With 3 toddlers at home, child care benefits allow this CEO 'to function'

Are you taking away benefits and support when your working parents need them most? 

For the majority of employers, benefits for parents start and stop with a parental leave policy, yet it's when those kids get a bit older that benefits have a big impact, too, says Charles Bonello, CEO of child care benefits provider Vivvi. 

"The biggest pain point for working parents isn't just when they come back from parental leave, but actually later, during the toddler and preschool years," Bonello says. "That's when parenting pressures increase, child care expenses increase, and there's a lack of support." 

Read more: Working parents need more than parental leave

Bonello has three toddlers, and says access to child care is often the only thing that allows him to function. Yet Bonello is one of the lucky parents with access to these benefits: just 11% of workers have access to employer-provided child care, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Vivvi provides employees with access to onsite child care providers, at-home caregivers and programs for backup child care for children up to 5 years old. Bonello shares why this support is so valuable to both employees and their organizations, and what's at stake if employers leave working parents to figure it out on their own. 

When people think about working parents and the kinds of benefits they need, it's often to help parents of newborns. But why should employers not put an end date on that support? 
First of all, there actually aren't that many benefits available to parents, period. But beyond that, parental leave is really table stakes, and companies are starting to get that memo. But working parents' needs are multi-dimensional, they change over time, and the majority of benefits that do exist happen during that first sprint of parenthood, and then they drop off dramatically. But that's the time where parents are most likely to take a career pause, which is detrimental to their earnings, potential career growth, and to the organization. 

Organizations are generally pretty self-serving, so it's remarkable to look at this and say, "We've made all this investment, and now we're going to let it disappear." So it's one of those things where it's not just the right thing to do, it's also a smart thing to do. Because otherwise, you're kind of flushing money down the toilet. The cost of investment in people is not just dollars and cents — it's time, it's culture, it's all these other things that have a real impact and a real cost.

For the parents of toddlers, what are some of the ways employers can support them? 
It's child care support. I'm personally fortunate that I have full-time child care through Vivvi for my children, but I'm starting to see more activities lined up outside of those hours, which leaves a little bit more of a puzzle of child care. But families need both access to child care and then the dollars to pay for it. Vivvi's Care Cash product gives reimbursements to friends, families and neighbors, and that's so valuable. Our research shows that only 8% of parents have child care subsidies, while 80% of them have needed backup care at some point during their careers. The majority of these people are using PTO or sick leave to cover that, which leads to greater burnout. 

Read more: Is built-in child care the next office trend? Here are 3 things to consider 

An employee also needs to be creating a return-to-work plan and thinking about care right away, whether that's child care subsidies or onsite care — there are going to be child care needs, and they're going to happen consistently throughout that marathon. 

How are you building that culture and establishing that trust that working parents can feel safe to say, I need to take this time or I need these types of benefits? How do you practice that yourself? 
I think I avail myself to our benefits quite liberally — it's part of what allows me to function. One of the business leaders that I admire so much is Danny Meyer, and he always talks about when you're in a leadership position, there's a microphone on every word that you say, and a microscope on everything that you do. So you know, I kind of have to do it. But I'm also delighted that our people have the same coverage.  

In a post-COVID world, the term 'flexibility' has really become a catch all and it's critical for working parents. But without support from management and leadership, it's totally useless. Yes, working parents need flexibility, but they need understanding from their managers, support structures and permission to feel like they can actually use that flexibility. At Vivvi, we want to be able to recruit more people and keep more of our talented working parents, and we also want people to feel more excited and more inspired when they come to work. They want to know if this is a place where they can build their careers.