It’s a curse few restaurant employers are spared. Hours before a shift is set to begin, a scheduled worker backs out because their babysitter couldn’t make it and no one else is available to watch the kids.
It was enough of a problem for the First Watch daytime-dining chain to mandate a solution. It found one in the form of a service that specializes in backup care. If a babysitter should cancel at the last minute, or the caregiver for an ailing parent or relative can’t make it that day, the affected employee can turn to a care network called Bright Horizons. Seven times a year, the worker left in the lurch can drop the tots off at one of Bright Horizons’ thousands of daycare facilities for a price of just $10 per day (or $15 for two or more children.) Or, the employee can use a directory of Bright Horizons caregivers to find one who’ll come to their homes for the day, at the bargain rate of $4 an hour. First Watch subsidizes the program, but execs are confident the sales losses they’ve averted and the dampening effect on turnover more than offset the expense.