North Fort Lauderdale businesses come up with creative solutions to help workers care for children

fort lauderdale – A local business has a solution for working parents struggling to find and pay for child care.

Steve Budraj, field coordinator for Teleperformance in North Lauderdale, is having a hard time getting employees back into the office after the pandemic. So he did a survey.

“The same consistent message from our employees over and over again is the cost of day care. It’s not just the cost of providing day care close to where they work, but logistically, the costs are skyrocketing,” he said.

So he came up with a plan, a proposal that had his bosses, daycare center owners, and parents as excited as kids on the playground at recess.

“We were able to partner with a daycare center and say, we’ll give you one of our buildings at no charge. We’ll even pay the utility bills, and all we ask is that you give our staff a 50 percent discount. “The cost of day care,” Budraj said.

“He said all Teleperformance employees can come to your school for a 50 percent discount. I said, done,” said Tracy Kurtz-McFadden of Master Minds Academy.

Master Mind Academy is a fully accredited preschool and daycare center located on the Teleperformance property. It’s a short walk away for parents to stop by and say hello.

This partnership helps the school tremendously, with no rent and free utilities, which Kurtz-McFadden recognizes can really help parents

“If you save $700 a month, that $700 can be used to buy diapers, it can be used to buy formula, it can be used to pay household bills,” she said.

“We realized early on that if you take care of your employees, they’ll take care of your customers, and that’s how you grow your brand,” Budraj said.

So how sustainable is such a program?

Budraj said based on employee response, they will expand the initiative to all 13 restaurants. TelePerformance and the day care center will also be expanding, as TelePerformance is donating another building, one next to the day care center, so they can expand services in North Fort Lauderdale.