The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation hosted their annual Talent Forward conference at the peak of cherry blossom season on March 26-27 in Washington, D.C. This conference focused on workforce development initiatives and elevated different aspects of workforce recruitment and retention efforts across the country.

BridgeCare was a proud sponsor of the conference. I was especially grateful for the invitation to serve on a panel about childcare and the workforce, and to speak about ways in which our software equips communities with better tools to manage and measure their child care systems.

As I listened to the different perspectives of business leaders throughout the country, I found myself reflecting on the dynamic between the business community and the early care and education (ECE) sector. How can we collaborate on our shared vision of a stronger, more stable workforce and sustainable economic growth? Where is this happening right now, and what barriers are getting in the way of these opportunities elsewhere?

Talent Forward Takeaways

Conference attendees included local and state chambers of commerce, non-profit organizations focused on increasing labor force participation from underrepresented or underserved populations, think tanks, and large employers. Attendees seemed particularly engaged in conversations on child care and were eager to hear and discuss solutions.

I was encouraged to see that child care was a main-stage topic at this year’s conference. For too long, many conversations about child care have been either limited to early childhood policy and advocacy spaces or siloed in stand-alone conversations with other stakeholders. This panel’s inclusion in a workforce-focused conference indicates an increased awareness of child care’s impact on workforce participation and local economic development.

We already know high-quality care is beneficial for child growth and development, but how does it impact employers? According to research from our friends at the U.S. Chamber Foundation, affordable, accessible care reduces employee turnover and absenteeism, supports a stable, dependable workforce, increases workforce productivity, and fuels local economic growth. Without access to child care, many people simply cannot work, and those who can are often not as present or productive as they would like.

One of the things that stood out to me at Talent Forward was that many business leaders and officials are keenly aware of the ways in which their workforces are impacted by child care (or, more often, a lack thereof), and they’re eager to join the conversation about solutions. Despite this eagerness, there are often major disconnects which inhibit meaningful conversations and collaboration across sectors. Business communities are often unaware of the ways in which their local ECE communities have been working to increase access to care, improve quality, support their own workforce pipeline, and help families navigate the complex process of finding and paying for care that meets their needs.

When it comes to child care business operations, few in the business community have a strong understanding of the constraints child care business models operate under and why quality child care is so expensive for families. It is no secret in ECE circles that child care is a broken market, but we can’t assume that everyone else is already aware of the underlying issues. This can be a meaningful starting point when building relationships with the business community.

I talked to Chamber leaders who admitted that they initially thought the child care business model and financial challenges were more about inputs and business management practices. The more they dove into the issues with their local early childhood communities, however, the more they understood the complexity of the financial, regulatory, and operational challenges child care business owners face when operating their programs. That context helped them better understand the need to embrace and support those providers as vital members of their business community.

With the country’s current increased economic and labor market pressures, there is ample opportunity for cross-sector, collaborative efforts to address child care supply and affordability challenges at local, regional, and state levels. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel—this is already happening in many communities, and there are plenty of strong examples to draw from. Read on for a few ideas to help get your efforts off the ground.

Working With Your Chamber of Commerce

Both the ECE field and business interests are invested in building quality supply, however, they’re approaching this issue from different angles and with different understandings of the problems and solutions.

There are many examples of collaborative, multi-stakeholder efforts across the country and no one-size-fits-all approach. Communities must work together to find opportunities that meet their unique needs and contexts.

Public-private partnerships – coordinated, codified efforts between government and private entities – are a well-established concept generally and have been used to expand early care and learning opportunities across the country (Pay for Success initiatives for PreK are one such example). Despite this, we would caution early childhood communities against entering conversations with the business sector with the intention for them to invest directly in expanding child care supply. These conversations may not be particularly fruitful. Instead, it may be a more effective starting point to find opportunities where early childhood and business community interests align, then explore what opportunities arise based on local contexts.

The first step in initiating these conversations is to develop a common understanding of the issues at hand. Most commonly, business leaders:

• Understand that inadequate child care supply has a significant, negative impact on workforce recruitment, retention, and productivity
• Recognize that child care availability and affordability positively impacts local economic growth and development
• Lack awareness of child care business model complexity and market forces
• Do not inherently think of child care business owners as a part of the business community
• Have a strong desire to address child care supply issues, but are unaware of existing efforts or what they can do to help

Once those issues are clarified, there are many ways to kick off a potential partnership with your Chamber. ECE advocates and professionals are encouraged to:

Start a dialogue

How well versed are your Chamber leaders and members in the local child care landscape? What impacts are they experiencing from inadequate supply or high costs of care? What are they hearing from their workforce? What are their motivations in addressing child care supply? Any good partnership starts with a seat at the table. There’s a good chance these conversations will open some eyes to how widespread many of these concerns and ramifications are, just as there’s a good chance you will learn something new from being exposed to new perspectives.

Educate Chamber members

Host a town hall or roundtable to walk members through the costs of quality care. Invite local child care providers to speak about the constraints they’re dealing with and brainstorm potential solutions. Hearing directly from other business owners and having the opportunity to ask questions can be more powerful than any lecture or information dump.

Lead with data

Connect workforce challenges to child care availability (supply & hours of operation) by presenting local data to communicate about supply and demand mismatches in your community. Communities that use software like BridgeCare will have easy access to real-time supply and demand information that can support strategic initiatives and investments. Even where that kind of infrastructure doesn’t exist, there is value in bringing providers and employers together to identify supply and demand mismatches – for example, a community with many third shift employees may find that few providers provide overnight care. Data can be a powerful conversation starter!

Compile proof points

There are so many great partnerships and examples of communities coming together to improve child care access and affordability throughout the country. I’ve included a short list below. Find the elements that could work for your community and talk with your Chamber about how those ideas can be turned into action.

Examples of Strong Business-ECE Collaboration

Mesa County, CO

County leaders across local government, the early childhood council (a type of nonprofit organization whose functions include early childhood advocacy, child care resource and referral, family & provider supports), and the business community have had a longstanding collaboration in pursuit of supporting the local economy and workforce participation by increasing child care supply. The efforts started with a survey of business leaders across the county to understand the impacts child care had on their operations. 98% of respondents said that affordable child care was the number one barrier to workforce recruitment and retention.

These responses encouraged multi-sector strategic planning to address the county’s child care desert. Mesa’s subsequent investment in childcare supply has completely eliminated their child care desert.

Read more: Mesa County Partnership for Children & Families Case Study

Larimer County, CO

Colorado is in the top 10 states for highest monthly child care costs. Like many families across the country, some Larimer County parents have had to make hard decisions about whether one parent should continue working and pay most (if not all) of their salary towards child care or if they should temporarily drop out of the workforce (which often has negative impacts on their longer-term earnings and career advancement when they return).

To support families who wanted to continue working, the Early Childhood Council of Larimer Child Care and the United Way of Larimer County worked together to establish the The Larimer Child Care Fund as a way to offset child care costs for working families who earn too much to qualify for child care subsidies but who would significantly benefit from lowered child care costs. The Larimer Child Care Fund is funded in part by individual and business contributions. These contributions are eligible for the Colorado Child Care Contribution Tax Credit; many other states offer similar incentives for businesses to invest in care.

Tri-Share Models

This is a newer financing approach, which splits child care costs equally between employers, employees, and a third payor (often state or local government). It's a win-win proposition in which employers can help directly defray the cost of care for their employees in exchange for a valuable recruitment and retention tool. Tri-Share has been piloted at state, county, and regional levels throughout the country.

Read more: What is Tri-Share? An Emerging Model for Child Care Funding

Additional Resources

• Watch the full Talent Forward child care panel here and my 5-minute Talent Forward testimonial here.

Author's note: BridgeCare would like to thank the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation for organizing such a thoughtful conversation on child care and the workforce. We encourage any like-minded organizations to reach out with any questions about establishing stronger partnerships with your state and local ECE systems.