The Business of Benefits: Onsite childcare at J.M. Smucker

Here’s this week’s edition of our Business of Benefits series, where we spotlight benefits that are driving value for HR leaders, digging into their design and ROI.

If you’re interested in talking about a workplace benefit you love for an upcoming edition, click here to get in touch. You can also reach out directly to HR Brew’s total rewards reporter, Courtney Vinopal: [email protected]

Since 2014, the food manufacturing company J.M. Smucker Co. has offered onsite childcare for its employees’ children and grandchildren. The child development center, which is run by Bright Horizons, is located at the company’s Orrville, Ohio headquarters, and serves children from infancy through preschool. A summer camp program is also available to children aged 6–12.

Smucker has previously said it sees the benefit as a differentiator when attracting talent. Having childcare onsite allows employees to stay connected with their children to nurse during the workday, for example, or visit the class to read. Hind Simonetti, VP of talent, told us more about what success looks like, more than 10 years on.

Explain the business case for this benefit.

We are extremely proud to have cultivated a workplace that supports our employees holistically. This means truly understanding their needs and identifying meaningful solutions. In considering the needs of working parents, we acknowledged the challenge of finding affordable childcare. According to recent research, almost half of parents with children five and younger believe childcare is difficult to find.

The Child Development Center gives us an opportunity to support this need and create greater satisfaction for our employees, ultimately supporting our ability to attract and retain top talent.

What level of investment does this benefit represent for your organization?

While we wouldn’t provide specifics of the cost structure/investment, we can share that the subsidization gives parents first-rate care for their children at a market rate.

How are you measuring the ROI of this benefit?

Overall, the most important thing to us is that the center supports enhanced employee satisfaction and that has come to life in several ways. In addition to the important peace of mind the center provides, there are unique opportunities it affords our employees.

• Opportunities for employees to bring their children to campus for events such as trick-or-treat, outdoor games, and live entertainment.
• The ability for employees to go to the center for events such as festivals, open houses, reading to a class, and utilizing the nursing mother’s room.
• Increased flexibility including full-time and part-time schedules for our hybrid work environment and a drop-in care benefit, which does not require enrollment and can accommodate employees who travel in for our core weeks.
• Reliability when other childcare falls through or there are school closures.

Parents have expressed tremendous appreciation for this resource on campus. To offer context, in this year’s family satisfaction survey, 100% of respondents affirmed:

• Satisfaction with the care and education their children receive
• That access to the center positively impacts their ability to concentrate on their job and be productive
• The center reduces the amount of stress faced in managing personal and professional demands