Increasingly, employers are implementing customized employee services and resources on a site-specific basis which account for the particular demographic characteristics of the employee populations at each site and the resources available in the immediate geographical area. Consequently, employers with multiple sites have on-site child care centers at some sites, back-up centers, tuition assistance and resource & referral programs at other sites - much in the same way various sites may have some combination of on-site fitness centers, cafeterias, transportation services, convenience stores, etc.

In addition to these options, employers now also have the opportunity to provide quality near-site child care to employees at multiple offices around the country by taking advantage of Bright Horizons' Network Access Program (NAP). This program allows multi-site companies to sponsor access to priority spaces within the Bright Horizons Family Solutions network of centers; subject only to the priority rights of the initial sponsoring companies.

Employer-based child care is no longer viewed as merely an employee benefit. High quality worksite child care has evolved into a key business strategy for lowering costs, increasing productivity and boosting recruiting competitiveness and employee morale.

Negotiating tuition discounts, while helping slightly with affordability, actually lowers even further the quality of care. This is because the foregone revenue will almost always come out of teacher pay and benefits. Ironically, the well-intentioned employer actually exacerbates the main problem. By effectively driving down teacher pay and thus lowering program quality even further, an employer may suffer the consequences of increased child care-related stress and frustration throughout its workforce.

Our experience provides a common rule of thumb - between 6% - 9% of a workforce will utilize a center on a daily basis. The proper enrollment capacity and program mix (number of children in each age category) of a prospective on-site child care center is usually determined through a formal needs assessment which identifies and measures the need for and likely utilization rate of a prospective on-site child care center. Of course, sometimes the amount of land and/or available space dictates the size and capacity of a prospective worksite child care center.

Every state sets forth staffing ratios for licensing purposes and there is considerable variation among states. Some state's ratios are reasonable in tandem with a strong underlying developmental program. Other states have very lenient staffing ratios that make the provision of genuinely high quality care more problematical. In most cases, state licensing requirements should at best be considered minimal standards.

Bright Horizons uses NAEYC standards to determine appropriate ratios.

Whether or to what extent tuition is subsidized is often determined by the socioeconomic make-up of a given workforce. Bright Horizons has extensive experience creating and implementing scholarship programs, sliding fee scales and other mechanisms for extending affordability to lower paid employees, single parents, etc. and will be happy to offer guidance in this regard.

• Tracking the proportion of employees who return to work after family leave and enroll in the on-site center, comparing this to the historical rate at which parents have returned from family leave and calculating recruiting, hiring and training cost savings on this basis.
• Measuring the average length of family leave on the part of employees who return to work and enroll their children in the on-site center and comparing this to the historical average length of family leave.
• Comparing the rate of turnover for center users with the turnover rate for employees using other forms of child care and calculating recruiting, hiring and training costs on this basis.
• Comparing the incidence of tardiness and absenteeism among center users with that of employees using other forms of child care. Savings are measured by using an average daily salary based on the weighted average monthly salaries and benefits by job grade, and for example, assuming a replacement worker is required 20% - 25% of the time, for example.

The economic benefits to the employer of improved employee morale, enhanced day-to-day employee focus and productivity, increased flexibility to work longer hours, and favorable public relations, etc. are more difficult to assess. However, researchers agree that these benefits have a substantial bottom line impact to the employer.