The Productivity Pattern That Returns Every Summer

You can often see it before anyone says it out loud. Focus becomes harder to hold, calendars fill with adjustments, responses slow, and the energy across teams starts to shift. The school summer holidays have begun, and the working day changes with them... 

School holidays are one of the most visible and repeated examples of the Bright Horizons Work-Life Gap Report 2026 in action. For working parents, a short break away may offer some breathing space, but it does not solve the wider issue. Several weeks still need to be covered, often with rising childcare costs, limited availability and options that do not line up with working hours. What looks from the outside like a seasonal dip in energy is, for many employees, the result of trying to hold together work, care, logistics and cost all at once. 

Findings from the report, based on insights from 1,200 working parents, suggest the gap is not simply about flexibility. Flexibility still matters, but it does not fully close the problem when there is no childcare in place. Structured, reliable support changes the picture. One of the clearest examples of how organisations are addressing this is with workplace-supported Holiday Clubs. 

Flexibility doesn’t fix this on its own 

Flexible working has become the go-to answer for many employers trying to support working parents. It can help, and in some circumstances, it makes a real difference. Yet school holidays expose the limits of relying on flexibility alone. 

A parent can shift hours, log on earlier, work later or squeeze tasks into smaller gaps, but none of that removes the need for actual childcare. When care is missing, work does not simply continue in a different shape, it becomes harder to sustain.

Think of work-life support as part of an organisations’ building structure, with tiers giving employees greater stability. Planned care cover is one of these tiers, which includes school holiday programmes. to absorb seasonal pressures during the biggest predictable disruptions of the year. You can find out more about the other tiers in this year’s Work-Life Gap Report.

You may notice this in stretched days, split attention and reduced availability. It can also show up in more practical ways, parents taking unplanned leave, cutting back hours or turning down office days because the childcare simply is not there. The issue is not willingness, it is infrastructure. 

What changes when childcare is actually covered 

Looking at how this support plays out day to day, the data is hard to ignore. Among employees using employer-sponsored Holiday Clubs, 91% say provision helps them focus during working hours, 85% say it helps them attend the office or place of work. 

Childcare support is often framed as a family-friendly extra, something that sits to one side of business performance. In reality, it can shape whether people are able to show up properly at all. A parent who knows their child is in a safe, reliable setting is not spending the day piecing together backup plans, worrying about timings or working through constant uncertainty. 

Support that sticks 

Support during school holidays solves something immediate and visible. Employees notice when an employer steps in with support that makes daily life easier to manage. They also notice when that support targets a pressure point that returns each year and disrupts work in the same way. 

That is part of why Holiday Clubs matter beyond the summer itself. They do not just help people get through a busy few weeks but shape how supported employees feel by the organisation they work for. 

You do not have to look far to see where this matters most. 84% of women say workplace holiday club provision increases their likelihood of staying with their employer. That figure points directly to how strongly practical support can influence whether work feels sustainable over time. 

Who carries the load? 

School holiday care does not fall evenly across households, and that matters. For many women, the planning, organising and carrying of childcare continues to take up a disproportionate share of time and mental load. That can affect progression, presence and confidence in what feels possible at work. 

The wider data reflects this. Without support, 48% of working mothers say caring responsibilities have negatively impacted their career and only 61% believe they can progress while working flexibly. Holiday Club provision directly addresses one of the most repeated pressure points in the working year. 

This matters for retention, but also for progression and equity. When support exists in the places employees most need it, it does more than ease pressure. It removes a barrier that can shape career decisions long after summer has ended. 

This is not separate from productivity 

There is a tendency to separate childcare support from performance discussions, as though one belongs to wellbeing and the other to operations. In practice, they overlap constantly. 

The research draws a direct link between care infrastructure and business outcomes. Among employees using Bright Horizons nursery provision, 98% say it improves their ability to attend the office and 95% report a positive impact on productivity. Holiday Clubs extend that support into the school holiday period, covering the weeks where working parents are most likely to take unplanned leave, reduce hours or disengage. 

This is the business case in practical terms. Holiday Clubs help employees to: 

• stay focused 

• attend the workplace more consistently 

• reduce the strain that pulls attention away from work 

• remain in roles that might otherwise begin to feel unsustainable 

• bring stability to a period that often feels like a workaround 

What this means for employers 

School holidays are predictable and the disruption they bring is predictable too. Yet, many employees are still left to absorb the impact on their own, piecing together care while trying to maintain business as usual. 

Employer-sponsored Holiday Clubs recognise that performance does not sit separately from real life. They acknowledge that care needs do not pause during the summer months. And they offer something more practical than understanding.

School holidays will keep arriving. The question is whether employees are left to brace for them alone, or whether the support around them changes what those weeks look like altogether. 

To explore how care gaps like school holidays are shaping workforce performance, take a closer look at the Bright Horizons Work Life Gap Report 2026.