Nursery Service Policy by Employers in China: Connotation, Value and Implementation Path

YU Shuhong, LI Mengyun

Abstract： Children are the country's hope and future， an essential element of the quality of society's future labor force and human resources. Encouraging， supporting， and guiding capable employers to provide nursery services for their employees in the workplace is an important part of China's three-child birth policy and relevant measures. The employers should satisfy the requirements of inclusion and welfare in providing nursery services and be able to guarantee nursery support for employees' families by increasing the supply of services in the nursery services market. Employer's nursery service policy in China is in line with the transformation of the child welfare system， and at the same time， has the multiple values of stabilizing China's human resources supply， achieving a balance between work and family for employees， and fulfilling the social responsibility of enterprises.

However， at present， the employer's nursery service policy lacks practical implementation plans and support measures. The willingness of employers to provide nursery services is not strong， and the policy implementation is ineffective. The reason is that， on one hand， the ambiguity of the policy text leads to a lack of understanding of the employer's nursery service policy and employees; on the other hand， employers lack a comprehensive study of the value of the objectives of providing nursery services for employees and the support of the policy， and do not take into account the short term benefits and long term benefits， and the economic benefits and social benefits of the provision of nursery services.

Given the ineffective implementation of employer's nursery service policy in China and the reasons for this， it is necessary to guide the specific direction of the nursery service policy provided by employers， explore the multi-sharing mechanism for the costs of nursery services， and then optimize the path of implementation of the nursery service policy. Firstly， to clarify the connotation of "capable employers" in nursery service policy. Secondly， a cost-sharing mechanism should be established for the provision of nursery services by employers so that the government， society， employers， and working families will share the costs. Finally， it is necessary to explore multiple models for employers to provide nursery services for their employees and ways for employers to support their employees' families in the nursery. The nursery service policy by employers is a feasible path to cope with the aging of the population， promoting a balance between family and work， and maintain the supply of human resources. Therefore， it should be accompanied by maternity support measures such as parental leave， childcare allowances， and flexible working time arrangements so that families with children can flexibly choose the employer's nursery support plan to meet their families' childcare needs further.

KEY WORDS： employer's nursery service; idea of children's welfare; inclusive; childcare support