors and assistant
directors have master’s degrees;
¯All staff at minimum have a four-year
bachelor’s degree; 40% of all staff have
master’s degrees;
¯Our low staff turnover rate ensures
consistent care;
¯All staff are trained and receive
on-going education in the special
requirements of backup child care.
99% client retention since inception
Safe and secure environment
Our centers are located in class A office
space in discreet locations with double-
locked entrances and security cameras
and staffed withonsite security
administrators.
State-of-the art center design
Our centers are carefully designed to
accommodate the various needs of
children from twelve weeks through
twelve years. Unlike the walled classrooms
of many centers, ChildrenFirst centers
have clear lines of sight and an arrival
area designed to ease separations and
transitions.
Uniquh client services
Our fully staffed client service
department works c!osely with you to
customize and implement a turnkey
program to meet your business objectives.
They educate your employees and ensure
that you get the most out of the service.
Top accreditation record
All eligible ChildrenFirst centers are
accredited by NAEYC (National
Association for the Education of Young
Children) compared to less than five
percent of all other private child care
"Our children are our most precious possession.
So when a need arises, it’s comforting for all of us at Avon
to know that ChildrenFirst is there to provide the kind of
safe and secure backup child care services our children need and deserve.
Quite simply, ChildrenFirst is high-quality child care at its best;."
-"Backup child care is about increasing productivity
for the employee and the employer. It benefits us all day-to-day
and has a positive impact on the bottom line. It is one of the most important
and widely-used resources of our worklife program at Morgan."
ChildrenFir nc.
Excellence in Backup Child Care
ChildrenFirst is the national leader in the design, development,
and operation of corporate-sponsored backup child care centers.
Backup child care is used by employees when their
primary child care arrangements are unavailable.
75 Federal Street, Boston, MA 02110
617.646.7000