Thomas Jefferson University

If working parents were patients, their diagnosis could be found by asking what they feel.

The client

Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health are private health sciences universities in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, employing over 30,000 faculty and staff. They support a wide spectrum of hospital and university working families—from nursing assistants to residents to professors—with on-site child care.

The opportunity

Since Jefferson’s on-site center was consistently at capacity, the university wanted to explore expanding their family care benefits but weren’t sure where to start. First, they wanted to know the biggest needs and concerns directly from their employees and faculty.

The solution

Jefferson partnered with KinderCare to perform a needs assessment survey of all employees and faculty. The survey was aimed at finding out how their employees were impacted by family care issues, and whether the benefits already available were meeting their needs. Jefferson also wanted to know if their focus should remain chiefly on child care or if their workforce needed elder care.

The results

After the survey, Jefferson’s senior director of benefits had data to support expanding their on-site center. Not only that, the survey confirmed a rising need for elder care. What’s more, the survey showed that having quality child care available to the organization’s workforce would reduce absenteeism—a critical objective in the health care industry.

I have the data that shows the need to look for additional space to expand the center. [The survey was] valuable because it went out to all employees and it keeps the benefit in the forefront of their minds.
- Joann Piechowski, Senior Director of Benefits, Thomas Jefferson University