Little Companies , continued ...

... do what they're supposed to be doing," said Peter Burki, CEO of LifeCare ®, Inc., a Westport, Connecticut-based national employee benefits organization that provides supportive workplace services to employers and employees.

Backup care, for example, is becoming an increasingly popular option for employers and employees. When a regular day care arrangement falls through, a company can pay for all or part of the cost of a temporary babysitter in a kid-friendly room on-site or send a babysitter to the employee's home.

"Whatever child care arrangement a family may have, if they lose it even temporarily (and most people do occasionally), it is a dire emergency. It usually takes an average of eight hours to find a replacement and often much of that is work time," said Susan Seitel, president of Work & Family Connection Inc., a Minnesota consulting firm that offers web-based work-life courses on flexibility for managers and staff. "We know that backup care really pays off because you're bringing people back to work who otherwise wouldn't be able to come. It's a no-brainer."

Here's a list from Work & Family Connection Inc. of additional ways in which a smaller employer can support an employee who is a parent:

• Provide paid parental leave for parents with new babies

• Offer a dependent care assistance plan (allows the use of pre-tax dollars to pay for childcare)

• Partner with childcare centers to arrange for discounts and/or special services

• Partner with schools to arrange parent/teacher or parent/counselor conferences on work time or at the work site and encourage employee involvement

• Provide a resource and referral service, a bulletin board and other sources of information about dependent care

• Set aside a room at work where parents can bring their children, either occasionally in an emergency or for the first months after childbirth

• Provide a private, sanitary space (and equipment, if possible) for breastfeeding

• Offer seminars that teach parenting skills

• Provide mental health counseling for any new mother who may be experiencing postpartum depression

• Offer seminars that address the challenges of parenting

• Train managers to be more supportive when child-related issues and emergencies arise

• Provide health insurance

• Encourage peer support groups for fathers, mothers, single parents, etc.

• Secure the services of a concierge or other timesaving service to run errands for overstretched working parents

• Be flexible. Offer flextime, job sharing, telework, compressed workweek or part-time work

• Address workload issues. Redesign work to allow for remote work so that parents can deal with child-related emergencies

In the employer-employee equation, helping parents with their child-related needs is a matter of quid pro quo, Burki said.

"Employers are demanding very high quality and long hours and American workers are responding by being among the most productive in the world," he said. "Both sides should be able to expect the same level of commitment, flexibility and respect from each other - and help with child care needs to be a part of that. If that mutual contract is delivered then a company is going to be very successful."