Workforce News

Toyota has provided its manufacturing team members with high-quality childcare options for decades. This week, it announced a major expansion in its offerings, revealing plans for four new childcare centers for parents working at plants in North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama and West Virginia.

How it works: The centers, which will all open by 2027, will be managed by third-party childcare providers and offer schedules that align with plant operations, so that team members can go to work confident that their children are well looked after.

• “At Toyota, we know it is paramount for working parents to have access to quality childcare, and manufacturing is not always a nine-to-five job,” said Denita Neville, vice president of Toyota’s corporate shared services.
• “Offering childcare motivates and empowers our team members, makes our industry more inclusive and helps our smallest learners of today become our biggest leaders of tomorrow.”

A long history: These four new centers will join two other facilities that have been in operation for years.

• Toyota’s Georgetown, Kentucky, plant has offered round-the-clock childcare since way back in 1993. Its Indiana center is also well-established, having opened its doors in 2003, and is undergoing an expansion that will be completed this September. (Check out our previous article on these centers here.)

• All of Toyota’s sites are or will be accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, which establishes standards for high-quality childcare.

Other offerings: Toyota also provides other childcare options, partnering with Bright Horizons to help team members find regular childcare and backup options for emergency care, among other services.

Rave reviews: “As a working mom, it’s been such a relief to have childcare that supports my work schedule,” said Patricia Pastrana Arroyo, a group leader at Toyota Indiana, said about the Indiana center.

• “The early education program is exceptional. The teachers are nurturing, attentive and genuinely caring toward each child. They keep parents informed with daily reports, pictures and updates, which helps me feel connected to my son even when I’m not there.”

Partnering with the MI: As an active partner of the Manufacturing Institute, the NAM’s workforce development and education affiliate, Toyota has contributed to the MI’s efforts to bolster the manufacturing industry’s childcare offerings.

• Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, a joint venture between Mazda Motor Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation, helped the MI formulate its influential whitepaper about childcare in the industry, “Flexibility Approaches for Manufacturing Production Workers,” which found that companies that provided workers with the flexibility to meet personal obligations, such as child care, reported greater success.
• Toyota also participated in an MI panel for manufacturing workforce leaders interested in expanding their own companies’ benefits.

The last word: “Toyota’s investment in childcare sets a powerful example of how manufacturers can meet the real needs of their workforce,” said MI President and Executive Director Carolyn Lee.

• “Access to quality, flexible childcare not only supports working parents, it strengthens our industry’s ability to attract and retain talent. By removing one of the biggest hurdles to workforce participation, Toyota is helping to ensure that more people can build meaningful, long-term careers in manufacturing.”