Over the holiday weekend, I noticed an interesting article in The New York Times, Talking Business, 'On Day Care, Google Makes a Rare Fumble.' So much of this discussion is top-of-mind for challenges in the workplace, and how Flexibility can provide more options to people facing child care issues.

The article covered the classic tug of war about employer-provided child care:

• At what point is the company wasting money on it?
• At what point does good quality become over the top?
• How do you balance everyone having access with the cost of doing that?

There are no simple answers. But there is a different way to approach this -- if we think differently about supply and demand for child care. Employers could actually reduce the 'demand' for child care and everyone would be better off. The company. The employee. The children.

The answer lies in re-invigorating the use of workplace flexibility. Many companies have flexible work policies, but they are underutilized (avoided by employees and discouraged by managers). Smart companies are reinventing their practices and focusing on creating the climate, culture and systems that embrace this new way of working. When they do that, people can have challenging, advancement-oriented jobs, raise children, and companies can keep their best and brightest without going broke.

For example, companies can allow a new mother or father to work a reduced work schedule (for example, to work half time for six months to a year) or to work part-time from home (some or all of the time), or to take a year or two off without penalty (career flexibility – the new face of flex). When that happens, the demand for child care drops. Companies on the leading edge of these practices make sure they keep employees skills up to date and keep them connected to changes in the company so they don’t fall behind.

I am a mother of two young daughters, and the quality of the child care I use is critical to me, so I celebrate Google’s commitment to quality. But the fact that I had the ability to work flexible hours reduced the time I had both of them in day care – and its cost. It meant I could be with them more and that was a glorious thing all around. Obviously I still needed child care (and I surely wanted it to be the best) but it was the combination of the two that can help us win this tug of war, which is important for us all.

Continue the conversation in Hot Topics