From Lack of day-care spots driving parents to extreme measures, September 19, 2008 – Business Edge Magazine

"Society has changed. Moms don't stay home – 75 per cent of moms with kids under six now work – so there's a huge shortfall and it's only getting worse."

The child-care crunch hit home for Kirby a couple years ago when, as a stay-at-home mom, she received four calls in one month from friends desperate for day care.

"I had friends and even acquaintances asking me to look after their kids because they had to go back to work and they couldn't find care," Kirby explains.

"The shortage of care is a huge problem not just for parents, but for employers because people either have to quit their jobs – which some of my friends have done – or put their kids in places where I don't feel they're being adequately cared for. The parents sadly keep their kids in those situations because they don't have an alternative and then they worry all day at work and are distracted, so how much does that cost the economy if parents can't concentrate?" Whether it's more productive employees or for an edge in the increasingly competitive arena of staff recruitment, some forward-thinking organizations are finding that providing day care makes good business sense. More than just a perk, onsite child care can be a huge advantage in a tight labour market.

"If people are struggling to find day care, they have to make some tough decisions and if you want to keep them in the workplace they have to have care for their children, so it's a definite advantage, both from a recruitment perspective and a retention perspective, to provide care as an employer," says University of Calgary associate vice-president of human resources Sandy Repic.