On-Site or Near-Site Care

Onsite or near-site childcare provides employees with convenient access to childcare facilities at or near their workplace, aligning well with full-time work schedules. It's particularly beneficial for covering non-traditional hours and can accommodate school-aged children, potentially through partnerships with local employers or the school system for after-school care and transportation. For organizations with fewer than 500 people, such partnerships may be essential, serving both the community and employees' families effectively.

Key Features

Builds childcare supply – often the most impactful way to solve for childcare.
Improves your brand perception and eases recruitment and retention

Works Best For

500+ employees working on-site
All operating hours, especially night shift and weekend hours

Considerations

Initial start up costs typically range from $1M-$15M
For a typical center with a capacity of 100-150, average annual employer contributions are $100K-$300K
May take 1-3 years to implement

Key Metrics

Highest

Facility + Operations

The design of a childcare facility is driven by your organization’s priorities, budget and staffing needs. Start up costs and implementation time are two of the biggest factors in the initial startup. Once your facility is created, the second largest cost will be operational, particularly the cost of the childcare center’s personnel. Explore different facility designs and operational models.

Your employee needs assessment should balance employees’ needs, accessibility, quality of care, and cost-effectiveness. Our employee needs assessment takes factors like commuting patterns, operating hours and family structures into account to help determine the most suitable design and location. Furthermore, childcare facilities must adhere to regulations that dictate safety standards, space requirements and other building specifications to ensure a secure and appropriate environment for children. Considerations for attaining and maintaining a high-quality facility:

Square footage allotted per child in each age group
Outdoor access and playground space
Building design, fire safety, and zoning
Mechanical and plumbing fixtures

Adapting a space

Adapt an existing space into a childcare facility to reduce initial startup costs, time spent doing real estate searches and acquisition costs. For many industries, a facility at work is easy for employees as it increases the ability to maintain work schedules and ease access to their children. A consideration for adapting a space for a childcare facility is that you may have to adjust capacity expectations or plans based on the available amount of square footage. Additionally, childcare centers require a lot of plumbing! Take this into consideration in assessing whether your space might be a good fit

Acquiring a space

Purchase or lease an existing space to limit implementation time, as the basic infrastructure is likely already in place. This option still often involves renovations and modifications to meet operational needs or to update the facility according to the latest safety standards. The cost considerations include the purchase or lease price, any potential renovations to the existing structure and custom company branding. If leasing, there may be less opportunity to customize the space. Additionally, the space choices are limited to available properties, which may not always be ideally located or require compromises on the layout and size.

Building a new space

New facility from the ground up to meet the specific needs of the employees and their children. This approach involves the highest costs and implementation time due to the level of customization but can be ideally located on the company's premises, facilitating easy access for employees and integrating seamlessly with other company facilities. While the timeline for building a new space can be longer due to planning, construction, and licensing phases, the end result is a fully customized solution that aligns closely with organizational values and goals.

Covering Costs: Ways to Finance Facility Establishment

You can finance the establishment of childcare facility through the strategic use of grants, tax credits, and business partnerships. Explore different ways to finance a facility.

Employee Affordability: Financial Solutions

Help employees manage childcare costs through various financial solutions to lower the burden of childcare expenses, making childcare more affordable for employees across all income levels. Explore different financial solutions your organization can offer to employees.

Next steps

Understand your employees’ needs.

Before deciding whether to implement an on- or near-site care solution, you should assess what your employees’ specific childcare needs are. We’ve created a tool to capture these needs.

Employee Needs Assessment Worksheet

Confirm your organization’s goals.

Determine the primary objectives of implementing this solution. This alignment will also help in communicating the solution effectively to stakeholders and measuring the program’s success.

Articulating Your Strategy

Get organizational buy in.

Secure buy-in by outlining the benefits and alignment with organizational values and goals. Engage key stakeholders early to gather support and address concerns.

Leadership Engagement

Research and select potential partners.

Identify reputable partners near your organization, who are experts in building out on-site of near-site care facilities. You can visit the vendor directory for some potential partners.

Vendor Directory

Case Studies

Explore real-world examples of organizations successfully implementing childcare solutions and learn from their strategies and outcomes.

On-Site or Near-Site Care

Key Features

Works Best For

Considerations

Facility + Operations

The Care Model

The Facility

The Operational Approach

Covering Costs: Ways to Finance Facility Establishment

Grants & Public Funding

Tax Credits

Partner With Another Employer