Caring for our Providers — Trusted’s Tuition Reimbursement Program
It was about a year ago — I vividly remember standing in the entrance to our building, talking to Cindy on the phone — I asked her, “what do you think of the name ‘Trusted’?” “It doesn’t really tell me much about the service”, she said. “But I like that the name can resonate with both parents and providers.”
Mar 1, 2016 marked Trusted’s 6 month anniversary. Since our launch in San Francisco back in September 2015, we have worked with hundreds of families, and done over 1000 bookings. Our providers have worked with children of all ages — newborns to 12 year olds. Our providers have been shuttling children back home after school, they’ve been taking them to soccer practices. Collectively, our providers have earned tens of thousands of dollars working with Trusted. It’s been a joy to watch our service evolve. However the most endearing incident happened over the holidays when a husband bought his wife, a new mother, a Trusted gift card with a touching note to accompany it.
Before every booking, our providers get a chance to review notes about a family, learn about the best route to get to the destination and prepare themselves to deliver the best experience to that family. This is the business we wanted to be in — providing excellent child care, and not just in the business of finding a sitter. And this was one of the reasons why we took the approach of W-2ing our providers — these professionals are in the business of spending time with families. And we wanted them to know that they are like family to us.
We meet with our providers once a quarter when we do our town halls. This gives us the opportunity to get them caught up on the business, provide any additional training or feedback and learn from them. A majority of providers are nursing students. And many of them have taken student loans to pay off their tuition bills. 71% of bachelor’s degree recipients graduate with a student loan, and their average debt upon graduation is about $30,000. This is what keeps them up at night. And this has been keeping us up at night.
Today, we’re announcing a Tuition Reimbursement Program for our providers. Aside from the wages a provider can earn by being employed with us, our providers can get reimbursed up to $5,250 in a given calendar year for their tuition bills, for the time that they are employed with us[1]. We’ve been beta-testing this with students from the University of San Francisco’s Nursing School and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
This is the first of many steps we want to take towards helping our providers feel like they are a part of the Trusted family.
Interested in joining the Trusted family? Apply to become a provider here: https://www.usetrusted.com/ccp or drop us a note: jobs@usetrusted.com
[1] Providers submit an application to be considered in Trusted’s Tuition Reimbursement Program. Providers qualify if they are enrolled in an accredited university. They get reimbursed for their tuition fees at the end of a semester or quarter, if they have a GPA of 3.0 or better and can produce their tuition bill.
