North Lauderdale business comes up with creative solution to help workers with child care
FORT LAUDERDALE - A local business has come up with a solution for their working parents struggling to find and pay for child care.
Steve Budraj, the site coordinator at Teleperformance in North Lauderdale, had a hard time getting employees back in the office post-pandemic. So he took a survey.
"It was the same consistent message over and over from our staff - day care cost. And not just the cost of providing a day care that's close in proximity to where they work, logistically, the cost of has just skyrocketed," he said.
So he came up with a plan, a proposition that his boss, a day care owner, and parents were as excited about as kids on the playground during recess.
"We were able to work with a daycare and said look, we're gonna give you one of our buildings, no cost to you. We'll even cover the utilities and all we ask is you give our people 50 percent off of the cost of day care," said Budraj.
"He said 50 percent off for all Teleperformance employees to come to your school. I said, done," said Tracy Kurtz-McFadden with Master Minds Academy.
Master Mind Academy is a fully accredited preschool and day care situated on the Teleperformance property. It's a short walk for parents to pop in and say hi.
It's a partnership that greatly helps out the school with no lease payment and free utilities, Kurtz-McFadden recognizes that it's truly a help to parents
"If you're saving $700 a month, that's $700 that can go toward diapers, that can go towards formula, that can go to towards household bills," she said.
"We realized early on that if you take care of your employees, they'll take care of your customers, and that's how you grow your brand," said Budraj.
So how sustainable is a program like this?
Budraj said that based on the reaction they've got from its employees, they are going to expand this to all 13 properties. Teleperformance and the day care are going to expand as well, because Teleperformance is donating another building, one next to the day care, so they can expand their services in North Lauderdale.