🔒Latest employer perk in tight labor market: Bring your infant to work

Workplaces have increasingly been open to allowing pets in the office — at least on occasion — as a way to offer employees stress relief and improve mental health.

But what about bringing your infant to work? It’s a much rarer perk that is now being offered by Milford-based manufacturer Bead Industries as a way to help working mothers who can get exhausted and stressed from the responsibilities of being a parent and working full time, according to CEO Jill Mayer.

It’s also a benefit adopted to remain competitive in an ultra-tight labor market, and where the high cost and reduced access to child care has forced women out of the workforce at much higher rates than men over the past few years.

There were 110,000 open positions in Connecticut at the end of March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a dire situation for some employers that have been forced to take numerous steps to attract and retain talent, including increasing pay and offering more flexibility like remote or hybrid work.

“This kind of creative benefit allows us to compete with larger manufacturers like Sikorsky and Electric Boat,” said Mayer, who since 2015 has run the 108-year-old, family-owned company founded by her great, great grandfather. “They can offer wages we can’t match, but we can do this. While we still want to offer competitive wages as close as possible to what the larger companies are offering, we think our unique benefits are what makes us stand out.”

Vital time

Bead Industries’ family-friendly policy was adopted last summer and allows new moms (or dads) to bring their infants to work for four months following maternity leave.

The company offers workers 10 to 12 weeks off following the birth of a child.

Mayer said three mothers — an HR coordinator, quality technician, and production planner — are currently taking advantage of the perk and a fourth employee plans to bring her infant to the office later this year.

“Those four months with the infant here at work is a vital time for that infant and builds up confidence in the parent,” Mayer said. “I feel this is one example of the flexibility and accommodations we can make for our employees. As a family business, we can make special accommodations to improve our workers’ experience here.”

Infants are in private rooms with their mothers, who can shut the door if their baby is fussing or crying. If the child doesn’t stop crying and needs extra attention, the mom is encouraged to work from home for the rest of the day.

Co-workers can chip in and watch an infant if the mother needs to take a break, attend a meeting, or perform an errand, Mayer said.

The policy is not for all of the company’s 50 employees who work in Bead Industries’ Milford headquarters or Cheshire location. For example, machine operators who make the company’s custom connector pins for the automotive, lighting and medical industries don’t have time to watch their children.

Mayer said incentives like allowing infants in the workplace increase productivity and make for a happier and more collegial working environment.

In addition, Bead Industries offers other perks like kickboxing, yoga and company picnics.

“Offering what we do is always good for retention,” she said. “Retention always improves productivity and brings with it loyalty and an appreciation to the company.”

Child care issues

Infant-at-work policies aren’t totally new — employers across the country have been experimenting with them for years, according to the Utah-based Parenting in the Workplace Institute.

The institute has created a database that lists about 180 U.S. companies that have adopted the perk in one form or another. The institute said it has recorded 2,100 babies at work.

Even state governments have bought into the policy. In 2019, the state of Vermont began allowing its state employees to bring their infants to work with written permission and following strict guidelines.

Overall, there isn’t clear data on how widespread the trend is.

Mayer said the high cost of child care is one of the primary reasons for offering the infant-at-work policy.

And child care issues in general have contributed to the U.S. and Connecticut labor shortages, according to Beth Bye, commissioner of the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood.

Bye said offerings like the one being made by Bead Industries are a “sign of how desperate companies are, and a reflection of the shortage of infant/toddler care in our state. This is a big problem.”

Bye said over a 12-month period ending June 30, 2021, 83 licensed child day care centers or group homes closed in Connecticut, contributing to the state’s current shortage of about 50,000 child care spaces.

There are 3,625 licensed child care facilities in the state, far short of what is needed to meet demand, Bye said.

State policymakers are trying to address the issue. The recently-approved state budget includes over $100 million for child care support, including increasing the number of day care spaces available in the state.

“A lot of companies are stepping up in the planning of all of this and, hopefully, will be part of the solution long term,” Bye said. The commissioner noted that Bristol-based ESPN and Lego in Enfield, among others, offer child care centers on-site for their workers.

“Overall, the [child care] industry has been in crisis for two years,” Bye said. “The pandemic really showed us how dire things are. It put the fiscal instability of the child care industry into focus as it is not serving the needs of parents. The governor’s budget is a step in the right direction.”