How Employers Can Support Working Caregivers

Source: AARP.org | July 30, 2007

Addressing caregiver support issues in the workplace is not just a benevolent response; it’s smart business. It is reported that companies reap a $3-$14 return on every $1 they spend on eldercare benefits.

Today'’s Baby Boomers may well be called "the Eldercare Generation." As more employees remain in the labor force and their parents live longer, businesses have begun stepping up to help overwhelmed workers better balance their professional and family responsibilities.

Companies are finding eldercare help to be timely “insurance.” That is because both employers and employees benefit when workers have options that make caregiving more manageable. No wonder eldercare benefits and flexible work arrangements are fast becoming a potent recruiting and retention tool.

As of 2007, 33% of large companies offer basic eldercare benefits, as do 25% of all businesses. Most take the form of resource materials and referrals services, unpaid leaves of absence, dependent care flexible spending accounts, counseling, or back up elder care. More progressive companies also offer subsidized in-home emergency care or adult daycare, on-staff geriatric care specialists, inclusion of an older relative on a health insurance plan, or workplace support groups. Some companies have no formal eldercare benefits but allow flexible work arrangements such as flextime, job sharing, telecommuting, and a compressed work week that employees use to juggle elder caregiving.

An Urgent Issue

• There are as many as 44 million caregivers in the U.S.
• Nearly 60% of caregivers in the U.S. are employed either full or part time.
• Ninety-two percent of caregivers with intense caregiving responsibilities report major changes in their working patterns.
• The average length of caregiving is 4.3 years.

Why the Demand?
It’s simple math: The population is aging; more women are at work; Boomers are working past retirement; others are reentering the labor force in their 50s, 60s and 70s. Meanwhile, medical know-how is extending lives; hospital stays are shorter; families are smaller; and society is more mobile. Add it all up and the result is fewer family members at home to help needy relatives.

Here’s more evidence:

• One fifth of American workers are informal caregivers.
• Between 2000 and 2010, the number of working women age 55+ will increase 52%, from 6.4 million to 10.1 million.
• While caregiving is traditionally associated with women, almost 40% percent of today’s caregivers are men.

The Cost to Employers
Companies are also seeing the emotional and physical toll that caregiving takes on its workers. In one study, 75% of employees caring for adults reported negative health consequences, including depression, stress, panic attacks, headaches, loss of energy and sleep, weight loss, and physical pain. Businesses suffer, too, by having to pay high health insurance costs and in lost productivity. That doesn’t count the promotions or assignments workers turn down that require travel or relocation away from aging relatives.

Businesses that don’t offer benefits or address eldercare wind up paying for them. A recent study by the MetLife Market Mature Institute and the National Alliance for Caregiving states that U.S. companies pay between $17.1 billion and $33.6 billion annually, depending on the level of caregiving involved, on lost productivity. That equals $2,110 for every full-time worker who cares for an adult.

Here’s another way to look at the issue: Eldercare cost businesses:

• $6.6 billion to replace employees (9% left work either to take early retirement or quit)
• nearly $7 billion in workday interruptions (coming in late, leaving early, taking time off during the day, or spending work time on eldercare matters)
• $4.3 billion in absenteeism

• On-site eldercare Oakwood Healthcare ,
• long-term insurance for parents, in-laws, grandparents, and grandparents-in-law Cornell University ,
• an elder care office providing guidance, counseling, and referrals University of Kentucky , and
• out of pocket eldercare expenses with tax free dollars SSM Healthcare .

Here’s what other businesses are doing:

• Freddie Mac has a free eldercare consultant and access to subsidized aides for a relative up to 20 days.
• Verizon Wireless offers seminars on eldercare issues and allows full-time workers 80 hours a year in back-up care, 40 hours for part-time, and $4/hour for in-home help.
• At the Atlanta law firm Alston & Bird LLP, workers can donate vacation time to colleagues who have used up theirs to care for family members.

Once again, because it’s so important: Addressing caregiver support issues in the workplace is not just benevolent. It’s smart business. Keep in mind that every $1 companies spend on eldercare benefits reaps a $3-$14 return.

What Can Employers Do?
Formal support is important, but even more critical is an office culture that 1) is sympathetic to the issues elder caregiving employees face and 2) encourages workers to use company services. This must be a top-down attitude, where supervisors and managers are trained to be sensitive to staff with eldercare issues. (A SHRM survey claims that just 11% of respondents train managers on this topic.) You can have policies on the books, but employees don’t use them if they’re afraid they will negatively impact their job.

Your level of response will vary depending on the size of your company and your budget. Providing basic eldercare benefits does not have to be complicated or expensive.

• Have your HR department compile a list of community sources to hand out to employees. Contact your local Area Agency on Aging for material and referrals (counseling services, support groups, booklets, specific programs, lists of eldercare experts). Check with nearby senior centers, hospitals and national sources. (See Resources sections.)
• Ask workers what kind of eldercare policies would be helpful – flextime, lunchtime workshops and speakers, cash subsidizes for services, paid sick leave or employee leave-sharing, support groups, or access to a geriatric case manager.
• Find out what has worked and hasn't worked for others in your field who have eldercare policies.
• Consider contracting with a third party to provide eldercare employee services. It could be online or telephone support or for emergency back-up care.