Gwent Business
Most companies failing to help with childcare
10:55am Tuesday 17th January 2012
Only 10 per cent of UK staff are offered help with childcare at work, according to a recent survey by office design company Maris Interiors.
Only two per cent of companies have a workplace nursery or creche and a further eight per cent of employers offer childcare vouchers or contributions to nursery costs (other than statutory benefits).
A total of 72 per cent of workers felt that childcare provision at work had worsened over the course of their working life, with 25 per cent of staff describing it as unchanged and only three per cent saying that childcare at work had improved.
Of those staff surveyed, 84 per cent said they felt their company should be more 'family friendly' and 65 per cent felt that productivity at work or absenteeism had been affected by their employer's approach to childcare.
Maris Interiors Chairman, Michael Howard, said: "In these tightened economic times, workplace nurseries and childcare vouchers are staff benefits that are clearly vulnerable to cuts.
"I would suggest that employers should think carefully before doing so however. A large proportion of the country's workforce have childcare considerations and you will doubtless attract more staff back from maternity leave and improve their retention and job satisfaction by taking even small measures to help with their childcare."