Can you imagine an office where children are welcome? Many would say, “Absolutely not.” This is a lost opportunity if you ask me.

There is one crucial mistake in the “childcare is important” conversation. Resistance to bringing children to work or funding childcare at work usually leads managers to answer the question that childcare is an individual’s problem, not our problem. The mistake is not taking responsibility for how we working parents enable work.

Often times, when employers are asked why they don’t support childcare allowances, they point to cost and fairness as the main obstacles. You might cite a reluctance to introduce a benefit for some, but not all, employees. The alternative solution suggested by many in HR and leadership roles is to support better wages and flexibility so parents can access the care support they need. Flexibility, they say, is how we get more women back into the workforce.

That advice misses the point.

I believe that child care should be seen as an employer responsibility. Working parents cannot come to work without childcare. If we look at the responsibility for care as infrastructure, especially the economic and municipal infrastructure, we open up new potential sources of funding and many new problem solvers. Think of it as the many-to-one versus one-to-many approach. Childcare is not just a problem for an individual household or even a government agency, but rather a structural barrier preventing economic recovery, which requires much more solution-finder.

Take transit as an example of multifactorial, mutually beneficial infrastructure support. We expect all government contracts – local, state, and federal – to contribute to transportation funding as we need these systems to get people to work. Where there are gaps, some employers fill those gaps by providing transit services.

In short: yes to buses, but no to babies.

Before the Palo Alto buses from Google and Facebook, there were car allowances and subsidies for transit passes. Regardless of the stakes, many employers view transportation as the infrastructure support they are willing to provide in order to attract and deploy their talents to work. Anne Driscoll also commented, “Somebody didn’t think it was great that all of these Google employees who live in San Francisco were driving 35 miles to work, and that turned into a transportation network that carries 1,200 people a day, which is a huge impact work has the environment and people’s lives. “

Google’s shuttle bus solution is not only based on efficiency, but also on a clever and substantial environmentally friendly strategy. What happens when we see children being taken to work or simply making it easier for parents to come to work to have a huge impact on people’s working lives? What does nursing support bring to our collective community?

Tech companies in the suburbs of San Francisco understand that moving workers from urban centers to suburban campuses is not only a strategy for green commuters, it also reduces friction for top talent and adds a loyalty strategy for those who don’t Do More I have to think about auto insurance, gasoline, and auto maintenance.

In my view, the future of childcare is understanding that the solution lies in infrastructure. As President Biden prepares to add a stronger lens for childcare to his upcoming economic proposal, some may be tempted to let the government handle it. However, this ignores the golden opportunity that today’s executives have in the workplace to reduce the friction that working parents experience while navigating years of waiting lists, expensive childcare fees, and the epically stressful drop-off / pick-up race for daycare. Not to mention, it’s an opportunity to provide immediate support to women who have been forced off work due to caring responsibilities during the pandemic.

Kamala Harris tweeted, “If we invest in infrastructure, we create good jobs.” She gets it. Childcare infrastructure means more working parents come to work while shifting childcare responsibility from the problem of the individual to a collective responsibility that supports a diverse workforce. And this diverse workforce is becoming a workforce in which a disproportionately large number of highly qualified women and marginalized parents leave their jobs after having children.

As a leader, you can begin to support working parents in a variety of ways. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• For all employees, allow for “no meeting days” when children are unexpectedly home in the event of closings, school closings, or days of bad weather. This relieves the burden and still enables the work.

• Set aside “kid-friendly” office areas where older children can attend virtual school, do homework after school, or check in in bad weather or a sudden school day. A small boardroom with wifi will work fine.

• Work with agencies that provide on-demand and drop-in childcare support to bring early childhood educators into your office when parents need to bring their children to work. If you turn an empty office into a playroom and bring in the teachers to make programming easier, you can quickly support a dozen employees.

• Make sure your office has a care suite that only requires four walls (no clear glass, please), a comfortable chair, an electrical outlet and a mini fridge.

• Think about how you recognize and honor your employees’ role as working parents alongside professionals. Now that we’ve looked at each other’s home office setup for over a year, we can’t overlook the fact that some of us are parents. Sometimes parents just need confirmation and confirmation that their identity as parents is welcomed and celebrated in the company. Have you ever met a more efficient worker than a parent, walking back and forth between pumps, job meetings, investor meetings, and snack time?

Think about infrastructure support and what your business can offer, from daycare grants to occasional loans. By recognizing employees as parents, we are sending a signal that childcare is our collective responsibility. We are all determined to resolve these to get more people back to work.

Amanda Munday is the founder and CEO of The Workaround and builds coworking spaces with on-site childcare.