Childcare issues and the workplace

Essay by josteenUniversity, Bachelor'sA, August 2004

download word file, 3 pages 5.0

Today's employees are trying harder than ever to balance their demands of home life and work life. Working parents have an increased absenteeism rate as they search for childcare, participate in school functions, care for sick children, and respond to unexpected problems. Today's employers are studying the cost of offering various work/family benefits to help in these types of situation. Helping solve these problems will not only help out the employees but also improve production of the companies that would supply this benefit.

The author of this article gives a few examples of how the companies can help support child care issues while at the same time balance work. Business is offering flexible work options as a way to recruit and retain employees. Flextime is a work schedule that permits flexible starting and quitting times but generally requires a slandered number of hours to be worked within a given time.

Compressed work week is a full-time work schedule in fewer than five days a week. Regular part time is less than full-time work that includes job security and all other rights available to regular full time employees. Job sharing is when two people voluntarily share the responsibilities of one full-time job with salary and benefits prorated. Leave time is authorized periods of time away from work without loss of employment rights; this may be paid or unpaid. Work sharing is an alternative to layoffs in which all or part of the organization's workforce temporarily reduces hours and salary. In some states this is facilitated by the availability of short-time compensation from unemployment insurance. Flex place is where employees work off-site. When they are linked to the workplace electronically, this option is sometimes referred to as telecommuting.

Despite a growing awareness of the tension between the demands of work and family,