In the winter of 1993-94, the snow was falling and children of employees were roaming the halls of the DuPont corporate offices in Wilmington, Delaware. Members of the DuPont Human Resources Work/Life Team were meeting to manage this mini-catastrophe of too much snow and still more in the weather forecast. This particular winter was one of the worst in recent years. While many businesses were open, child care centers, elder care facilities, and public and private schools were closed. Parents were in a dilemma because they wanted to be at their jobs and yet they needed to take care of their children.

Historically, absenteeism of DuPont employees is low, but during winter emergencies, it was common for it to rise to as much as 20% of the workforce. It was natural for parents to stay home with their children who otherwise would have been unsupervised since schools were closed for so many days.

There were also more children at the workplace than DuPont had ever seen, occupying conference rooms and/or empty offices. While this was accepted on rare occasions, it wasn’t the best ongoing solution for parents or children, and it certainly didn’t address the elder care need.

While not condoned by DuPont, many employees allowed children or elders to stay home alone. Thus the distraction level was high, affecting employees’ stress levels, their peace of mind, and naturally their productivity on the job.

DuPont was not the only corporation struggling with the backup care issue. The Family & Workplace Connection had been regularly convening the Work/Life Roundtable, a group of Human Resource managers including representatives from DuPont and many other major corporations in the area. During these discussions, backup dependent care kept surfacing as an unmet need for employees and employers in the community.

In April 1994, representatives of The Family & Workplace Connection, DuPont, and Work/Family Directions (WFD) met to discuss how to address the backup care need. As a result, the concept of what is now known as Just in Time Care emerged. Little did the members of the meeting realize that their combined efforts would result in a program that has been embraced by thousands of employees throughout the United States.

In August 1994, DuPont led the way for implementation of Just in Time Care by donating $80,000 to FWC to bring the system to life and make it available to DuPont employees as well as the employees of other companies. Recognizing the potential payback, DuPont also agreed to subsidize 80% of the cost of the backup care for its employees.

The vision and goals that defined the development of Just in Time Care were the need for:

• A comprehensive system that would have a broad range of options available. 
• A system that would provide options for a wide variety of circumstances. 
• A system available to the community-at-large.
• Provision of services that would be cost effective.
• A subsidy to enable employees to use the services.

Today, the vision of DuPont and FWC is a reality. More than 100,000 employees from various corporations around the country are eligible to use the Just in Time Care program. For employers, this initiative has had tremendous impact on the ability to maintain employee productivity. For employees, it relieves the stresses associated with coping with the pressures of managing work and family obligations.