background
There is a lack of childcare staff across Germany. This is also a problem for the economy. Some companies are therefore taking the problem into their own hands.
“For weeks, the first thing we look at when we get up in the morning is to look at the daycare app on my cell phone: Do I have care or not?” says Munich resident Jeannette Gebauer. “This is really stressful.” Gebauer works part-time, her children should actually go to kindergarten and daycare.
But since Christmas there hasn’t been a week in which both children were fully cared for, she says. Due to illness and a lack of staff, the daycare center is often closed unscheduled. In addition, the fees have been increased. If Gebauer cannot find another care option, she fears that she will have to interrupt her job for the time being: she will then have to take another year of parental leave.
If the childcare fails regularly
Gebauer is not an isolated case. According to a survey by the Hans Böckler Foundation, almost two thirds of all parents are aware of regular childcare absences in daycare centers. Many parents initially tried to compensate for the shortages with vacation or by reducing overtime, says Bettina Kohlrausch, director of the foundation’s Institute of Economics and Social Sciences. “But a third of the affected parents said that they had shortened their working hours because of the unreliable childcare situation.”
So it’s a problem with economic consequences. “These are of course workers who are simply missing, especially in times of skilled labor shortages,” said Kohlrausch. The lack of gainful employment – especially among mothers – was reflected in higher social spending and lower tax revenue.
The economic damage cannot be precisely quantified. But there is also another consequence of the many closures: the necessary early childhood education is suffering. “Trained specialists will still be urgently needed in twenty to thirty years,” says Kohlrausch, who is also a professor at the University of Paderborn. The shortage of daycare staff is therefore also becoming a long-term challenge for companies.
Co-financing of “mini daycare centers” as a model
Some employers – including small and medium-sized companies – are therefore taking child care into their own hands. Like Sabine Fuchsberger-Paukert, managing director of a Munich pharmaceutical wholesaler with around 80 employees. With the help of the “Sira” provider, she has initiated a large day care facility on Munich’s Friedenheimer Brücke and is co-financing three of ten childcare places: a one-off payment of 5,000 euros per place, plus 390 euros for the parents per month – half of the fees incurred.
The employer has reserved the three places for ten years. For the pharmacist, the bottom line is that the “mini daycare” is a win, she says: “I pay this for my employees because it makes me an attractive employer. They are simply additional personnel costs that I spend on employees and then get back .”
More staff hours, fewer Staff absences
What is “disappearingly low” additional personnel costs for the entrepreneur is an urgently needed financial injection for the daycare provider “Sira”. This means that more staff hours can be calculated and cases of illness can be better cushioned.
In addition, smaller groups of children have positive consequences for the employees. “There are two to four people in the team. They are always the same, and with the small number of children, the stress level is simply much lower,” says Christina Ramgraber from “Sira Childcare”. The team also designs its own pedagogical concepts. The hope: the employees will get sick less and will be happy to stay in their jobs.
Care adapted to working hours
Thanks to Sira’s investment concept, not only parents who work in large companies can enjoy the advantages of a company daycare center. For example, Ronny Ungewiss, a customer advisor in the pharmaceutical wholesaler and father of two children, was able to work until 6 or 7 p.m. in the evenings more often thanks to the “mini-daycare center”. For him, the synchronization of childcare with his own working hours was the biggest advantage. “There was also a babysitting service after regular opening hours, which was also supported by the company,” he says.
His employer Fuchsberger-Paukert is proud to invest in child care so that parents can work. “If the state took on this task, I wouldn’t have to do it. Nevertheless, I have the need, so I have to act.”