Survey shows impact of in-home school and childcare on Kentucky’s workforce

by Jacqueline Pitts, August 13th, 2020

A survey of business leaders across the state in the wake of changes to schools and childcare due to the COVID-19 pandemic shows a large

part of the state’s workforce have children under 18 and will have to teach from home when school starts back while working.

The survey, conducted by the Kentucky Society for Human Resource Management (https://ky.shrm.org/), was sent out with a goal of compiling

information to help businesses across Kentucky and their employees during the pandemic. The survey is a real-time reflection and evaluation

of how businesses are currently dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of 351 individuals participated in the survey and responses came from employers in many industries including manufacturing (18%),

professional services (17%), non-profit (13%), health care (10%), education/government (10%), retail (6%), and others including

construction, transportation, hospitality, utilities, and more. The following results reflect feedback from employers across Kentucky

from 7/24/2020-7/31/2020.

• 92% of these employers (321 respondents) said they have

employees with children under the age of 18

• Currently, 37% (131 respondents) have zero people working

remotely

• In terms of what percentage of the workforce will have children

needing to do NTI days this fall, 31% said at least 25% of their

employees will be teaching their kids from home. Only 5% said they

will have 100% of their workforce doing this and 10.5% will not

have any doing NTI. Around 11% were not sure.

• 63% of respondents said they have not had any employees leave

the workforce due to childcare need whereas 31% said they had

employees leave because of childcare

• Similarly, 71% said they have not had any employees leave the

workforce because they’re having to provide in-home education for

their children but 20% (69 respondents) said they had seen that

issue lead to people leaving their company.

• When asked how significant the impact of COVID-19 and school at

home has had on their organization, the largest percentage of

respondents said they have seen some impact (41%) and significant

impact (35%). Only 6% saw no impact from these issues and 3%

were neutral. 13% said they saw very little impact.

In terms of what those impacts look like, organizations said they have seen reduced hours for current staff (35%), altered business hours (30%), and a need for additional staff (24%). The majority (45%) said they had seen “other” impacts including needing far more flexible hours, seeing unhappy and stressed employees, modification of work requirements, significant drop off in business and reduction in staff productivity, struggle to get work done because they cannot replace employees missing work due to FMLA, and other similar concerns.

Gov. Andy Beshear announced Monday, August 10 he was recommending all Kentucky schools delay in-person learning until September 28. This survey was conducted before that recommendation.

Survey Responses

351 responses total:

• 25% had less than 50 employees
• 17% had between 50-100 employees
• 26% have between 100-500 employees
• 12% have more than 500 employees

Responses came from employers in many industries including manufacturing (18%), professional services (17%), non-profit (13%), health care (10%), education/government (10%), retail (6%), and others including construction, transportation, hospitality, utilities, and more.

48% have work from home or remote options while 34% do not

Currently, 37% (131 respondents) have zero people working remotely- the majority 

18% have around 25% of their workforce working remotely, 10% have around 75% of their employees working from home, only 9% of these employers have 50% of their employees working from home and just 4% are still fully remote

51% have flexible hours for employees

92% of these employers (321 respondents) said they have employees with children under the age of 18

Only 1% of respondents said they have 0% of their workforce that are parents

The largest response was 44% that said they their workforce contains about 75% of employees that are parents

41% have around 50% of their workforce with school-age children and only 6% have no employees with school-age children

In terms of what percentage of the workforce will have children needing to do NTI days this fall, 31% said at least 25% of their employees will be teaching their kids from home. Only 5% said they will have 100% of their workforce doing this and 10.5% will not have any doing NTI. Around 11% were not sure.

63% of respondents said they have not had any employees leave the workforce due to childcare need whereas 31% said they had employees leave because of childcare

Similarly, 71% said they have not had any employees leave the workforce because theyre having to provide in-home education for their children but 20% (69 respondents) said they had seen that issue lead to people leaving their company.

When asked how significant the impact of COVID-19 and school at home has had on their organization, the largest percentage of respondents said they have seen some impact (41%) and significant impact (35%). Only 6% saw no impact from these issues and 3% were neutral. 13% said they saw very little impact.

In terms of what those impacts look like, organizations said they have seen reduced hours for current staff (35%), altered business hours (30%), and a need for additional staff (24%). The majority (45%) said they had seen “other” impacts including needing far more flexible hours, seeing

unhappy and stressed employees, modification of work requirements, significant drop off in business and reduction in staff productivity, struggle to get work done because they cannot replace employees missing work due to FMLA, and other similar concerns.