How I Transformed the Canadian Childcare Industry

In the early 2000s, I set out to revolutionize the childcare industry. I had a passion for children (as I mentioned in my last article), as well as a love for business, and I saw a way to bring those two things together to create a model that would benefit everyone involved—companies, families, teachers, and, most importantly, children.

I recognized that many standard practices in the industry were far from ideal, and I was determined to change them.

We Partnered with Corporations to Acknowledge the Role Childcare Plays in Parents’ Careers

One of the first major differences at Kids & Company was that we aligned with corporations. Childcare exists primarily to support working parents, and I understood that companies had a vested interest in helping their employees thrive. I envisioned a childcare model that was designed to help parents maintain and grow their careers while still doing the best for their children.

We became the first and only provider in Canada to offer corporate-sponsored childcare. Major companies like CIBC, Royal Bank, Deloitte, EY, Rogers, and Scotiabank partnered with us, allowing their employees to access Kids & Company as an employee benefit. Only employees of our corporate partners could use our services.

We Put an End to Waitlists and We Guaranteed Childcare Spaces

In fact, employees of our partners had guaranteed childcare with us. That was simply unheard of.

Maternity and paternity leave should be a special time for parents to ease into their new lives with their newborns. But many parents were spending a lot of their leave worrying about securing childcare, which often complicated their return-to-work plans. This caused anxiety for employers too.

Yet it was simply accepted that most childcare centres had waitlists—long ones. In fact in some major cities, it was completely normal to put your name on multiple waitlists as soon as you found out you were pregnant, with no guarantees. Parents were put in a terrible situation of having to either admit to their employers that they didn’t know when they could return, knowing that could potentially jeopardize their promotion prospects, or just say they did and cross their fingers.

I believed this system was unsustainable. Just like other services, childcare providers should be able to predict their availability and provide start dates for new families. By analyzing our clients’ usage patterns, we had a strong grasp on our capacity. We knew how many children we had and when each one would move up from an infant space to a toddler space to a preschool space. This allowed us to accurately guarantee spaces and start dates.

This was a game changer. Inquiring parents could be told immediately when a spot would be available, and they could secure it on the spot.

We Were the First to Provide Flexibility for Working Parents

As a mother of eight, I also understood that if there was one thing working parents needed, it was flexibility. Good leaders recognize that adapting to clients’ needs is one of the most important success factors for a business. Unfortunately, that mindset was not the norm in the childcare sector.

We have never charged late fees (while some centres charged exorbitant rates, even a dollar a minute). Parents already had enough stress from unexpected delays, due to snowstorms or train shutdowns. They shouldn’t also be hit with a financial penalty. What they needed was to feel valued and respected, and to know their children were cared for. We believed it was far more important that we absorb any occasional overtime pay, with no questions asked, and eliminate that extra stress from parents.

It was also standard practice at many centres to require families to commit to five days a week. If you wanted care for only three days, you might be allowed—if you could find another family to fill the gaps.

At Kids & Company, we took on that responsibility. If a parent needed care for three days, we welcomed them without question. This flexibility not only made us popular, but it also allowed us to manage our demand efficiently.

We Supported Parents Who Needed Care Even for a Single Day

We also recognized that some parents only needed occasional support. Whether it was for school holidays, business trips, or a nanny who was unexpectedly sick, we made it easy for parents to access care for even just one day. No other centres offered this level of flexibility, but our understanding of demand—knowing how many children were likely to be away each day, how many staff members we had, and how many single visits we were likely to get—allowed us to seamlessly accommodate one-off visits.

We also strategically located our centres close to corporate offices, making it even easier for parents to access childcare. If we didn’t have a space available at the Scotia Plaza in downtown Toronto, for example, we could find one over at the TD Centre. Locating our centres centrally, close to corporate offices, allowed us to provide tremendous flexibility to working parents.

We Had Flexible Work Arrangements and Lived by a Strong Set of Values to Retain Great Employees

This level of flexibility wouldn’t be possible, of course, without ensuring we always had exceptional teachers available. We established a pool of on-call staff, a practice that was rare in childcare but that made a lot of sense for us. It allowed us to remain responsive to families’ needs while also giving our teachers flexibility when they needed it.

We wanted our teachers to feel valued and never guilty for having to leave early or call in sick. This has led to high retention rates and low turnover. In fact, many of our team members have been with us since our first centre opened in 2002. I feel fortunate and grateful to have earned that kind of loyalty.

We foster a strong culture around our core values—kindness, innovation, diversity, courage, and optimism—which we call the KidCo Way. These principles guide how we interact with each other, our corporate partners, our families, and our children.

We Insisted on Exceptional Customer Service

We also prioritized exceptional customer service. From our classroom curriculum, to our healthy meals prepared in-house, to webcam access, to regular communication, we worked hard to exceed expectations. We even conducted Net Promoter Score surveys, a first in the childcare space—to make sure we were constantly improving. I’ll share more about our customer service practices in another article.

We Continue to See the Benefits of these Sweeping Changes

The benefits of these changes have been profound. By offering Kids & Company as an employment perk, companies have helped their employees achieve a healthier work-life balance, reduced absenteeism, and improved their ability to attract and retain top talent. Offering guaranteed spaces with no waitlists and the utmost in flexibility has given parents the peace of mind that they can continue to grow their careers while ensuring their children are well cared for.

In the more than two decades since we opened our first Kids & Company centre, we’ve cared for hundreds of thousands of children. I’m incredibly proud of our accomplishments and the positive impact we’ve had across Canada and now into the United States.

Many parents have told me that our services have transformed their lives. I feel privileged to have built this business, providing meaningful benefits to countless companies, families, teachers, and children. My commitment at Kids & Company has always been that I will care for your kids as I do my own. As a mom myself, I understand how valuable that reassurance is, and I’m proud that we continue to operate this way every day.