A comparison of employer's and employee's perceptions of their corporate-sponsored child care center

Within the literature addressing on-site corporate child care, it has been widely claimed by researchers and businesses alike, that the presence of an on-site child care center in a corporation will lower employee absenteeism and tardiness, and increase retention and recruitment. This study used existing data from one health-care corporation to discover if there were similarities or differences in perceptions between employers and employees regarding their company's benefits of on-site corporate child care. Differences in perceptions between the groups was discovered and further analysis of the data was performed. By using the demographic variables of age, gender, marital status, education level, and income of department-heads and/or parent/employees, fifteen research hypotheses were tested against ten potential benefits of on-site corporate child care to determine if demographic characteristics might explain the differing perceptions between the two groups of individuals. The ten potential benefits of on-site child care which might be perceived as improved due to the availability of the child care were: recruitment of new employees, quality of work, level of productivity, retention of existing employees, absenteeism, tardiness, morale, job satisfaction, company's relationship with the community, and customer service. The analysis revealed that employers and employees do have differing perceptions about the improvement level of the potential benefits of on-site child care. The demographic variables which had the greatest impact on differing perceptions were: gender, age, education level, and marital status. The four potential benefits which consistently received the most favorable responses, for both department-heads and parent/employees, due to the availability of on-site child care were: level of productivity, retention of employees, morale, and job satisfaction.