Nike expands daycare program and employees are furious

In a business full of advantages, it is generally accepted that the PNCD is one of the features that make the job at Nike truly special.

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Now, Nike plans to close the PNCD and replace it with an off-campus facility run by a partner, Endeavor Schools. Prices will remain competitive. Nike will keep control. The location has not yet been determined, but the company promises not to exceed 10 minutes drive. Oh, and these kids on the waiting list? The new facility will have room for almost everyone.

But the move, which aims to make Nike families happier, may have resulted on the contrary.

In the space of a few weeks, a petition aimed at keeping the program run by Nike on campus had more than 1,300 signatures, of which about 130 from parents on the waiting list or who had tried 39, get a place but never registered, according to several employees had seen or signed the letter. They asked to remain anonymous because they feared retaliation from Nike.

Employees do not want the center to leave the campus, according to e-mails sent to General Manager Mark Parker and other company executives who have been reviewed by Bloomberg. They are skeptical about Endeavor, a national for-profit network of daycares and schools owned by Leeds Equity Partners, a private equity firm based in New York.

They are also frustrated by the decision to effectively fire more than 100 Nike teachers and caregivers currently managing the program. According to one person familiar with the offer, retention bonuses of $ 10,000 ($ 14,300) were offered to these teachers and aides.

In the end, Nike is not an expert in childcare. We work with people who are.

Sandra Carreon-John, Nike spokesperson

They will also be offered jobs in the new facilities if they wish, but without the stock options and other benefits now available to them.

Nike responds to employees who, over the years, have asked the company to welcome more children and families. In the weeks following the announcement of the change, the waiting list has increased by 250 names.

"We do not want to sacrifice service, we do not want to sacrifice quality," said Sandra Carreon-John, Nike spokeswoman.

"Ultimately, Nike is not an expert in childcare, we work with people who do."

For its part, Endeavor plans to "preserve as much as possible the program," said Ricardo Campo, president and CEO of the company. "We have great experience in creating inspirational and developmentally appropriate learning environments, and we are confident that we will achieve this in collaboration with Nike."

For parents working at Nike and everywhere else, it's extremely difficult to find affordable, high-quality child care. Over the past 20 years, the cost of childcare in the United States has doubled – for those lucky enough to find it.

There are not enough child care services to meet the demand and parents can wait months before having an opening. This is especially true in Oregon, where about 60% of urban and suburban state families live in what is considered a "desert child care facility," defined as an area where three times more children need child care than places available. .

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Portland parents describe daycare hunting as a "bloody sport".

In an email surveyed by Bloomberg, a vice president of the company, who sent two of his children to Nike Daycare, asked Parker and other leaders to reconsider their decision. She explained how access to the PNDC helped her climb the ladder because she did not have to worry about her children during the day.

Some employees have stated that the change is emblematic of Nike's inability to adapt a corporate culture that at best does not take into account the occupational stress to which women are particularly exposed. Last year, the company ousted a number of senior executives after an investigation related to badual misconduct, but it is still the subject of legal action for bad discrimination.

More recently, female athletes signed with Nike publicly complained that the company had financially penalized them when they became pregnant. (Nike said the policy had been improved last year but had not informed all athletes.)

Nike says this change is part of a renewed commitment to empowering women in general and women workers in particular. Since 2006, the number of employees at its headquarters in Oregon has more than doubled to more than 12,000, a growth that has put a strain on the child care program. The PNDC has three sites in three different buildings on campus. The new configuration will open the crèche to a larger number of employees, while providing similar benefits, compensation, and career opportunities for center staff, the company told employees in an email.

Nike has long been a champion of women's empowerment and is targeting more and more women. In February, the company released a 90-second commercial, commented by Serena Williams, endorsed by Nike, featuring dozens of women breaking sports stereotypes and gender barriers.

At present, the company's female business accounts for less than half of its men's earnings, but it grows almost twice as fast.

Recent reviews of Nike's corporate culture have been shocking.

According to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management, Nike is only one of 3% of US companies to provide on-site childcare services.

Even when they asked Nike's executives not to act on the proposed changes to the PNDC, employees acknowledged their relative luck. They know that access to high quality childcare services at work is an extraordinary benefit. They have described it as a powerful recruitment and retention tool, an incentive to work at Nike and a reason to be proud of the company culture.

Bloomberg