Do you allow employees to bring their babies to the office?

In the quest to strike the right balance between office and remote work, New Zealand organisations are grappling with the ongoing debate surrounding workplace flexibility for parents. Meanwhile, across the ditch, some North Queensland organisations are adopting a bold and unconventional approach to childcare by allowing employees to bring their babies to work.

Sales agent Bec Burtill from Mackay, Queensland shared her experience with ABC, revealing that she has been back at work for four months with her baby in tow. Burtill has set up a designated play area with a port-a-cot and toys, making it feel like a normal workday, albeit with some restrictions during nap and feed times.

While this concept might seem radical, it has gained traction in several European countries. However, academics caution that while allowing children in the workplace where it's safe to do so is a positive idea, it can introduce challenges such as increased workload and role conflicts for employees juggling multiple responsibilities.

Despite the popularity of this approach overseas, HRD could not find a New Zealand organisation that has experimented with this initiative, but HR leaders acknowledged that it wasn’t uncommon to see children in the workplace after three o'clock.

Kids and babies not unusual in Kiwi organisations

“This is not an initiative we’ve done formally,” said Sarah Able, chief people and culture officer at the Cooperative Bank, “but informally, it’s not unusual to see kids hanging out around the office during school holidays or after school for a couple of hours.”

Many organisations also promote a family-friendly atmosphere, encouraging new parents to bring their babies to the office for meet-and-greet sessions. “It’s very much a tradition for new parents to bring their babies in to the office and have morning tea with the team so everyone can meet the new addition to the Co-op whānau,” said Able.

While American organisations don’t appear to have picked up on the bring your baby to work idea, most companies have an annual “Bring your Kids to Work” day, something that the Cooperative Bank has embraced in their head office here. 

The annual “Bring your Kids to Work Day”

“We had a ‘Bring Your Kids to Work Day’ which saw our people bring in their kids of all ages to check out where mum or dad work, participate in some fun activities and learn a bit about banking,” said Able.     

“Bring your Kids to Work Day”, provides an opportunity for employees to share their work environment with their tamariki. The bank's head office hosted 25 kids for a day of organised fun and educational activities.

The children received a lesson from the CEO on what banks do, participated in low-level policy-building discussions, and engaged in activities like colouring, painting, a mini cross-fit session and a pizza lunch.

The lesson from the CEO, used a ski shop as an example of how you buy at one price, sell at a higher price, pay staff and rent and have some profit left. Then explained in the case of a bank, they buy money (deposits) and sell money (loans).

The mostly five- to 10-year-olds then got a crash course in policy building as they discussed what rules a bank should have, then voted to find the top ideas, which turned out to be:

• Every Friday should be a junk food day
• No robbing the bank
• Respect your colleagues
• Everyone be good at maths
• Be helpful and fun
• No killing people
• Help the poor people in the world

Among the learning they also managed some fun activities like colouring in and painting, and they decorated notebooks – an exercise called “Pimp My Notebook” to gift to their mum or dad, before a mini cross-fit session and a pizza lunch.