‘There’s a strong ROI’: Building a business culture around working parents
Baby product company Lalo has ditched hosting work happy hours for a far more valuable cultural habit to its staff: their kids’ bath time.
It’s a small gesture within a wider family-friendly ethos the company has adopted since its workforce went remote back in 2020. And it means that at 5 p.m. every day, those with kids (75% of staff) have permission to drop everything and focus on bedtime routines.
Lalo cofounders Greg Davidson and Michael Wieder are both working dads and wanted to impress on staff that the always-on nature of an e-commerce company doesn’t extend to family responsibilities. “Michael and I both used to work at companies where if you didn’t answer a Slack message or email right away, there wasn’t really much understanding,” said Davidson. “I still think there is that [pressure] across many different companies and cultures.”
It means that people learn fast whether or not a work issue is worth escalating and if it is truly urgent, a phone call to one of the co-founders is encouraged, over panic-sending digital messages to other team members.
“I joke with people that in my last company, I didn’t have kids and I remember people leaving for this ‘bath time’ and as me being someone who wasn’t married or even engaged at the time, I was like ‘what does that even mean?,” said Davidson.
At Lalo they were keen to emulate a culture for employees that matched the customer base – all of whom are parents. Although it hasn’t disclosed its financials, revenue rose 75% in 2023, according to Wieder.
One of the biggest challenges working parents have is finding the funds and activities to keep their kids safe and entertained throughout the string of school vacations throughout the year. Summer break alone is 10-11 weeks in the U.S., while spring, fall and winter break all accumulate along with other seasonal and festive holidays. Finding ways to keep kids safe and entertained is extremely costly: the average summer camp costs $178.49 a day according to the American Camp Association.
At Lalo, that means that parents often need to be off at the same time. To plan for that, the company has a “reset” week at the end of the year for all employees, which coincides with the school winter break. Staff also get all federal holidays off when schools are closed and an unlimited PTO policy so employees can take extra days when school is out or childcare is evasive.
While some businesses may perceive flexing working structures and having decent policies for parents as a burden on the bottom line, Wieder and Davidson advocate that it has the opposite effect.
“The most expensive thing to any business is turnover,” said Wieder. “The idea of rehiring and training new people is the biggest expense to any business. So if you’re going to make a place where people don’t want to work and they’re leaving more frequently or are not as engaged and you then have to figure out how to replace them – that expense is way more than finding accommodations for working parents. What hits the bottom line doesn’t always show up on the P&L.”
Lalo provides a 12-week full-pay paternity leave for both new moms and dads. Being a small company with 35 employees, that has its challenges. For instance, this year 20% of its staff are expected to take that leave – several simultaneously. A smattering of states including California, New York, and Massachusetts provide paternity support for employers (to varying degrees) but the majority don’t. That means for a company like Lalo, which has a dispersed workforce across different states, it shoulders 100% of that cost.
“It’s also about supporting parents as they transition back into the workforce, especially mothers, biological mothers even more so as, you know, they’ve had a major medical event. There is a lot of change that’s happening, so how you support their transition back is just as important as how you support them when they’re off,” said Wieder.
Lalo will bring in part-time workers to help remaining staff shoulder the extra workload, while it continues to pay its new parents. Then the founders will ensure those returning get to speak directly to them about what transition will suit them individually.
Lack of access to quality childcare
Many parents are struggling with soaring childcare costs and salaries that haven’t matched inflation over the past few years. More than a third of parents with children under 5 years old report that the availability of childcare supports has gotten worse over the course of their career, according to Bright Horizons’ 10th annual Modern Family Index, published in May.
There is a finite amount of space for breakfast clubs and after-school clubs. The result: a parent stampede for wraparound care options. But many get rejected. That becomes a problem also if they’re given late notice on return to office mandates, and haven’t been able to secure those spaces. For those who don’t have family members who can help, or even those also caring for elderly or sick relatives, juggling jobs while dealing with family needs can be overwhelming.
Bright Horizons CEO Stephen Kramer believes many employers aren’t tuned in to the needs of their employees but is adamant “there is a strong ROI” on providing childcare-related benefits.
“There is a large burden on working parents to really think about and be able to execute against having childcare arrangements – when there is a breakdown in childcare arrangements, how they are able to cope with that,” said Kramer. That could be a nanny calling in sick or taking a holiday, or school being closed because of weather or just simply coping with the number of school holidays on the calendar. “You’re faced with the choice to use up all your vacation days for that. And by the way, no one has enough holiday [allowance] for that. Or your employer is going to lean in and support with backup care and you’re actually going to get to work,” he added.
Bright Horizons provides childcare services for major firms including Walmart and JP Morgan. Professional services firms have invested in its childcare support services to help solve productivity issues that would be caused by childcare-related issues. “If a consultant or lawyer can’t bill for the day, that’s a big productivity loss for that employee and ultimately a big gap for the employer. Now we’ve seen the same algorithm be used by employers that don’t have employees who build by the hour, but whose productivity is really valuable to the organization,” he added.
Many working parents (34%) feel they’re working too many hours; 63% worry they’re unable to give their all to their families; 58% report they’re not giving 100% of themselves at work; and 43% feel stressed because they are not being paid well enough for the work they’re doing, according to the Bright Horizons’ index.
And while the majority of childcare responsibilities still do fall on women, men too (34%) have admitted they feel stressed by unexpected childcare issues or emergencies during the day, according to the index. In 2024 many have resorted to pulling sickies (24%) or lying to bosses about their reasons for family-related absence, for fear of being judged. Meanwhile, 21% have admitted to lying to their boss about family obligations that get in the way of their work.