Backup Care Emerges as Fastest-Growing Work-Life Benefit

Hallmark, Novo Nordisk, Banner Health, DLA Piper, Texas Children’s Hospital and Other Leading Organizations Now Offer Backup Childcare and Eldercare as Newest Employee Benefit

SUPERIOR, Colo.--(February 13, 2008 -- BUSINESS WIRE)--Backup care continues to be one of the fastest-growing employee benefits; the percentage of U.S. companies now offering the benefit has doubled year-over-year and exceeds the growth among all other work-life benefits, according to survey conducted by the Society of Human Resource Management, SHRM.

An increasing number of companies view backup care as an important benefit that addresses issues for both employees and employers. Backup care solves a very real problem for working caregivers and boosts overall morale across the workplace. It also addresses bottom line business concerns including unscheduled absenteeism, lost productivity and recruitment/retention of top talent.

Work Options Group’s backup care program, Backup Care Options, allows employees to continue working during breakdowns in caregiving arrangements (ex: mildly ill children or adults, school closures, sick or vacationing caregivers, parents/spouses recovering from illness or surgery) by providing trusted, affordable temporary care to dependents of any age, in any location, whether they are healthy or mildly ill.

Since December 2007, 25 additional organizations have started offering their employees the Backup Care Options program, including:

• Banner Health, Arizona’s largest non-profit health care provider and second largest private employer, based in Phoenix
   
• Beaumont Hospitals, a regional health care provider in the greater Detroit area
  
• Davis Graham & Stubbs, a leading law firm in the Rocky Mountain region, based in Denver
   
• DLA Piper, one of the world's largest law firms, with more than 3,600 lawyers located in 25 countries and 64 offices throughout Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States
  
• Hallmark Cards, Inc., a company known throughout the world for greeting cards, related personal expression products and enduring dramatic television series, based in Kansas City
  
• Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, a national full-service law firm with offices in the nation's largest centers of business, government, finance and technology
  
• Mercy Hospital, Miami-Dade’s only Catholic Hospital with the following Centers of Excellence: The Heart Center, the Miami Cancer Center, the Orthopedic Institute and the Minimally Invasive Surgical Institute, based in Miami
  
• Methodist Healthcare, the largest health care provider in South Texas, based in San Antonio
  
• Novo Nordisk, a healthcare company and world leader in diabetes care, with U.S. headquarters in Princeton
  
• Policy Studies Inc. (PSI), a leading provider of services to the health and human services industry, based in Denver
  
• Quarles & Brady LLP, a law firm with a broad-based national level practice with offices in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and Wisconsin
  
• Texas Children's Hospital, an internationally recognized full-care pediatric hospital located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston
  
• Winstead PC, one of the largest law firms in Texas, with offices in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, The Woodlands and Washington, D.C.

About Work Options Group - www.workoptionsgroup.com
Work Options Group's Backup Care Options program enables more than 600,000 employees throughout the United States and Canada to get to work when they experience temporary breakdowns in their child, adult and elder care arrangements. Work Options Group, The Backup Care Company, has offered nationwide backup care for all ages since 1991. In 2007 alone, the company arranged more than 300,000 hours of temporary care, providing employees with trusted, affordable, temporary care and saving employers more than $18 million in absenteeism and lost productivity costs.