13th Jul 2013 6:00 AM
ONE of Toowoomba's largest construction companies is hoping an on-site childcare centre will attract more families and women to join its workforce.
FK Gardner & Sons Group recently opened its first on-site early learning centre, Building Blocks, at its Toowoomba office.
The service costs about 50 per cent less than the national average, with space for 18 children.
Contracts administrator Alex Williams' seven-month-old son Harrison was one of the first to be taken in.
"It's great and so convenient. You know everybody's parents and you can go down at lunchtime and visit them," Mrs Williams said.
"When I was on maternity leave and looking at how expensive the options were, I was thinking 'how am I going to go back?'
"It's really positive financially and has provided a good incentive to return to the workforce."
FKG managing director Nick Gardner said the decision followed a successful parental scheme introduced in 2012 that offered incentives for parents to return to the workplace after starting a family.
"It worked really well and got the thought process started on the childcare centre," he said.
"It's a bit left field for a construction company to be setting up a childcare centre but we're a family-based company and our values are to provide a family atmosphere. From our perspective, attracting and retaining good staff is difficult so it's a good feather in the cap to offer current employees but also future employees.
"We're certainly trying to set ourselves apart from others in the industry."
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