Workplace Daycare: A Growing Popularity and a Necessity
Having a workplace daycare is an essential support system to help our employees to balance their careers and family well-being.
Traditional childcare costs can be quite shocking, especially for first-time parents. Not only that, sending children to unregistered and home-based child care centres is a growing concern to parents thinking of their children well-being while at work.
In 2018, the Malaysian Statistics Department reported that there are more children than there are childcare centres in Malaysia. On top of that, there are only 4302 registered centres.
In Malaysia, The Child Care Centre Act 1984 was introduced to institute and regulate child care services and create better morale and encouragement for employees to focus on their career growth.
In recent years, we have seen the rise of workplace daycare and these daycare benefits employees with children by operating near or at the office blocks where parents work.
Launched in 2015, our daycare centre is located on the first floor of our Headquarters in PJ Trade Centre. It is managed by an independent operator and our employees enjoy a subsidised rate and the convenience of being closeby.
In 2015, we opened a childcare centre initially to retain women workforce in the organisation. By doing so, we realised that it also started giving us access to a larger talent pool for future employees to join the team – who also plan to start a family.
In relation to that, employees can build their career without the unnecessary stress of having to travel too far from home to daycare then to work. We want to relieve those stresses so that not only mothers but fathers also can use the benefit and focus on their work and other well-being. This can lead to lower absenteeism and create better morale and encouragement for employees to focus on their career growth.
Gamuda Women Empowerment Network (GWEN) Advisor Jaya Menon and Gamuda Land’s Creative Director Eddie Chan during their discussion on workplace daycare
As said by Gamuda Land Creative Director Eddie Chan, “I think what has resulted from this whole program is that the parents who have their child nearby, enjoy a special peace of mind.”
GWEN Advisor Jaya Menon added that with the quality affordable care that we offer at our childcare centre, we have seen how it eases the burden on family planning, and employees can subsequently have a better quality of work and life. Having a family and wanting to excel in your career should never be a split choice but a strong duality that goes hand in hand.