One year of subsidising ECEC at a global level: Learnings from the Trip experience

Global travel provider Trip.com has given more than 500 of its employees access to cash bonuses which can be used to subsidise early childhood education and care (ECEC) over the past year as part of an initiative to create a more family friendly environment. 

 

Other family focused initiatives include assisted reproduction benefits and hybrid work options. Any employee who has been with the company for 12 months or more is given an annual cash bonus of RMB 10,000 (equivalent to over AUD $2,000) for each child born. This amount is given annually from the child’s first birthday until five years of age. 

 

Trip.com has offices in Australia, Indonesia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Cambodia, Japan, Singapore, the UK, France, Mainland China, South Korea, the United States of America, Hong Kong China, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. 

 

The subsidy is given in the form of a cash bonus, and employees are free to choose how it is spent, with some allocating it to necessities like nappies and formula, while others choose to offset the expenses of ECEC. 

 

“I hope my children can receive education through collective activity as soon as possible, so they are in a happier and relaxed learning environment. The policies allow this and provide my family with two key things: money and time,” lsla Fang, a senior financial analyst in China shared. 

 

For Selviana Fortunella Santoso, a market executive in Indonesia, the subsidy has been described as “like receiving a miracle,” particularly when coupled with other family friendly policies not common in her country, such as insurance coverage and maternity leave.

 

The reproductive leave offered by the company allows for benefits which may be otherwise out of reach including egg freezing. 

 

Hybrid work was first introduced as a policy in 2022 in China, with Trip.com being one of the first internet companies in the country to implement such measures, which allow employees to work remotely on certain days of the week. 

 

The policy has now been expanded to all of Trip.com Group’s global offices across selected business lines in a move that aims to improve employee satisfaction, contribute to family care and to promote work-life balance, as well as helping to reduce traffic congestion in cities across the world.