It's not uncommon for employers to learn about early childhood and be left wondering what, exactly, they're being asked to do.

• In this blog post, we'll try to answer that.

Early Childhood and the Workforce

When we talk about our long-term workforce challenge, we encourage people to think about children as the little potential economic units that they are.

• This might seem weird at first (every child is so much more than that) but it clarifies what we're trying to achieve.

We want every child to enter the workforce on time, and with the skills they need to be successful. Critically:

• This is not something that just happens; and
• A lot has to go into setting up every child for success.

To help make things a little easier, we focus on executive function skills.

• The link above is to a short video that defines executive functions skills. If you don't watch it, a useful shorthand is to think of executive function skills like the air traffic control system of the brain. They help us make decisions, delay gratification, plan, and do a whole host of other elemental things.

We need these skills every day to help us be successful at work or school, and these are skills children learn early in life. Brain science tells us, too, what helps children learn these skills.

Specifically, a primary protective factor that helps children develop executive function skills are strong, stable, and healthy relationships with adults in those childrens' lives.

What does this have to do with employers?

In short: a lot.

• Doing whatever you can, in your benefits and your culture, to support the formation and maintenance of strong, stable, and healthy relationships between your employees and their family will materially impact the brain development and health of young children, and everyone else in the family.

The bottom line: it really does matter that Dad can make it to Timmy's t-ball game, that Mom is home when the kids get off the bus, and that baby has time to bond with their new family.