By autumn of this year, Lexmark hopes to unveil a 25,500-square-foot onsite child-care facility, offering full-time, part-time and emergency back-up child care for up to 186 children and grandchildren of employees. The facilities are set to cater to children from infants up to age 12, and summer camp programmes are also planned, so are Lexmark leading the way in family-friendly business practice?
‘It’s a deep commitment to our employee population,’ said Jeri Isbell, vice president of human resources for Lexmark. ‘We have a good base of employees here, and we really felt like the time was right. With the demographics of our population and our future population, and looking at attraction and retention, it all just seemed to come together very nicely for us.’ Paula Anderson, Lexmark’s director of diversity, recruiting and corporate citizenship, added that today’s job market for software engineers is highly competitive, and so benefits like high-quality onsite child care could help Lexmark to differentiate itself as an employer.
Featuring indoor and outdoor play areas for every age group and a full kitchen that will enable partnering opportunities with local culinary programmes and other wellness initiatives, the new centre will emphasise a STEAM curriculum (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths). Anderson explained that this will align nicely with the talents and interests of the Lexmark workforce, who will be able to visit and have lunch with their children during the workday, and the needs of nursing mothers will also be accommodated for.
The Bingham McCutchen Global Services Centre is offering a different kind of support for employees with young children or ageing parents, who will be able to contact an emergency hotline if their regular care giving arrangements fall through for the day, or if an ageing parent needs some extra help for a few days after surgery, the employee can call a dedicated hotline. A representative from Bright Horizons will then either schedule a place at a local care centre or send a caregiver to the employee’s home.
Lynn Carroll, chief human resources officer for Bingham McCutchen, explained that emergency back-up child care and adult care “one of the signature benefits” of the company’s corporate wellness programmes. ‘We understand that last-minute changes in care providers can be very stressful for employees, and having that consistent safety net in terms of a resource to go to, whether or not it is for child care or adult care, can really alleviate that stress and enable our employees to be able to come to work and know that their families are being well cared for.’
Jonathan Dotson, vice president of client relations for Bright Horizons, added ‘What we’re continuing to hear, even through the last few years, from top employers is that it’s a great investment of their resources in their human capital. They want to recruit and retain the top talent, that’s always an issue, and strong dependent care programmes make them stand out from other places that people could choose to work.’
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