HR OD Initiative - Toddlers Park – Building a home for the Generation Next

• As a HR professional for the last decade and half, one thing I have realized is Human Resource as a function is ever evolving and still has many unchartered territories to explore. During 2007-08, in the early summer as we were rolling out strategic initiatives of HR function, one of the responsibilities I had was to create an OD charter & implement some of the unique practices in my organization. It was very challenging and unique, as none has traversed this path and I was the first one to take a plunge into this assignment. After a lot of research & discussions I realized that the development and implementation of a winning mindset is the core to be able to build and sustain OD intervention in any organization. OD charter can be a way to transform your HR organization. A true HR transformation is an integrated, aligned, innovative, and business focused approach to redefining how HR functions within an organization so that it enables the organization to deliver its value proposition to its primary customers, stake holders and society at large.
  
  There is a perception in the industry today that HR functions are all about creating JOY events, feel good factor and not really providing strategic direction & handling critical issues of people development. HR functions/professionals are working towards creating best practices to enable a strong people centric culture (Culture is the nucleus of a true people organization) that make employees more competitive, comfortable and helps to create a sustained high energy levels across the organization.
  
  One of my first assignments was to create a home for young Minds at MindTree. This was a special need of all young mothers/fathers who have young infant who needs a caring & nurturing home away from home. It was an assignment of creating a Daycare to create inclusivity and support system for oung parents. I felt it was the most interesting and challenging assignment I ever had in the last 13 years of career. It was very fascinating for me as I also had a little son Nishcal who is 2 years who would play in this DayCare once it is ready.
  
  
  
  Evolution of DayCare appeared in the early 1840’s in France, Originating in Europe in the late 18th and 19th century, day cares were established in the United States by private charities in the 1850s. Daycare’s in India evolved because of the need to create support system for all nuclear families. More and more people in India have started living in major cities where both husband & wife are career oriented and have no one to take care of their future (Children). This has lead to starting daycare centre’s in India.
  
  At MindTree, we have a Baby’s Day Out facility where all young parents bring their kids to work, while parents work children play around, in a beautifully decorated place with lots of toys, games etc. This facility accommodates only handful of people and not made to cater to larger needs. Suddenly young parents have to depend on care takers who need to nurture children & hence they were not sure if they will go to office on any given day, since they have to wait till the care taker comes. This issue started impacting young parent’s work/professional and personal life. Many minds were not keen to send their children to outside daycare centres as they were not comfortable & logistically it was a nightmare to manage family issues on a daily basis. All parents went and approached people function to help in this situation. Ideas starting pouring in from everyone, then we started thinking of a facility which can help the parents. There arose the idea of having Toddlers Park at MindTree.
  
  First task was to find out the facts about what it takes to start a DayCare centre, the needs of MindTree Minds and capacity planning to be able to empanel a vendor who will run this DayCare. I broadly created a project plan to execute this assignment and roped in few young mothers Mitali, Shyamala to help me with scoping & requirement gathering. I started an extensive research on what it takes to create a DayCare, spoke to lot of agencies who run daycare, companies who have DayCare, people planning to start daycare. I did quite a lot of networking among the HR community to find out what it takes to set up a DayCare. I met many HR professionals, child specialists, entrepreneurs in DayCare domain to understand how, what, why, where etc. I also visited corporate DayCare centre’s of Honeywell, Infosys, IBM etc. along with Mitali & Vanita. During my discussions I realized it’s not very simple to start a daycare, It needs a complete different mindset to set up a daycare.
  
  Key special requirements for DayCare are;
  - Soft Flooring with special material with mat finish & not necessarily carpet
  - Walls need to have soft padding to ensure that children do not get hurt while
  crawling, walking, playing etc.
  - All equipments in the Daycare to have smooth edges
  - Enough cross air circulation & no Air Condition
  - Special clothing’s, crockery & mattresses along with special floor mats
  - Special Cradle’s for different age groups
  - Need to have unique child to care taker ratio to ensure appropriate hygienic
  environment
  - Special toys, special books, CDs etc.
  
  You will never realize how help is often avail­able just when you need it, One day while visiting Infosys DayCare I met Mrs.Meena Sivaram from Bright Vistas who had done some excellent work in setting up and running successful daycare centres across Bangalore. The way she presented her story was a mesmerizing experience for me, her love for children & understanding of child psychology helped me to narrow down on my search for a partner. This 30 minute conversation led to many longer discussions to see if we can work together and she can help me to set up MindTree’s daycare Centre in Global Village.
  
  We briefed our requirements to Bright Vistas MD, Meena Sivaraman and introduced her to all young parents at MindTree so that they are comfortable with the service provider. A team of young mothers & myself started looking for the space run this facility. We were given many different options but none were suitable to host young children. At last we found space below Coffee day in the Global village premises. While we searched for space, we gave the specifications to our Administration team to work out a layout plan, furnishing etc. I must admit that we pushed them to deliver with stiff deadline but they worked day and night to bring the infrastructure. At last with an effort of 4 months we started our daycare 3rd week of September’2007 we had Toddlers Park ready for inauguration to host young minds of the future.
  
  After the daycare started Kids were very happy since they could learn new things and have lot of friends. But soon we realized that we hit the dead end with no of children registering with Toddlers Park was diminishing as we didn’t get the minimum Nos to to run a DayCare and Meena was getting worried as she started incurring losses within 3 months. We did not know what do and decided to create a marketing collaterals, conducting events at DayCare to educate people about the facilities, services and happiness for children. It took few months before we managed to get the required children to come to Toddlers Park..
  As the happiness quotient started spreading a wave within Global Village and in a year’s time many requests came for the toddler’s park that lead to the extension of the facility to accommodate mmore than 25 children. This has lead to a full-fledged toddler’s park which accommodates tiny babies from 3 months to 6 year old kids and evolved various services such as full day, half day and hourly basis engagement of young children to suit different needs of different parents.
  
  Presence of Toddlers Park with in the walk-able distance of work place brings the feeling of near the dear ones and one could just meet them, cuddle them when you wish; play with them whenever required and comeback to work with absolute freshness. This gave us a sense of work life balance and erased the feeling of way from the loved ones. This facility has helped not only MindTree parents but also given employment to many people for their survival. Most of the people employed are from surrounding areas & have got an opportunity to serve the best creation of almighty and in the process then can lead a more meaningful life for their loves ones with the help of Bright Vistas. People never forget that helping hand especially when times are tough. In helping others, we indirectly help ourselves, for whatever good we do to others completes the circle and comes back to us in some form or the other. Hard times hit us at some point in life, Enjoy everything in life, good & bad, Let your fortune help others, only People helping people makes this world a better place to live.
  It was an experience of a life time to create a home for little prince & princess who will rule this world some day. Children will not remember us for the material things that we provide them but the feeling that we cherished them. Children are the most valuable gifts of god as they the best hope of a better future… Long live the generation next…