Even when school’s out for summer, working parents continue to clock in. Summer break can be a headache for caregivers, who may have to cobble together different types of support during these months.
Working parents at AT&T are navigating these challenges for the first time since the company called back employees into the office five days a week. The telecommunications giant had adopted a hybrid model during the pandemic, but began enforcing a full-time RTO policy in January.
To help address employees’ concerns about childcare as they come into the office more often, AT&T decided to pilot a camp program for workers at its Dallas headquarters this summer. The company sees it as one way to test workers’ appetite for on-site daycare, AT&T’s assistant vice president of benefits Matt Phillips told HR Brew.
Why AT&T is piloting summer camp. For 10 weeks, employees with kids aged 4–12 will be able to register for the summer camp, which AT&T is offering through a partnership with Steve and Kate’s Camp, which is owned by care provider Bright Horizons. The camp will be located in AT&T’s “Discovery District,” the area of downtown Dallas where the company is headquartered.
In recent years, AT&T has held focus groups and listening sessions to hear about workers’ childcare challenges, Phillips said. One concern he and his colleagues heard, “loud and clear,” was that “summers are hard.”
As the firm started calling workers back into the office, employees’ needs also evolved, he noted saying, “The more you come into the office, the more there are employees saying, ‘I need care close to work.’” With a hybrid model, employees “had the ability to kind of flex their schedule” to fill childcare gaps, but with full-time RTO, AT&T observed greater needs compared to years past.
Phillips previously heard from Bright Horizons about its success piloting a summer camp program at its Newton, Mass. office, and thought the offering could be a good fit for AT&T employees.
Employees can use backup care—which subsidizes the cost of care for days when unexpected needs arise—to help pay for this program. “We wanted it to be flexible, to be able to kind of use the benefits that we already offer,” Phillips said. With the backup care days, the cost totals $15 a day for one child or $25 for multiple children; otherwise the discounted daily price for the camp is $99.
About 15% of available spots had been filled as of April 25, according to Phillips. He said the company planned to share information about the benefit through channels like its employee resource group for young professionals.
Testing the waters for onsite care. The most common family care benefit employers offer is a dependent care flexible spending account (FSA), which allows workers who are married and file a joint tax return to set aside up to $5,000 pre-tax contributions for expenses like preschool and daycare, according to SHRM. As of 2024, 58% of employers surveyed offered a dependent care FSA, while just 3% offered a subsidized childcare center or program, and 12% offered a childcare referral service.
Though onsite daycare is still a rare benefit, companies like UPS and Tyson Foods now offer it, HR Brew previously reported. And onsite care is one potential carrot HR leaders can use to encourage workers to come into the office, sources told HR Brew in March.
AT&T already offers 10 days of backup care, as well as 15 days of caregiver paid time off. While the company hasn’t yet invested in onsite daycare, Phillips said the camp is one way to test whether this could be a worthwhile benefit for its staff.
“It’s a good way to think about care at or near our headquarters,” he said. AT&T already offers discounts and preferred enrollment at Dallas care centers, and onsite care represents a more complex investment. Still, he said, “with more people back in the office, that kind of tips the scale, where probably more people would value that.”
Bright Horizons is seeing more clients experiment with lower-cost childcare benefits, like backup care and summer camp, to help make the case for onsite daycare, said Priya Krishnan, the company’s chief digital and transformation officer. Based on use rates, benefits leaders may be able to make a “business case” for onsite care, she added.
Sadie Funk, national director of the Best Place for Working Parents, which advocates for family-friendly workplace policies, agreed that summer camp benefits may help HR leaders better understand what their employees’ needs are year-round.
“It’s a great way to understand utilization, to understand the value of the benefit,” she said, adding that summer camps may also allow employers to “test out and pilot” care providers to best understand who matches “their culture” and “the needs of their families.”
This report was originally published by HR Brew.
