How to Plan Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day

Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day, the fourth Thursday in April in the U.S., began as a way to help kids see the purpose of their education and foster career aspirations. It’s also a great way to engage your employees and allow them to share what they do 40 hours a week (or more) with their kids or an important kid in their lives. If your first thought of having children in your office has you thinking of that episode of The Office, we have a few tips to helps avoid that kind of logistical nightmare. With some well planned activities in place, Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day can be a great way to invite employees to share a piece of their lives with your organization. [Related: Complete Guide to Employee Engagement Activities]

1.) Make sure everyone knows they’re invited

If you want to have Bring Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day, you’ll need to be sure to give parents some advance notice. It will require coordination on their part. Give them time to notify their child’s school as well as clear their schedule of any meetings they wouldn’t want to bring their child to. The best way to communicate details with employees is to meet them where they are. If you have a social email alias, an internal forum, slack channel or other forms of communication you know your employees actively use, this is the best place to share your invitation. Creating an invitation isn’t challenging. A simple email with all the pertinent details will do, but you can also build excitement with a well designed evite! Whichever you choose, be sure it lines up with your organization's brand guidelines.

2.) Get your legal ducks in a row

Depending on the nature of what your organization does, there may be liabilities associated with having children onsite at your office. Make sure to set some time aside to meet with your legal department to put together any necessary consent documents and have them signed and archived before children enter the door.

3.) Have supplies on hand for emergencies

It’s likely you have a standard first aid kit somewhere in your office, but you may not have other emergency items kiddos need. Stock up on diapers, snacks and extra band-aids. Consult a few parents in the office to make sure you’ll have everything they need in case of an emergency.

4.) Plan to have your kids occupied for most of the day

It’s important that you have a few activities for kids organized once they arrive at your office. Here are a few suggestions:

• Office tour: Tour kids and parents around the office. Have different departments present what they do and what why like about working for your organization at each stop.  
• Brainstorm: Kids are full of creative ideas. Create a problem and engage them in a meeting-style brainstorm.
• Hands-on art project: This activity requires crafting materials. Set the kids up in a place where they can draw or collage on a specific topic. A great go-to is what they want to be when they grow up.
• Working lunch: Set up lunch for kids and parents in a lunch & learn style. This is a good opportunity for kids to ask questions. Go the extra mile and invite your CEO or other members of your senior leadership team to answer questions about what your organization does.
• Adapt a few of our best employee engagement activity ideas from this eBook.

5.) Stay in touch

If any kids had questions that weren’t answered or had an interest in learning more about a specific department, follow up with parents and provide more information. At the very minimum you should be thanking everyone for participating. Catch all of their insights in this video, What Kids Think Your Job Is.