Newton Industries was the single biggest employer in the area. Nearly a fourth of the local population was employed there. It had a reputation as a progressive company that really cared about their employees. The CEO was John J. Robinson, JR, to the employees. Everyone knew and loved him. He was in his mid-forties, handsome, and single. He was also very wealthy, and no one could understand why some available woman hadn't grabbed him up a long time ago.
There was a suggestion box in the company dining area and JR read each suggestion personally. He frequently forwarded the suggestions to whatever department might be best to evaluate the suggestion for feasibility. In the box today he found a suggestion that seemed to make a lot of sense to him. Mary Hanson, from human resources, suggested that since the company employed so many mothers that an onsite daycare would not only be cost effective, but it would improve productivity. He decided to follow-up on the idea. HR seemed to be the logical department to investigate it, so he decided on going right to the source of the suggestion, Mary Hanson. He walked to his secretary, Cynthia Willits.
"Cindy, will you ask Mary Hanson to come to my office. I'd like to talk to her about her daycare idea. I'd like you in the meeting too."
"Any particular time, JR?"
"Whenever you're both free. I'm just signing papers this morning."
"Yes, sir."
It was about thirty minutes later when Mary and Cindy walked in.
"Have a seat ladies. Mary, I saw your daycare suggestion this morning. Tell me what you're thinking."
"Sir, over half of our employees are women. Forty three percent of those have school age children. That means getting the kids to school or daycare for many of them. The school system doesn't provide any after school care so many of the kids have daycare or are left alone until parents get home. In the summer, when school's out, it's an even bigger problem. We have space here to create and operate a wonderful daycare. We could either run it free or at a considerably discounted price from what the parents are now paying."
"Mary, what does daycare cost?"
"Going rates in the area are about thirty dollars a day."
"Per child?"
"For the first child. The second and subsequent children are about half that."
"So, a mother of three is paying a third to half of their salary for daycare?"
"Yes, sir."
"Could we provide the same service for less?"
"Yes, JR. We could do a lot better service, including transport to and from school, and do it for less than half of that cost."
"Besides the obvious, how does that help our company?"
"Improved employee satisfaction and reduced absenteeism are the main benefits."
"Do you know anything about setting one up?"
"Not personally, but I have a friend that recently moved to the area from Dayton, Ohio that ran a successful daycare chain."
"Any idea why she doesn't still run it?"
"She got sick of the cold weather and snow."
"Do you think she'd be interested in creating one for us and getting it running?"
"It couldn't hurt to ask."
"If she's interested run a full background check on her as you would any department head. I'll need design, setup costs, number of employees in the center and salaries. Come up with an idea for the director salary too. Put that together then let me see what you've got. Comments, Cindy?"
"I think it's a wonderful idea. You might want to even include a center where the older kids can come where there can be some, lesser but present, adult supervision. Maybe even tutoring. Don't forget to figure in busses or vans for transport to and from school."
"Can you handle all that, Mary?"
"It's quite a project, but I can do this."
"I'd like to review the information on your friend before we sink any money into this so talk to her first."
"Yes, sir."
"Anything else, ladies?"
Both shook their heads and stood. JR stood also. "Thank you both," he told them.
The ladies went back to work, and JR went back to signing his papers. Mary was thrilled with the opportunity he had given her in organizing and doing a feasibility study on this project. Mary had one child that was pre-school age and another in the second grade. She would love to be able to have her children involved and close to her rather than shipping them off every day.
One of the papers on JR's desk for review included the results of a suggestion a few months ago regarding employee dress codes. An employee had suggested casual clothing for everyone in the company that wasn't involved, face to face with clients, and business or business casual for those who were. They had tested the system over the last thirty days and the response from the employees had been overwhelmingly good. After thoroughly reviewing the reports he signed the new dress code that would be effective immediately. He knew the employees were excited about hearing his decision and he took it to Cindy for immediate distribution. She looked at it and grinned.
"They're going to love you for this, JR."
"Who put in the suggestion originally?"
"Jose' Velasquez, our groundskeeper."
"When is our next monthly employee recognition lunch?"
"This Thursday."
"Let's do something really nice for him."
"How about we let him choose between an extra week pay or a paid week off?" Cindy suggested.
"I like it. If he takes the week off, I want my senior managers to each do his job for one day."
"They'll grumble about that."
"I'll take a day too. I won't ask them to do anything I won't do. I get the riding mower day. I always wanted to drive one of those things."
"You on a riding mower? Heaven help us," Cindy chuckled.
"Oh, ye of little faith," he laughed. "Let's surprise him with it on Thursday."
"He'll be thrilled."
"Good, that's what we want."
When Mary returned to her desk, she made a call to her friend Crystal who was in the middle of a remodeling project in her family room. There would be contractors in and out of her home the rest of the week, so they planned on getting together to talk about the possible daycare project on Saturday.
At the employee recognition lunch, on Thursday, Jose' was brought before the crowd to recognize him for his suggestion of changing the dress code. He was greeted with a resounding reception by his fellow employees. Jose' opted for the paid week off from work and would be off the following week. There was a small amount of complaining from the executives when they discovered they would each be taking one day next week at caring for the grounds but nothing significant. JR would be mowing on Tuesday and Jose' was more than happy to take him to his shop after the luncheon to show him how to operate the large riding mower. Jose' also put together a schedule for the execs so they would each know what needed to be done and when.
