Plus, the Michigan Tri-Share program makes child care benefits more affordable for employers.

In Michigan, we lose nearly $3 billion each year because working parents don’t have access to child care. Earlier this month the Michigan Chamber of Commerce attended the first National Child Care Innovation Summit and published what’s next for childcare. Here’s a look at their top takeaways and ways employers can boost employee retention with childcare.

Child Care Summit takeaways

The Michigan Chamber reports that the three key takeaways from the Summit are:

• Child care is infrastructure—and employers are ready to help find solutions for providing reliable child care so parents can get to work every day.
• Community-specific approaches are leading the charge. From flexible hours and savings accounts for child care fees to partnerships with local community centers and expanding care to non-traditional hours, businesses are offering more solutions.
• Delivery matters, but regulatory obstacles remain. There are no one-size-fits-all family solutions, and red tape and costs often get in the way of child care centers providing overnight and backup care.

Employers find childcare benefits deliver stellar returns

A recent study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that “child care benefits deliver returns of up to 425% of their cost for companies across the U.S.”

In addition to improving employee retention, BCG reports that child care benefits reduce absences, helps avoid costs for replacing employees and increases productivity.

Michigan’s innovative Tri-Share Childcare program

The State of Michigan ran the Tri-Share pilot program in 2021 that evenly splits the cost of childcare three ways. The State, employer and employee each pay a third for care.

The outcome assessment shows that Tri-Share benefits employers and employees:

• A majority of employers survey respondents agreed or strongly agreed that Tri-Share has and will continue to help them retain employees in the future.
• 82% of employees agreed or strongly agreed that Tri-Share makes them more likely to keep working and stay in their current job.
• On average, employee participants decreased their childcare cost by $464 or 65%.

How to participate in Tri-Share

Employers and child care providers can get details and program guidelines for participating in Tri-Share here.

Support employees with savings accounts for child care

Tri-Share isn’t the only way to help employees cover the costs of childcare. If you’d like to set up savings accounts for child care as part of your payroll process, call us at 800-991-2221.

 

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