Cleo, a benefits platform for working families, has teamed up with UrbanSitter, a child care service provider, to offer employees a platform that connects them with available services to ease a burden that has been amplified due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s time to accept the reality that working parents need more from us now than they ever have,” says Cleo CEO Sarahjane Sacchetti. “COVID-19 has really pushed us to the brink. One of the challenges HR and benefits people face is the inequitable benefit. It’s really tough to decide to do one thing and invest more in one audience of your population. It’s one of the most troubling and challenging parts of all this.”
The Cleo platform already offered employee benefits including lactation consulting, birth prep education and other supportive services that start from the decision to have a family up until the child is five years old. At the start of the coronavirus crisis Cleo saw demand for its teleservices spike, Sacchetti says, as brick-and-mortar options were forced to close. As a result, Sacchetti realized that Cleo needed an affordable benefit offering for parents who were working from home.
“We realized that we already have this platform of our parent coaches, and we already have a milestone development right in our app,” Sacchetti says. “We thought why don't we actually partner with a group to actually add safe, vetted child care.”
The benefit, called Cleo Care, is designed to serve working parents by offering support from Cleo via providers from UrbanSitter’s network. The benefit offers a matching program for families who are interested in partnering with a like-minded, local family.
Cleo chose to work with UrbanSitter since it conducts two levels of background checks on care workers, Sacchetti says. Additionally, to provide employees and care takers with added security, UrbanSitter has added COVID-19 related safety measures, including testing where available and measuring risk exposure for both families and care providers.
As part of the benefit all parents and care providers will have access to Cleo’s one-on-one parent coaching, as well as weekly programs to keep children busy and on track with their developmental milestones.
“This pandemic brings to the forefront a whole new set of challenges for working parents,” says Lynn Perkins, CEO of UrbanSitter. “Our partnership with Cleo can solve working parents’ biggest problems with an innovative, trusted solution for the enterprise.”
