EXECUTIVES PARTNERING TO INVEST IN CHILDREN
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Designing Workforce Solutions: Arizona’s First Employer-Based Child Care Design Lab
From April through October 2025, EPIC led Arizona’s inaugural Employer-Based Child Care Design Lab, a first-of-its-kind initiative equipping business, education, government, manufacturing, and economic development leaders with the knowledge, tools, and peer support needed to design tailored child care solutions for their workforce. Five employers from across the state participated in four workshop sessions and individualized coaching, building understanding of Arizona’s child care landscape, evaluating employer-based models, and grounding decisions in data, workforce needs, and ROI modeling. By the end of the Lab, every organization created an implementation-ready Momentum Map outlining their proposed child care solutions, stakeholders, and next steps.
Challenge
Arizona employers face a workforce landscape heavily affected by the state’s significant shortage of accessible, affordable child care. Nearly half of Arizona families live in a child care desert, infant-toddler capacity meets only a fraction of demand and the economic cost of insufficient child care exceeds $4.7 billion annually.
Employers struggle with absenteeism, turnover and talent loss due to child care disruptions, while simultaneously navigating internal bandwidth constraints, risk-averse leadership and limited funding to invest in solutions. Many organizations also lacked data on workforce needs and needed guidance to translate child care barriers into compelling business cases.
Solution
EPIC designed and facilitated a four-part Design Lab supported by two individualized coaching sessions, helping employers move from exploration to action. Participants learned about the state and national child care landscape, analyzed employer-based models, used the Employer Child Care Navigator and applied the ROI calculator to quantify impact through reduced absenteeism and turnover.
Through coaching, organizations tailored child care solutions—ranging from on- or near-site centers to concierge services and multi-employer partnerships—grounded in local supply/demand data, employee feedback, facility considerations and funding pathways. The Lab structure emphasized building a strong “why,” clarifying organizational anchors and translating data into leadership-ready plans.
Outcome
By the end of the Design Lab, all five organizations advanced from early exploration to concrete implementation planning, increasing their average readiness score from 4.2 to 5.4 and developing clear next steps for launching child care solutions within 1–2 years.
Three primary solution pathways emerged:
- • Expanding or creating on-/near-site child care
- • Adopting child care concierge and financial support models
- • Employer convening to strengthen regional child care ecosystems
Participants reported stronger internal alignment, a more compelling business case for leadership and increased confidence in their next steps. This inaugural cohort now serves as a model for Arizona, demonstrating how employers can play a meaningful role in addressing the state’s child care shortage while strengthening their workforce.