'The future is yours' isn't for kids
MERRY CHRISTMAS from Manulife.
A cutting-edge child-care center run by
Manulife bought Boston-based John Hancock in 2003. Now the new corporate owner is reviewing several options for the child-care center at 370 Stuart St. , including shutting it down. A decision is expected sometime in 2007.
A company spokesman said that declining enrollment prompted this review.
Bottom line: it's a way to cut costs, as well as presence in the Back Bay.
Manulife -- which continues to market the John Hancock brand in the United States -- contends that fewer employees with young children work for it in Boston.
Meanwhile, the Boston-based operation is now split between two sites: some 1,500 Hancock employees were relocated to Manulife's new headquarters on Congress Street in South Boston. Only a few floors in the iconic Hancock Tower are occupied by Hancock employees, who now number about 2,500.
The cloudy future that now looms for a much-praised child-care center signals a major shift in what management believes is necessary to attract long-term, quality workers.
The center, which opened in 1990, helped Hancock promote itself as a family-friendly workplace, and a company that works for women. It won the company national recognition in publications such as Working Mother Magazine.
Back when I was a business page columnist, then-chairman Stephen L. Brown invited me to lunch in his Hancock Tower aerie. Afterward , he took me on a tour of the day-care center. Message to the media: this is an important piece of Hancock's appeal as a career destination for working mothers and fathers.
Hancock spokesman Roy V. Anderson denied that the center will shut down by August 2007. No final decision has been made, he said, but added that, "Declining interest among our employees in using the child-care center gives us an opportunity to consider changes in how this benefit is offered to our employees." Manulife executives are considering opening the center to other companies; out sourcing the business ; or closing it entirely.
If the center closes, it would be a sign of changing times on two fronts: demographic and corporate.
Back when they were juggling jobs and toddlers, baby boomers pushed the workplace day-care issue with mixed results. Many companies shied away from the cost and liability. But in Boston, a few corporate leaders at Stride Rite , Hill Holiday Connors Cosmopulos and John Hancock, took on the challenge.
Today, the women who once prodded companies to provide day care are thinking more about elder care than kinder care. Today, the idea of expecting an employer to add benefits rather than subtract them is a quaint vestige of 20th century corporate values. Generally speaking, today's employees are grateful to receive a paycheck instead of a pink slip.
Today, out of town owners are much less concerned about employee happiness. Also today, a young, transient work force is less concerned about what is necessary in the future for an optimum work-family balance.
Hancock has some 200 job openings listed on its website. But the company is finding it more difficult to attract employees beyond the pool of recent college graduates -- in other words, mothers and fathers of young children. The high cost of living in the Boston metropolitan area is one factor. But perhaps the John Hancock of the 21st century is a less welcome environment for that age and family demographic?
The John Hancock acquisition turned out to be a good business deal for Manulife. Since the merger, the Toronto insurance giant has enjoyed record earnings. It recently announced plans to spend $25 million to $35 million on an ad campaign by Hill Holiday to reshape its image among baby boomers, called "The Future is Yours." Obviously, cost-trimming is not a dire necessity; and in this instance, the expense to be trimmed is nominal in the large scheme of Manulife's financial health. It reportedly cost John Hancock between $500,000 and $1 million annually to operate the center, which can handle 200 children. Fees are calculated based on employee income. Enrollment now is around 100.
Children of Hill Holiday employees already have access to the day-care center. It's hard to believe outreach to other companies in the Back Bay could not yield 100 more children whose parents would welcome entree to this facility.
Tis the season to trim trees, not employee benefits, especially at the expense of those who still believe in Santa Claus -- the children.
Joan Vennochi's e-mail address is vennochi@globe.com. 
