Having a crisis in childcare may alter an employee's day in mere moments. Should a day care center close, there is a safety issue, a child or young person is injured or a caregiver becomes unable to work, a working parent has to make decisions quickly as deadlines, meetings, and team expectations are moving forward.
For HR, these moments go beyond scheduling. They may impact attendance, attention, mental health, performance and retention. They can also get managers in a difficult position as they don't know what to say, how flexible they are and when to call HR.
Many organizations already have policies in place for paid time off, working remotely, leave and employee assistance programs. This is the problem of how these options combine in situations where a parent is feeling pressured and is looking for fast, practical guidance. The HR is able to react in a stable, empathetic and confident way to workplace turmoil before it gets out of hand with a strong childcare crisis plan.
Why Childcare Crises Belong in HR Planning
HR teams are accustomed to anticipating their employees' predictable requirements. There is a timeframe for open enrollment. There is a process for leave. The school schedule can usually be mapped out seasonally during the back-to-school period. Childcare emergencies are not like that. They appear out of nowhere and the employee affected may not have the time or energy to investigate policies, benefits and manager expectations.
The business rationale is obvious. For years, experts in the workplace have all been saying that childcare is a business issue, affecting the ways and when employees work, and whether they are able to actually work. A sudden loss of care can manifest in a variety of ways, such as a missed meeting, emergency PTO, schedule changes, diminished attention, or temporary remote care.
A plan provides HR with a solid framework for these areas. It doesn't require HR to resolve the employee's personal matter. It aids the organization’s response in a human and steady, consistent manner. Know your employees, and their response areas. Managers are aware of what they have to provide. HR can put people and resources together before stress permeates the workday.
What Counts as a Childcare Crisis?
A childcare crisis occurs when a worker has some urgent childcare problem that prevents them from doing their work as they intend or that they is not able to decide whether their child is safe. Others are logistical and involve a daycare closing unexpectedly, changing the school schedule, a caregiver being ill, or arrangements with child care giving family members failing. Others are more emotional, especially when a parent receives a phone call about an injury, worry about safety or anything that has come to light that they have questions about the care environment.
There is overall feeling of urgency. The worker has to make fast decisions, based on fear and guilt, need for work, and practical considerations. If the parent must leave work, arrange for other care, call the provider, call a doctor or communicate with another family member, it can impact the rest of the day, even if it's a short disruption.
HR does not have to spell out in formal policy terms every possible scenario. A more helpful way to think is that when childcare is unstable, work is more difficult to maintain. Clear guidance teaches employees not to wait to ask for help, and provides managers with a better alternative to 'winging it'.
Use a Map to Plan the First 24 Hours of Support
The initial day or two (usually the first) is the most difficult. A staff member can possibly be setting up emergency care, monitoring a child, talking to a provider, calling a doctor, or determining if they are able to return to work. HR can alleviate stress by making the first steps easy.
A practical response flow should address 4 questions: Who the employee should reach out to, possible flexibility, how pay or PTO questions will be addressed, when a pay or PTO related issue will be referred to HR. Managers should not be called on to "read the policy as it goes". They must have a clear path to follow to refer the employee to the proper person, to record schedule adjustments, and to ensure that the discussion is respectful.
The answer should also provide employees with a chance to calm the emergency situation down. For parents in an emergency situation caring for their children, they may not get to make a long-term childcare decision on the same day. HR can help by clarifying urgent queries and then other queries that might follow such as whether the employee needs a temporary work schedule adjustment, a brief leave, remote work, or utilization of the well-being resources.
Don't try to solve all your problems in 24 hours. It's to provide the worker with a consistent beginning in the day if it's otherwise a day of uncertainty.
Explain the Differences Between Location and Parent Resources
Parent resources may differ by state, region and local agency structure for employers who have teams in several U.S. locations. HR doesn't have to understand those systems. It can still be a useful addition to make a resource hub more useful for employees by providing a place to get started, depending on their location.
Parents can request local reporting contacts and/or provider records, or childcare information from the state in Wisconsin following a safety concern. Disruptions at work in Indiana may be the same, but the resources available to an employee may vary. The pressing needs may remain: time off, flexibility, emotional support, and a place to start.
The resource gap may vary in larger, more geographically diverse states. A California worker may encounter various child care access problems, depending on whether he or she resides in a large metro area or in a smaller community. During a disaster, the time needed to receive assistance can be more difficult in Texas because of distance, provider availability and region. The state, city, and regional resources that employees have access to vary by location of care in New York.
HR teams can incorporate Chicago or Illinois include daycare injury resources from Rosenfeld into a larger support center to include EAP contacts, leave information, flexible scheduling details, benefits contacts, state or local childcare resources, and more.
This will help you keep the discussion on track – on the employee's side, a first step in a stressful moment and on the manager's side a consistent and respectful way to respond.
Train Managers to Respond Without Overstepping
It is important that managers respond to an emergency in childcare as it is they who may be the first to know. An unclear or hurried response can make an employee feel unsupported even when the manager is attempting to support him. A steady and predictable reaction provides the worker with the time to deal with the crisis at hand without having to anticipate how the situation will be received by their workplace.
HR can educate managers, with simple guidance. They should recognize the situation, inquire what the employee will need for the workday, provide any flexibility they can on the spot, and refer any policy questions to HR. They should never seek unnecessary information about the person, promise more than is in the policy, provide legal, medical or childcare insights to an individual.
A helpful manager's reply could be: "I am sorry you are in this situation, please take the time to deal with the situation at hand, and I will follow up with HR to make sure we get this right for scheduling, time off or follow up support.
This is the proper answer to give to maintain the dignity of the employee and keep the manager in the proper lane. It also assists the organization in responding appropriately without causing confusion and inconsistency between the teams within the organization.
Connect Crisis Planning to Childcare Benefits and Well-Being
A childcare crisis plan is best when it has links with resources that the employees may already know but not known to seek out during a crisis. EAPs and mental health benefits, flexible work options, PTO, dependent care benefits and manager guidance should not be limited to their own corners of the employee experience.
Another larger workforce challenge is also related to care disruption. Problems relating to attendance, stress and retention are a growing focus of businesses' interest in caregiving issues. Businesses are already aware that they're going to have to prepare for the next childcare crisis, and now they can take the next step of making childcare more accessible, while stress levels are not overwhelming them.
Those connections should be apparent in the plan. HR can "bundle" working-parent resources into one place instead of sending employees through individual benefit documents, and present them with an overview of when each may be relevant. That little change can make it feel easier to use organization's investments during stress.
Make the Plan Easy to Find Before It Is Needed
If staff and managers cannot locate the childcare crisis plan, then it is of little use. HR should integrate working-parent resources into a place where employees are already seeking assistance such as the benefits portal, employee handbook, intranet, manager toolkit or employee onboarding.
The resource should be easily accessible in stressful situations. A brief checklist may be more effective than a lengthy policy document. Staff should know whom to talk to, whether there are any options for flexibility, should know how to request leave/PTO, and where to seek assistance for emotional stress or childcare issues.
Manager guidance should be just as clear. Using a one page response guide will enable the supervisor to acknowledge the situation, steer clear of intrusive questions, and give the employee a clear path to HR with delay. If the plan is readily available, the organization can respond in a more coherent and less confusing manner.
Introducing these resources before employees need them is the ideal time. They can be integrated into HR's communication of benefits, planning for back-to-school, the open enrollment process, and training managers so that working parents know where to turn in the event of a crisis that disrupts their day.
Conclusion
Working parents don't want HR to fix all their child care issues. When a crisis has an impact on their capacity to work, they expect the workplace to communicate clearly.
A childcare crisis plan will provide HR teams with a practical approach to minimizing confusion, providing guidance for managers, and linking employees to the appropriate sources of support at the appropriate time. It also demonstrates to working parents that their organization is aware that family stress can quickly turn to workplace stress.
Effective plans are clear, transparent and are developed in advance. A consistent and human approach to employee well-being and understanding what to do if the employee calls out, will help keep businesses operating, while safeguarding the health and safety of the employee.
