Child care benefits aid parents, company workforce recruiting

Pushed by the effects of COVID-19 and employees' struggles with finding child care, some plastics processing companies are stepping into what is a new area for them: direct help with providing or finding day care.

About 16,000 child care programs closed permanently during the pandemic, according to one child care referral agency, leading to employee recruitment troubles for companies and more challenges for staff getting to work or keeping jobs.

Global plastics packaging maker Alpla Inc. is launching a new program for its U.S. workforce with child care network firm Tootris LLC, providing employees an extra $1,000 a year they can use within the Tootris network to pay for child care.

"We've had individuals having to call off because they've had to stay home with their kids because they couldn't find day care support," said Tim Largent, Alpla's human resources director for North American manufacturing. "We've had people not be able to work different shifts because of the day care support that was needed."

The Hard, Austria-based plastics packaging company has a child care facility in its hometown. In the U.S., it has 17 locations and first explored setting up an on-site child care center at its Salt Lake City factory.

But after deciding it wasn't large enough, the company opted for a nationwide benefit through Tootris.

Largent said the company has received positive feedback and is looking at increasing the stipend above $1,000.

Tootris allows people to apply filters like ZIP code, work hours and specific days to narrow down searches.

Alpla linked the new benefit to keeping the growth of its business on track.

In a March 9 news release announcing the arrangement with Tootris, Alpla said the child care benefits would help it accelerate its U.S. growth. It pointed to 27.5 percent global sales growth in 2022.

"The family-owned company made the decision to support a significant need of their growing number of employees as it expands its production capacities and increases staff size," the release said.

Largent also said it's a way for Alpla to support employees.

"Family values are tied into the organization and us being able to execute on this, really help our employees recognize that we truly mean what we say when it comes to us wanting to support the families of our organization," Largent said.

A February 2022 article by the Society for Human Resource Management found that while men had regained most of their jobs lost from the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of women in the workforce was still nearly 2 million lower than pre-pandemic levels, in part because women shoulder more caregiver responsibilities.

A Tootris executive said manufacturing companies are increasingly offering child care as a recruitment tool.

"It's just there's not a lot of women in manufacturing right now," said Jeff McAdam, creative director at Tootris. "A lot of these incidences and the reason why you see a lot of child care being offered, certainly in the manufacturing industry, is they'd like to bring the women back and women to the manufacturing industry."

Most companies that use the Tootris software offer financial support to employees, like Alpla does, he said.

Auto components supplier Gentex Corp. is building a child care center for up to 250 children at its Zeeland, Mich., campus and said it's already found it helpful in hiring.

While the center won't open until next year, it's been an attractive selling point for the company in hiring, said Craig Lincoln Piersma, vice president of marketing and corporate communications. Gentex has hired about 500 employees in the last four months.

"People are saying they want to get in the queue, so to speak, and be part of the team here so that when the day care center comes available, they're on board," he said.

The 43,000-square-foot facility will have 12 day care rooms, three infant rooms, office and common room space, a food prep area and an outdoor nature-based play area.

It will operate first and second shift, taking care of up to 250 children per shift.

"That is what makes it unique and different, because the moment you start talking about providing it for hourly employees and large manufacturing facilities, the size and scope of the day care operations grows tremendously," he said. "Different shifts is something [that] I don't know if it's been tried before. That's what's going to make this very unique and special."

The school will be operated by ODC Network, a conservation organization in Holland, Mich., that also operates several nature-oriented preschools.

"They have what they call the early child care center. Each kid spends time outdoors each day," Piersma said. "They believe in learning through active play and exploration."

A few other plastics firms are also helping with child care benefits.

Fort Worth, Texas molder SigmaPro Engineering & Manufacturing LLC, for example, has an on-site child care facility to help recruit and retain employees. That facility is also used by the surrounding community.