When they reach her office at Plante & Moran in Auburn Hills, Mich., the boys head for the company’s training center. Instead of studying deductions like their mom, a tax partner at the accounting firm, they meet friends, learn tricks from a magician or study reptiles from a local zoo.

The free Saturday day care is just one way companies are adding child-friendly zones to the workplace. Other examples range from high chairs in the cafeteria to “family rooms” for breast-feeding parents to worksite child-care centers.

As working parents become the norm, employers are finding creative ways to help their employees balance work and family. Companies that offer work-life benefits say they experience reduced absenteeism and turnover, along with improved employee satisfaction and concentration on the job.

“We consider it an investment in our employees,” said Denise Knobblock, executive vice president of administration for Compuware Corp., which provides a day-care center at the company’s Detroit headquarters. It can serve up to 400 children.

Knobblock points to Compuware’s family-friendly policies as part of the reason for the company’s high retention rate. The average Compuware employee has worked at the software company for 6.2 years. Nationally, most employees stick with an employer for about three years.

While the boardroom may never be replaced by a playroom, some employers are realizing the importance of giving parents a space for work and family, said Ellen Bravo, a workplace expert and author of “The Job Family Challenge: Not for Women Only.”

“We need to have a business world where you don’t need someone at home full time or no life to advance,” Bravo said.

The number of women in the work force has grown from 18.4 million in 1950 to 65 million in 2003, according to the Bureau of Labor. An estimated 60 percent of women with children younger than 6 are employed, and mothers with preschool children are the fastest-growing segment of the work force.

As a result, the number of employers offering work-life benefits has increased over the past five years and will continue to do so, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, a trade association in Alexandria, Va.

The association said today’s top five “family-friendly” benefits are dependent-care flexible spending accounts, flex time, family leave, telecommuting on a part-time basis and compressed workweeks.

Plante & Moran provides free Saturday day care at most of its offices from January through April, the busy tax-preparation season. Huismann said her stress is reduced just knowing she can see her sons for lunch that day, and that her husband has time to accomplish his weekend goals.

“It’s a nice vehicle to get my kids involved in my work. They see what I do and where I go every day,” Huismann said.

Without such programs, parents often search for ways to keep their kids safe, busy and entertained during the workweek. Winter and spring breaks can be especially stressful for parents like Tyrone Talifer, a single dad from West Bloomfield, Mich.

The self-employed father of 6-year-old Tyrone uses the Franklin Athletic Club’s Kids Camp and other services to make sure his son enjoys his vacation this week without ending up in front of the TV.

“It helps take the pressure off both of us,” Talifer said. “Otherwise, I’d be scrambling to find somewhere for him to go.”