How to Improve Child Care for Working Parents with Ilnort Rueda
Laurie Ruettimann
Trailblazing author, career advisor, speaker, podcaster, and leader. ? Top LinkedIn Learning instructor in leadership and HR. ? Still trying to fix work.
Child care in the United States had problems before the pandemic, and it feels like it’s only gotten worse. I wanted to know what lessons we’ve learned and how HR departments can continue to move the needle forward. So I sat down with someone who deeply understands this issue. Ilnort Rueda is the co-founder of Arvorie, a mission-driven platform that connects employers and parents with thousands of child care providers to tackle the accessibility crisis.
In our eye-opening discussion, llnort and I talk about the child care crisis, COVID, issues facing working parents, and how HR departments can do their part in improving the quality of child care. Ilnort shares his insight, saying that COVID-19 revealed problems we have been having for years. “The pandemic gave us kind of a window into the homes of people, and we saw children interfering with jobs and so on. And even though it was very visible, this is something that happens all the time.”?
Whether you are a parent/caregiver yourself or not, if you’re in HR or manage people who are, you’re going to love this conversation. So, sit back and enjoy this chat with Ilnort Rueda.
The Role of Child Care During the Economic Recovery
Economic recovery will hit a wall without women or mothers in the workforce. There are estimates of 2.5 million women leaving the workforce and not returning because of problems with child care. Some would have us think that the talent shortage and unemployment benefits have a connection. However, the real reason people aren’t going back to work isn’t because they’re just making a ton of money collecting unemployment.
The misconceptions drove me to ask Ilnort about the role of child care in economic recovery, especially for working moms: “Unfortunately, the way that we have a structure, our society over the years puts a huge burden on that. And we are seeing how this is hitting now. What we think is going to happen is we’re going to see a very step-by-step going back to some type of new ‘normal.’ And that means that employers will have to have a little bit of patience in terms of how to accommodate for that.”
The pandemic is not over. Spikes and new variants pop up every day, and it feels like we are putting things on hold. But we are constantly learning and adjusting and finding what works. “I still think that remote work is going to be important, so we need to be creative,” he says. “And we have seen employers being extremely creative, like setting up some type of places for parts to work together, some space in their offices to take care of the children, tutoring, and so on. And so we’re going to see very, very different solutions in that direction.”
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What the Best Companies Are Doing
I asked Ilnort to talk more about some of the opportunities we have to improve people’s access to quality child care. Specifically, I asked for some examples of companies that are knocking it out of the park.
One area where HR can step in: Offering benefits that help pay for child care expenses. “There are so many benefits that you can offer that cost you nothing,” Ilnort says. “So, that would be the minimum you should be doing. You can get a lot of them for free, but on top of that, you can really use, for example, these tax incentives that only employers have access to."
But it’s also about changing our mindset about working families. Being a parent is a normal part of life for many people, he says, and employers should continue to find ways to support people in that stage of life.? “So some of these return-to-work programs, I think, are very, very good in terms of demystifying things about lactation and feeding and stuff like that. I took a small leave when my son was born, and I really enjoy being a few months home and having that opportunity."
All parents deserve that opportunity. So check out the entire conversation and see how you can do your part in creating much-needed support for the mothers and caregivers in your organization.
Human Resources Director at COUNTRYSIDE YMCA
3 年At my YMCA we are in a crisis with our childcare centers, because we can't find employees to work so that we can open up more classrooms. We have waiting lists for nearly every age group and no teachers to run programs. We've addressed salary to the best of our ability, have worked hard to increase flexibility and we have an amazing benefits package. The fact remains that this is tough, gritty work, and as with primary and secondary school teachers, we often find ourselves battling against behaviors that are difficult to control with one child, let alone a classroom full of children. The state has dramatically increased the training and educational requirements for teachers, but they have not adjusted the reimbursement rate accordingly for those who are receiving government assistance to help pay for services. Consequently, we are essentially asking our teachers to spin gold out of straw when it comes to spending. I agree with the bulk of what was discussed here, but until we address the very nature of the work itself and the challenges faced by ECE teachers, many of which lead to anxiety and mental health problems, and the governmental reimbursement rates, I don't see much changing at the foundation.