Turnover
Working parents leave or reduce hours when care breaks down. Replacement costs can exceed 200%.
Workforce stability for Idaho employers
Child care is workforce infrastructure.
Family-friendly workplaces improve reliability, retention and performance. Enhance your workforce stability strategy today with the help of Idaho Families Work.
$688M
Lost from Idaho's economy each year because families cannot access reliable child care.
ReadyNation · 2026
The Bottom Line
The cost of child care is already on your books.
Most Idaho employers have no child care line item. The expenses show up in staff churn, missed shifts, lower productivity and opportunity cost.
Absences
Child care failures cause missed shifts, late arrivals, early departures and supervisor workarounds.
Productivity
Employees with unstable child care are less capable of travel, additional shifts or advancement opportunities.
Recruitment
Family-friendly workplaces compete for top talent on reliability, predictability and practical support.
The Four Pillars
Start with minimal financial investment.
You cannot solve every challenge for every family. You can take sensible steps to remove friction and keep your people showing up and growing.
Predictability
Give employees enough advance notice and consistency in their schedules to plan child care and other family responsibilities.
What It Looks Like
- Post shift schedules at least two weeks in advance.
- Reduce last-minute changes.
- Consistent hours.
- Use predictive scheduling practices.
Why It Works
Predictability helps families arrange care, improving workplace reliability, morale and continuity.
How To Try It
Attend the Idaho Families Work Employer Summit to learn the best ways to take your first step.
Flexibility
Give employees reasonable ways to adjust when and how work gets done where operations allow.
What It Looks Like
- Flexible start and end times when possible.
- Shift swapping with clear guidelines.
- Remote or hybrid options for eligible roles.
- Seasonal flexibility during school breaks or infant transitions.
Why It Works
Flexibility gives working parents room to solve care issues before they become attendance issues.
How To Try It
Attend the Idaho Families Work Employer Summit to learn the best ways to take your first step.
Support
Equip managers to respond consistently and constructively when employees face family-related disruptions.
What It Looks Like
- Train managers to respond consistently to family-related conflicts.
- Give supervisors clear options for handling unexpected care disruptions.
- Employees feel safe raising challenges.
- Employees use available family-friendly policies without stigma or friction.
Why It Works
Employees who feel valued and supported are more likely to stay, engage and communicate before problems escalate.
How To Try It
Attend the Idaho Families Work Employer Summit to learn the best ways to take your first step.
Resource Connection
Make existing child care, family and community resources easy for employees to find and use.
What It Looks Like
- Add family resources to employee onboarding.
- Share child care referral resources.
- Connect employees to local resources.
- Create a working-parent resource hub.
Why It Works
When employees spend less time searching for help, they have more capacity to focus and more trust in the provider.
How To Try It
Attend the Idaho Families Work Employer Summit to learn the best ways to take your first step.
Events & workshops
Shared funding
Your business does not carry the cost alone.
Cost-sharing models can divide child care costs between employers and employees and, in some models, public, philanthropic or community partners, making meaningful support more attainable.
Duo-Share
Employer and employee share the cost directly, without requiring a third funding partner. Contributions can be structured as a percentage or a defined employer amount.
Tri-Share
Employer, employee and a public, philanthropic or community partner share the cost. The contribution structure can be tailored to the program and available funding.
Federal tax credit
Enhanced in 2026: eligible employer child care expenditures may qualify for a federal tax credit, with higher credit rates available to qualifying small businesses.
Start with the workforce problem, choose the right solution, then work with a tax professional to determine whether the investment qualifies.
Idaho Families Work does not provide tax advice.
How we help
From workforce problem to practical action.
We help Idaho employers understand their workforce needs, choose right-fit solutions, put them into practice and measure what changes.
CONTACT USReadiness Assessment
A structured diagnostic of your workforce, pain points, current supports and local care landscape so you know the right place to start before making a major investment.
Solution Design
A 30-day action sprint, a pilot concept with cost assumptions and owners, a partner map and a measurement plan. A practical plan, not a best-practices memo.
Implementation, Training & Measurement
Pilot support, executive briefings and manager workshops to put the plan into practice, followed by measurement of retention, absenteeism, utilization and lessons learned.
Toolkits & resources
Build the internal case.
Practical resources to help organizations move from discussion to action.
Toolkit Coming Soon
Attend the Idaho Families Work Employer Summit to be the first to receive the resources.
Register for the Summit
Supported by Idaho employers
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Workforce Leader
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Start here
Tell us where the problem shows up. We’ll help you find the right starting point.
A short conversation about your workforce, schedules and biggest pain points can help identify the practices, partnerships and funding pathways worth exploring.