Webinar recap: It's not you, it's an economic crisis - Maven x women.nyc

Corporate leadership is on the hook to help

The childcare crisis in New York City isn’t just a consequence of COVID-19, although it has certainly exacerbated the circumstances. Childcare services are inaccessible to many in New York City due to high costs, limited availability, and inadequate benefits from their employers. Maven Founder and CEO Kate Ryder believes that organizations have both a responsibility to and a legitimate business case for providing childcare benefits to their employees.

“Let me be straight with you: if you’re a business leader concerned about the effects of remote work on your company culture, and eager for a return to business as usual, you need to be thinking about childcare,” said Kate.

Kate suggests that companies need to go beyond parental leave and take an equity approach to the problem: they need to adopt strategies that meet the diverse needs of parents, wherever they are. In other words, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to family benefits. Solutions can range from low-cost approaches like parent support groups, employee resource groups, all the way to on-site childcare. What matters, according to Kate, is that employers take the time to understand what their employees need: find out how many have children, elderly parents, and the like, and adapt benefits to meet those needs.

“As Covid has shown, when parents don’t have adequate support, something breaks, and they often reduce their hours or leave their jobs, which comes with significant costs.”

Public-private partnerships can forge a better, more equitable future

Private businesses are only part of the solution. The Childcare Innovation Lab is bringing a variety of stakeholders to the table to discuss how NYC can forge a better future for parents and their families. Through these conversations, the public and private sectors can collaborate and experiment with new solutions that can help abate the childcare crisis, inform pathways to accessible childcare throughout the city, and help companies retain parents in the workforce.

"The average cost of childcare in NYC is $20,000...it’s unaffordable, it’s inaccessible, and it's not always convenient. The key here is catalyzing those public/private conversations,” said Faye Penn. “If private companies don't show up for their families, their employees are going to go to other companies that will.”

Going further, getting businesses and cities to understand that childcare is critical infrastructure in the same vein as public transportation and sanitation, is crucial. "You can no more control what your childcare options are than you can control the direction of traffic. We don't tell people you have to build a subway system. Businesses are now realizing that caregiving is critical infrastructure," said Monifa Bandele.

The Childcare Innovation Lab will continue to lead on research regarding childcare’s impact on the economy, and catalyze conversations between public and private stakeholders.

“Imagine what our city's economy could look like if we supported a more comprehensive childcare system where families wouldn't have to worry about affording care for their infants, how to piece together care for their night shifts or how they will get through summer vacation and school breaks,” said Liat Krawcyzk.

To learn more about the Childcare Innovation Lab, visit their website. To find out how Maven can help your organization improve its offerings to parents in your workplace, request a demo today.