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Thursday, April 23rd is National Bring Your Child to Work Day (BYCTWD). This day was originally designed to bring daughters to work to teach young women about careers and occupational opportunities. Today, this has evolved into a learning event to teach all children about the workplace and to give them a better understanding of what Mom or Dad does all day.
Before you decide to participate in this learning event, it is important to take several issues into consideration, including productivity, client service, and safety.
Productivity – Productivity will certainly take a major hit on Bring Your Child to Work Day. Much of each employee’s day will be spent teaching and providing supervision to their child and other children in the workplace. Therefore, it is important for senior management to be willing to sacrifice much of the day’s productivity in exchange for the learning opportunity for children and the organization’s demonstration of commitment to family.
Customer/Client Service – With the hit in productivity comes the potential for unhappy clients and customers. Thus, it is very important to ensure that critical customer-facing positions will have adequate coverage throughout the day. It is also important to communicate to customers/clients that the organization is participating in the national BYCTWD, so they may be more lenient and understanding if their customer experience is somewhat diminished on that day. This may be achieved through signs in entryways, messages on the company’s internet site, messages on e-mail accounts, and messages on the voicemail system.
Safety/Liability – If your organization has moderate to substantial safety hazards, participating in BYCTWD may not be for you. The company could very well be liable for injuries to employees’ children on the premises, so it is very important to consider this exposure prior to allowing children in the workplace. Use your common sense, and if your physical work environment is not suitable for children, consider a company picnic in conjunction with a supervised tour of the workplace, rather than a full day with children in the workplace. If your organization does not contain obvious safety hazards, it is still a good idea to have each employee who wishes to bring a child to work sign a release agreement.
For the day to be a success, it will take a substantial amount of planning. The children who come may range in age from toddlers to teenagers and employees may get frustrated trying to work and teach (or at least entertain) their children. Therefore, we recommend varying hours for bring your child to work day based on the age of the child.
With careful planning, BYCTWD can be a huge morale builder for employees and solidify the company’s commitment to work/life balance and employees’ families. If marketed correctly, it also has the potential to show your customers, clients, and other stakeholders your dedication to family, community, and education. So weigh the potential benefits and drawbacks, and then consider participating in 2015’s National Bring Your Child to Work Day.
For more information on this and other HR issues, contact GTM at (518) 373-4111.
