Stories Of Opportunity Preview Article   

Please enjoy this preview article featured in the upcoming 2024 Stories Of Opportunity—releasing Friday, March 7.  

Our Child Care Center Turns 1  

In November 2023, the VGM Child Care Center opened its doors for the first time to employee owners and their young ones. With the constant struggle of securing reliable child care over the last few years, the VGM Child Care Center lifted off much needed weight from the shoulders of dozens of employee owners.    

Relief    

The opening of the child care center was a selling point for Samantha Doering, Production Manager for Corporate Communications. The struggle leading up to the child care center’s opening was at times incredibly stressful.    

“When I was expecting Weston, I figured that living in a larger city, child care shouldn’t be an issue,” Samantha said. “I was calling everyone, everywhere regardless of what their ratings were. I just needed something. But almost everything had at least a six-month waiting period. The opening of the child care center is what made VGM appeal to me.”    

Convenience    

If there is a common theme between all of the employee owners utilizing the child care center, it’s convenience. With the center built directly inside VGM Headquarters, employee owners no longer have to go out of their way to drop off or pick up their kids. That’s been a major benefit to Tyler Mahncke, SVP of Clinical Mobility And Accessibility at VGM & Associates, who has had two kids in VGM’s child care center: daughter Lakelyn and son Conway.    

“Nothing beats having your kids in the same place you go to work,” Tyler said. “We live close to VGM, and I come to work in the office every day, so it just makes sense. And of course, when the kids are sick, it helps that I’m already there to be able to pick them up and take them home. When they were at the other center, it would take me over an hour to pick them up, take them home, and then get to back to the office if I needed to.”   

Accreditation     

And while convenience is true for all employee owners utilizing the child care center, other factors also play a role in their decisions to use the center. For Brooke Kraft, Vice President of Talent Management for Human Capital, and Lathan Ehlers, Copywriter Lead for Corporate Communications, the child care center’s accreditation was the selling point to enroll their daughters Viv and Ceely.    

“Our previous in-home care provider was like family to us,” said Brooke. “But now, the girls are part of something that has a curriculum—there are teachers that teach the kids. That scheduled curriculum and learning doesn’t always happen at in-home day cares.”     

Expansion    

VGM is committed to helping our employee owners in any way we can. That’s why over the last year the child care center was expanded to employee owners who were grandparents, aunts, or uncles to children needing child care. While VGM strives to Make A Difference for our community, we also aim to Make A Difference for our employee owners.     

“I appreciate that VGM listened to its employee owners and the community and then did something about it,” said Irina Hageman, Underwriter for VGM Insurance. “So few companies would see parents struggling like that and choose to do anything about it. And VGM did.”      

The VGM On-Site Campus Child Care Center, operated by Community United Child Care Centers, is one of the many benefits that comes with 100% employee ownership. To learn more and find where you belong at VGM, visit our Careers page.