Brilliant answers

Running head: JUSTIFICATION REPORT 1

JUSTIFICATION REPORT

Renzo Rey de Castro

Strayer University

Professor Stacie Pittell

ENG-305

February 17th, 2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Letter of transmittal………………………………….....................………………………………3

Executive summary………………………………………………………….……………………4

Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………5

Overview of alternatives………………………………………………………………………….6

Evaluation criteria…………………………………………….……………………………..……7

Evaluation of alternatives based on the criteria…………………………………………………..8

Research methods……………………………………………………………….……………….10

Findings and analysis…………………………………………………………………………….10

Recommendations……………………………………………………………….……………….11

References………………………………………………………………………………………..12

To the CEO

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Dear

Attached find the proposal that concerns the current problems faced by mothers with small children whom are just back to work after maternal leave. It is a proposal of methods that can be employed to solve the problem.

I would appreciate if you read it and provide any relevant feedback. The feedback may include comments and your view of the proposal and your decisions with regards to the project including either to take it and approving it. If you have any questions kindly feel free from the number 703-926-6666 to call or send an email through [email protected].

Thank you so much for your time and the commitment and goodwill that you usually have for the company.

Yours sincerely

Renzo Rey De Castro

Executive summary

Upon a detailed review of the problems that new mothers whom are just back after maternity leave are going through, it was deemed necessary to take some action to make life at the company better for them. This report proposes that. It begins by noting the problem; that most mothers are back to work after only three months. This interferes with exclusive breastfeeding necessary for babies up to the age of six months.

The report identifies various methods that can be applied to alleviate the problem including allowing the mothers to work from home and to have a nursery at work. Of the options noted, having a nursery at work where nannies can be allowed in and where there are employed caretakers too.

The report notes the criteria used to make a choice between the options with a comparative analysis. This analysis has merits and demerits and also looks at what can be hindrances of either project or their benefits.

Introduction

It is stressful to be a new mother and be employed at the same time. The maternity leave that most companies and organizations in general offer is just too short for a mother to be with her baby. Up to only three months after birth can’t be argued to be sufficient time for a newborn to be with its mother. If anything, a child must rely on exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months after birth. In the US a new mother gets only 12 weeks of unpaid leave (Baker, & Milligan 2007). The same applies for a newly adopted child. The fact that the mother is needed back at work only after three moths means that there is a deficit of another three months when the child ought to be on exclusive breastfeeding. For a baby of that age, it ought to be regular and thus the official hours when the mother isn’t at work aren’t just enough for the baby to not only breastfeed but also create a bond with the mother (Leeds, & Francis 2011). A program which brings such babies closer to their working mothers would be very necessary both for the babies and their mothers.

It is an equal opportunity employer but the company gives priority to disadvantaged groups especially the physically challenged. It also tends to employ more women than the other companies. At some point, a mother gets a maternal leave but only three months after delivering they are back to work. Such mothers don’t have enough time for their children and apparently majority are forced to introduce their children to formula; mostly terminating breastfeeding. It is right for a child to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months. Some nannies try to bring the children at work over tea break and lunch break while some mothers try to use lunch time or any other break to rush and see their young ones at home. This is inconveniencing them, a great deal, affecting their productivity at work and also it isn’t doing the babies any good. A program that can ensure that babies and toddlers are within their mother’s proximity while at work is definitely necessary. The company for a long time has held that mothers can operate remotely from their homes. This, however, complicates the unity of the employees and reduces the chance for supervision a big deal.

This report addresses this problem through proposal of methods to do so. There are alternatives identified in the report and from them, evaluation is done based on certain criteria. Basically, the alternatives are allowing mothers to work from home during the duration that their children breastfeed exclusively and having a nursery at the place of work to allow the babies to be within their mothers proximity. Factors influencing the choices, here referred to as criteria, are Attention to the baby, Productivity of the mothers, Cost of either of the projects/program, Feasibility of the program and Sustainability of the program.

With examples from various companies that have taken the program of a nursery at the workplace such as yahoo, and with a backing of research done on interviews, target groups, observation, use of questionnaires to conduct surveys, the choice of a nursery seemed the more appropriate of the two. Within this interview information gathered as well included not only the opinions of the mothers but also the costs associated on top of the factors identified above within the category of criteria.

The research is almost exclusive in the interests of the new mothers. It is limited with regards to time span. Only a short time was taken to carry out the research. It is also limited with regards of areas covered. Notably, there are obvious indications that the company will go international soon. This thus might have necessitated the research to cover more areas than just the US.

Key words and terms: Formula, nursery, Breastfeed, program, feasibility, sustainability

Overview of alternatives

The company allows remote working –work from home – for mothers whose babies are still too young. The problem with this is that without immediate supervision, the mothers productivity might not be as good as when they are at the work place. Besides, they lack the help of others and the seniors which could be accorded if they worked from site. Working from home too would heavily hinder teamwork (Pryor, & Huggins 2007).

This is taken from the other choice of extending the maternal leave to at least six months which would offer the mother a chance to exclusively breastfeed the baby. The labor laws in America however provide for only three month maternal leave and to make it worse, it is unpaid leave. This means that it operates to the demerit of both the mother and the company due to the increased absence from work. This might increase the cost of hiring a replacement for that short duration. In this case thus, working from home is preferred as a better option to the extended leave.

The other solution is having a nursery within the enterprise premises and bring along the nannies so that each baby and the nanny have their own cubicle. The second option is to have the same nursery but have company employed nannies take care of the babies while ensuring that the mothers can have quick peeps at their babies when they are less busy and during breaks. This would be provided for by the company in close collaboration with the mothers. It would be a better alternative compared with contracting an external company to exclusively take care of the babies without the interference of the company. Company involvement in the affairs of the mothers whom arte its employees is a good indicator of concern of the company’s welfare to its employees. Taking part fully would enable all employees too to feel that the company is as well a part of them and has interest in their general good and not just on their roles to the company.

Of all these, the two methods identified are important for quite a number of reasons. There is an in inherent need to balance between productivity and the need for a newborn to create a bond with its mother. This is besides the fact that either program needs to operate within the provisions of the law. The two have to be taken into consideration noting that both are important. It is the right of the child to be with its mother over the initial development stage and on the other hand, the company needs to be productive to the maximum that it can be. Allowing the mothers to work from home is one of the solutions to achieve the most when it comes to availability of the mother to the child. It might however have implications when it comes to productivity especially when it comes to problems to do with supervision and teamwork and thus it might not necessarily be the most desired. There is need though, to compare the two methods and assess the most suitable to both parties. Assessment needs criteria which basically consider mainly the attention to the baby or the amount of contact between the mothers and the babies first. The second most crucial is the productivity of these mothers. Indeed, these two are the most competing of the factors to put into consideration when making a decision. These would then be complemented by three further criteria: the cost of each of the two, their feasibility and finally, the sustainability of each of the programs.

Evaluation Criteria

So thus far the evaluation criteria will be based on:

1. Attention to the baby

2. Productivity of the mothers

3. Cost of either of the projects/program

4. Feasibility of the program

5. Sustainability of the program

1. Attention to the baby

The babies are the main reason as to why there are decisions to make in the first place. The future generation is as important is the current, if not more. The health of the baby, both physical and psychological, is heavily dependent on the contact and bond that the baby will have with the mother. More to that, is the security of the baby and the detail of care that the bay is offered. Rationally, no one offers more intimate care and concern to a baby than its own mother; both physically and emotionally. Thus, the chosen program thus needs to be one which would enhance this mother-child relationship to the maximum and offer maximum care, support and security to the child.

1. Mothers’ productivity

The other side of the sea-saw of the evaluation would be productivity of the mothers. Bearing children and the responsibility of raising them interfere with their ability to work however committed they would like to be. Past the three moth’s maternal leave, they are required to be back to work. This however dents the relationship with their children and has an emotional toll on them. It is hard to get a mother to stop thinking about their children so as to concentrate. Due to the vulnerability of children at an early age – especially the first six months – a constant bond between the mother and the children is necessary. Allowing such mothers to work from home would be the most desirable especially for the wellbeing of the children. The worry is on productivity of the mothers. Detached from supervision and the help of a physical team member, it would be a bit more hectic leave alone the constant nag of the baby. On the other hand thus, a program to save this would be one where the baby is close to the mother where the mother is at work. This method could allow for immediate supervision and offer team support with regards to work. A nursery at the workplace hence is the option which would at least increase the productivity of the mothers albeit at the cost of reduced attention to the baby.

1. Cost

The two programs would be costly in one way or the other. The center of attention though is the company and thus, it’s the one tasked with decision making on this with regards to the mother-child needs and on the other side its productivity needs. It ought thus to come up with a choice that would be less costly. The cost in this case could be two fold. The first would be the cost of implementing the nursery program and secondly, the cost of implementing the work at home program. The work at home program might involve less cost when resources are put into consideration but at the cost of reduced production or performance. The one off cost of a nursery though would be worth a second thought. Either way, the program which offers better value would be the choice of the company.

4. Feasibility

This pegs the question, ‘is the program possible to execute and implement?’ It is necessary to consider since, if it isn’t then beginning on such a program would be an outright loss is it is with all programs that are abandoned before completion. Necessary thus is to ensure that each of the programs is possible to start and implement.

1. Sustainability

This is related a bit with feasibility in that it considers the possibility of a program to run into the foreseeable future. This is to mean that the selected program should not be one which gets to be terminated just within a short while of its beginning. An important factor in sustainability is resources and policies; policies which would allow for continuity of such a program are thus necessary to consider before it begins. The source of resources to sustain it too is necessary to be identified before a program is chosen and rolled out.

Evaluation of the alternatives based on the criteria

Criteria 1: Attention to the baby

Cognitively and development wise, a baby not only develops a bond with the mother but also learns from the mother too. Prior to 1977, incarcerated women who have birth enjoyed the services of nurseries behind bars. This is irrespective of the prohibiting conditions that the children are born into when compared to other children born of free mothers., It was due to an increase to the number of women inmates (by 832%) which made the nursery care within the prisons prohibitively expensive and thus the termination of the program (Leeds, & Francis 2011). The biggest reason for this is that, as research shows, children who don’t live almost exclusively with their mothers for the first two years have a tendency to show troubled behavior. Currently in Mexico imprisoned women are allowed to live with their children up to the age of six. These situations show just how important the mother-child bond is.

If this situation is considered, then allowing the mothers to work from home would be a better alternative. At least this would allow the mothers to have enough time with their children as compared to say, if the mothers would get back to work and allow their babies to be left at home with nannies. The issue with this option as identified earlier is the lack of immediate supervision and lack of team work. The interruptions from the child would as we’ll be more. To solve this situation, having the mother close to the child while she is till at the work place would be a better and serve the two needs better. This is the reason as to why the nursery at the work place makes more sense with regards to the attention to the baby as well as enhances the mother’s productivity or at least affect the mothers productivity to a lesser extent.

Criteria 2: Mothers’ Productivity

Option A of the mother’s working at home would result to less productivity due to lack of immediate supervision and the general lack of assistance that becomes with team work. On top that there is also the constant nagging of the baby and the less professional home environment. These factors make a mothers productivity less with the teleworking from home option.

The alternative of having a nursery would ensure that the mothers are both close to their mother and to their children at the same time. When the babies are at the nursery there is a higher productivity from the mothers as they have the comfort of seeing their babies and this psychological calmness is important. At the same time they are able to work from the company premises and benefit from teamwork and immediate supervision.

Having a nanny for each child is a better option on the attention bit. It might as well satisfy mothers more especially if they are the ones who looked for the nanny. There is also a sense of accountability. This would have an increased mental calmness and probably ultimate productivity of the mothers at work. Besides, if the same nanny has been used for long, there is a bond that’s necessary between a child and a caretaker.

Criteria 3: Cost

Teleworking from home is cheaper for the company to allow teleworking. They would only need simple gadgets like phones and laptops and in most cases they can use their own especially where the BYOD policy is allowed (Jacobson, et al). However, the cost would be in form of reduced productivity due to the informal nature of home environments and the likelihood disturbance from the baby. It might however result to loss with regards to less work done. Working at home has demerits of interference and lack of immediate supervision which often leads to lower productivity. Another drawback is the in case of company secrets and privacy, there is reduced control and this may jeopardize the two. It would be extremely risky noting that competitors may take advantage of this or even malicious individuals too. Allowing mothers to work from home would definitely increase the vulnerability of the company as they would easily be weak points. These are generally costly risks leave alone the reduced bit of concentration and lower productivity.

These are the problems that are solved by having at least a nursery at the workplace has a high initial cost but once it’s put up, the maintenance cost would be lower. Employing of nannies would be also another factor which would inflate the cost. However, if mothers can be involved and at least be allowed to come with their own nannies that would not only bring about cost sharing but also ensure that mothers have their choices.

Criteria 4: Feasibility

The working from home option is very feasible. It would only involve agreement or coming up with a policy that would determine the modalities to follow. It would also be necessary to determine the quota of work to do for it to be allowed.

The choice of a nursery at the work place is also feasible but it would involve determining the costs and coming up with acceptable terms to the stakeholders involved. It would also call for utilization of stable budgets that fit within the budget of the organization.

5. Sustainability

The first alternative of working from home would need no resources at all to maintain. The normal long term infrastructure to provide networks is the most necessary for it.

Work place nursery is also sustainable both in the short run and in the long run. It would be one of the projects of the organization just like any other and it would rely on funds from the mothers and contribution from the kitty set aside by the organization within the budget.

Research Methods

The methods of researching such a topic would include use of interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, use of secondary data on the topic, comparative analysis – from companies that have similar programs in place. Interviews are the most useful of these for qualitative data (Pryor, & Huggins 2007). Most important of these are opinions from the stakeholders especially mothers – including prospective mothers and all mothers to be included. It would as well take into consideration wishes of other employees besides the mothers themselves. Opinions of professionals also matter in such an area. Thus, government stakeholders’ opinions count and so would be of other companies with similar programs.

Findings and Analysis

Various companies that have had a telework programs have registered positive results. However, there have been reasons which can’t be avoided and might not have alternatives. However, when it comes to nursing babies, there is a high likelihood of interference unlike for the other people who telework from home (Baker, & Milligan 2007). Having a nursery at the workplace is not only effective for the mothers but also is sustainable. While it is costly to establish a nursery, this would only be within the initial cost but after that the cost would reduce. This makes it as well a sustainable program.

There are two sides to look at the programs from’ the mother’s side and the company’s side. The company looks at productivity and privacy as the most important factors of ensuring that they pick on the policy which would favor them. On the other side, mothers need their babies to develop normally and in the very best way with regards to psychological and cognitive development. Thy as well need assurance of the security of the babies too. If they aren’t offered the chance to have this surety, their concentration would definitely be affected and thus their productivity at work too would be lower. A nursery at the work place would be a bargain for either side; the mothers would at least have their babies within close proximity. On the other hand, the company is able to have the productivity of its workforce at least being a little bit assured.

Several companies have programs in place to help mothers with raising of their children especially from a young age.

The conclusions of the table indicate that while both methods are sustainable, and the teleworking from home is cheaper, it would be expensive or costly for the organization. The optimum decision is to have a program that would cater for both the mothers and the organization.

Working from home seems to be the best option for the development of the child. Due to the associated problems of the working mother and the likelihood of lower productivity it would be better to have the program at work. A nursery program would have far much more reaching effects and it would also need more input than just having the structures in place. While the physical infrastructure would be necessary including breastfeeding rooms etc., there are logistical matters that are also significant too. There can be programs to help mothers learn the intricate of a working mother. Twitter for instance uses the mom’s and moms to be round tables were others can share with time too; it might also be worth to think of the program in a future oriented perspective (London, 2011). Other than accommodate mothers and their children over the time of the child being a baby, there would also be better benefits for childcare services, nanny placement services on top of the onsite childcare centers.

Recommendation

New mothers face problems beyond what a normal worker could face. They not just faced with the burden of raising a kind, but also are faced with the test of having to create a relevant mother-child bond that’s necessary for cognitive development. At the same time though, they need to working and be as productive as the other employees too. While having a nursery is costly at the beginning, in the long run it eliminates the psychological burden on mothers, eases their inconvenience of having to try to rush home at inconvenient times.

To the company too, there is increased productivity to the advantage. Notably, it is one of the most ignored welfare needs that ought to be addressed. It is a remote case of Corporate Social Responsibility. Needless to say, CSR should begin from within by the company having concerns and being a part of the employees’ lives. The choice of a nursery at the work place thus brings all these benefits to both the company and the mothers. The program is not only feasible but also sustainable. It guarantees maximum attention to the child including regular breastfeeding without necessarily inconveniencing the mother or hindering productivity. The initial cost that’s relatively high is compensated.

Due to the inconvenience caused by the constant need to be close to the baby in its early stages for working mothers, a program to ensure that the baby is close to the mother without necessarily hindering her ability or convenience to work is necessary. A nursery at the facility would meet both needs.

References

Baker, M., & Milligan, K. (2007). Maternal employment, breastfeeding, and health: evidence from maternity leave mandates. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.

Deoisres, W. (2014). Psychological well-being in employed and nonemployed Thai mothers

following childbirth.

Jacobson, M., Kolarek, M. H., & Newton, B. (2016). Business, babies & the bottom line: corporate innovations and best practices in maternal and child health. Washington, D.C. (777 N. Capitol St., N.E., Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20002): National Business Partnership to Improve Family Health, Washington Business Group on Health.

Leeds, R., & Francis, M. (2011). One year to an organized life with baby: from pregnancy to parenthood, the week-by-week guide to getting ready for baby and keeping your family organized. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Lifelong.

London, M. L. (2011). Maternal & child nursing care. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Pryor, G., & Huggins, K. (2007). Nursing mother, working mother: the essential guide to breastfeeding your baby before and after you return to work. Boston, MA: Harvard Common Press.