Page 13 - IB June 2019

Business

Absent, stressed & exhausted

Poor childcare costs business

By Samantha Magick
WORKING parents, how often have sat at your desk or worksite
distracted by childcare issues; whether your child is too sick to be
at school, whether your carer/nanny is doing a good job, indeed,
whether your carer will turn up tomorrow at all? It’s a universal
problem, and one which a new International Finance Corporation
(IFC) report seeks to address.
The IFC surveyed over 5000 businesses and government
workers in Fiji for the report ‘The Business Case for Employer-
Supported Childcare in Fiji’. Childcare is one of the IFC’s priorities Got the message? Childcare is important. Photo: Australian High Commission Media (Suva)
“because of the many benefits it can generate.” Amongst the
report findings; each year businesses and the private sector lost Key findings of the IFC study
an average of 12.7 workdays per employee due to the responsi- • Businesses and the public sector lose an average of 12.7 workdays
bilities of working parents. each year per employee
Not only that, but the cost to businesses of lost staff time ranges • Only 8% of parents surveyed use a childcare service
from F$89,000 to F$844,000 per year, depending on average • The cost to businesses of lost staff time ranges from F$89,000 to
staff salaries and the company’s size. Concerns over childcare F$844,000 per year
take a toll on parents through high absenteeism, lateness, low • On average, lost staff time due to childcare is costing as much as
productivity, exhaustion and stress as they juggle parental and $1000 per employee
work responsibilities. • Almost three-quarters of parents in the private sector and over half
The findings resonated with private sector speakers at the re- of those in the public sector say they would use a childcare centre
port’s recent launch, whose companies participated in the survey. if one was available, as long as it is of a high quality, affordable and
Vinod Patel Group General Manager Finance and IT, Nikita accessible.
Patel, said the company experiences significant unplanned ab-
senteeism related to inadequate childcare support. people to leave and look after their kids because of this virus
Patel said while they have introduced incentives to discourage outbreak we have. Basically it is really killing us in terms of
employees from taking unplanned leave, by March this year, 750 absenteeism, so this has been hitting us from a productivity
days had already been used by 366 employees, and that this point of view. And this is a reality, it affects every organisation.”
affecting the business. Mark One Apparel’s childcare facility in Suva has long been
“As a retail company with an internal warehouse and distribu- considered the gold standard in Fiji’s private sector. A new onsite
tion centre, it is critical that we provide on-time delivery to our facility was opened earlier this year, however Mark One has been
customers. We are having considerable operational issues in leading in this area for over two decades.
meeting our customers’ expectations.” Managing Director Mark Halabe says while the facility keeps
Patel said RB Patel will be looking at its casual leave policies, staff “anchored to our workplace,” it doesn’t solve all their prob-
will speak to childcare providers, and in the long term, look at lems, as it only has places for 30 children. Halabe says they also
the feasibility of an onsite centre at one of their sites. However face problems retaining skilled machinists, as many don’t return
she said the study has highlighted a lot of other issues. after maternity leave because they can’t get good childcare.
“How many parents can afford to bring their children to work “It would be far easier if childcare facilities were in the commu-
every day? We have a number of employees who travel over two nity, where the issue of a child waking up at four in the morning
hours to get to work on time every day. Are parents willing to or five in the morning and taking a two hour bus trip to get to
wake their children up as early as four or five am to come to work ‘work’ and then get back home [doesn’t exist.]”
on time, and take them home after work after 5pm?” The IFC report recommends that the government establish a
Commute times and quality of life is also something that coherent policy and regulatory framework to ensure all childcare
concerns Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) General Manager services are safe, of a high standard and accessible to everyday
Human Resources, Ravinesh Krishna. Fijians, and that it considers providing or subsidising childcare
Krishna says FNPF’s participation in the survey aligned with subsidies.
other work they are doing around staff retention and engagement. In response, Minister for Employment, Productivity and In-
“We looked at childcare more from a CSR (Corporate Social Re- dustrial Relations, Parveen Bala said: “we are moving already to
sponsibility) point of view as well. A lot of us spend a lot of money adopt one of the report’s key recommendations, which is to set
looking at CSR outside our organisation but I would encourage up a national task force on early childhood care and education
all organisations present here to look inside your organisation to identify and prioritise the government’s response to growing
first…because our employees need our help.” demand for childcare services.”
“[We discovered] our employees are not in the right frame But challenges remain. IFC Senior Country Officer Deva De Silva
of mind, if [their] mind is somewhere else thinking about their says while Fiji has made recent strides in supporting working
child and whether the child is safe or not, whether the child is parents, “including through increased maternity leave and the
eating the right food or not, whether the child is being developed introduction of five days paternity leave and family leave, this
or not... this is an eye-opener. report shows parents are still struggling to juggle work. More
“Just in the last month or so I’ve had so many requests for can be done.”

Islands Business, June 2019 13