The measurement of the effectiveness of a multi-media presentation relating to the topic of employer-supported child care among personnel officers in British Columbia
Creators: name: Ebner, Carol
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2010

description: This study was designed to examine the effectiveness of a multi-media presentation relating to the topic of employer-supported child care in British Columbia in the business community. Changes in the knowledge and attitude of employers, as measured by a questionaire, were the determinants of the effectiveness of the presentation. Personnel officers from the public and private sector were selected for the study subjects. Support for this study was obtained from a professional association of personnel officers, which offered to host an educational seminar on this topic. This seminar is the treatment of the study and the members of the association who elected to attend this seminar are the subjects. This study was part of a larger study that was a joint research project between the University of British Columbia and Douglas College. Each institution supplied a principal investigator, project personnel and institutional resources. The author of this thesis was the project researcher. Funding for the project was received from the Child Care Initiatives Fund, Health and Welfare Canada. A section of the larger project's findings were extracted for this study. The field of employer-supported child care is relatively recent in Canada. Since 1964 when the Riverdale Hospital opened a child care facility in Toronto, there have been just over one hundred such employer-supported child care facilities set up. Many other companies have set up company-assisted child care options that also fall within the term "employer-supported child care," but no one to date has catalogued the total number of such initiatives. In British Columbia there have been four known employer-supported child care centres; one is no longer in existence. There has been considerable interest and activity in the provincial business community since this study began in 1988. However, other than M. Mayfield's survey of employer involvement in child care in British Columbia in 1984, no research studies have been conducted on this topic. No other known studies are currently taking place, although the Child Care Initiatives Fund, Health and Welfare Canada does list several demonstration projects currently underway across Canada. This study, then, is to develop an effective multi-media presentation relating to employer-supported child care that would educate and influence employers to consider involvement in the child care needs of their employees from an economic perspective. Measurement of knowledge and attitude toward the topic would be taken to determine the effectiveness of this presentation. Results showed that the presentation was effective. Whereas before the seminar 2.5% of the respondents reported their company's level of involvement in child care at the "developing an option" stage, by the conclusion of the seminar, 32.5% of the respondents reported interest at the same level. Responses showed that the perceived obstacles of "lack of evidence of child care services providing long term benefits to the company", "corporate liability", and "equity" were significantly reduced. Employers acquired knowledge about the topic through the seminar. Perceived obstacles were overcome. The respondents were motivated to become involved in employer-supported child care. A need for future studies has been identified from the interpretation of the research results and it is hoped that issues raised from this study will form future research questions.