“Child care is an unrelenting need; the cost is very high. I never claim victory and never give up on finding things to do to support our staff.”

Teresa Roche, City of Ft. Collins Human Resources Executive

The COVID impact

Prior to 2020, the City of Fort Collins, CO had a backup care solution in place for all employees who worked for the organization. During the COVID-19 pandemic, child care became one of the highest priorities for their on-site employees. However, while providing on-site care was considered, employees didn’t want to have their children at a center.

Surveys, Surveys, Surveys

Surveys became the cornerstone of support. Roche and her team understood the importance of gathering feedback to identify what staff priorities were and be able to offer effective, meaningful solutions. Surveys reinforced that staff were not interested in dedicated child care facilities and shined a light on the alternatives. Flexibility rose to the top as the biggest priority, which allowed Roche to focus on add-on benefits as the most impactful workforce support. When child care/caregiving decisions were put into action, the Caregivers’ Alliance, the City’s Employee Resource Group (ERG) did an internal roadshow to share the connection between the staff surveys and organization’s actions, ensuring employees felt seen and heard and understood how decisions were made based on their feedback. 

A Meaningful Solution

In response to the surveys and study results, Ft. Collins enacted numerous initiatives to support staff with Add-On Benefits. They shifted a pre-existing women’s support group to an Employee Resource Group (ERG) for caregivers; they also increased backup care resources, and offered subsidies/scholarships for recreation programs like summer camps. Fifty employees have applied to be a part of this program and 86 percent (43 total) submitted a request for reimbursement in 2024. In March 2024, the City introduced MyWoosh, a new caregiving subsidization program providing 100 hours of caregiving per employee, per calendar year with a $7 co-pay per hour (minimum four-hour requirement). Year-to-date, 75 employees have utilized the new backup caregiving services.

Outcomes

Retention win: The numbers of people leaving due to inflexibility or child care issues is low, allowing the City of Fort Collins to leverage longer-tenured employees and their knowledge base. Financially the organization is in a better place when they don’t have to use expenses to train new employees due to turnover. 

Flexibility: Flexible work practice helped with caregiving needs during the pandemic and has continued post-COVID. The City of Ft. Collins did follow up surveys on flexible work options (hybrid, fully remote, etc) and found 98% of staff respondents felt supported by flexible work policies; with nearly 40% of positions allowing for hybrid or remote work. 

Survey Follow Up: Receiving feedback from staff continues to be an important way to measure the success of family friendly work policies for City of Ft. Collins. The organization does periodic follow up surveys, and reviews survey results from their backup care provider partner.

Challenges

The City of Fort Collins is not like most private companies in that they serve the community and can’t make the same choices on how they spend their budget. “We need to make decisions that balance the needs of the community and employees as well,” said Roche. “However, I think there is more we can do. Operating within the constraints of being a public sector organization comes with its own challenges, but we will continue to be creative and find solutions to support working parents.”

Advice

“We live in a both/and reality,” Roche states, “there are going to be constraints financially. There are going to be things that your community wants and you have to be sensitive to that. But you can push the boundaries. There are a lot of things you can do for parents and (others) and it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money.”