Caring For Caregivers Improves Employee Wellbeing

Why you can’t wait to create a culture of care for your employee caregivers

There is a family caregiving crisis happening in the United States, and it’s impacting employers in all industries. Every day, the nation’s workforce struggles to navigate care for their loved ones while working a full-time job. The complexities of their loved ones’ care needs require in-depth research, planning and coordination, which makes it hard for employees to focus on anything else and leaves little time for caregivers to be present with their loved ones. 
 

The crisis has been going on for quite some time, with studies pointing to the increasing care needs of families and its impact on businesses since as early as 2010. From 2015 to 2020, the number of unpaid family caregivers in the U.S. increased by nearly 10 million—from 43.5 million to 53 million. These numbers are staggering and are only expected to climb. Before the pandemic, nearly three-quarters (73%) of employees had some type of caregiving responsibility. More than 80% of employee caregivers admitted that caregiving affected their productivity – specifically, their ability to perform their best at work. Furthermore, nearly one-third (32%) of all employees had voluntarily left a job due to caregiving responsibilities. The pandemic only compounded the situation.

Caregiving is poised to become one of the next big pillars of total wellbeing investment. Employers are expanding programs over a broad spectrum of wellbeing, including caregiving because they see the connection between these elements as foundational to supporting the whole person, not just the work person. They also see the connection to supporting an employee’s overall wellbeing and their ability to attract and retain a productive and satisfied workforce. If you are not investing in supporting your employee caregivers, you’re already behind the curve in your wellbeing efforts and employee retention strategies.

The Balancing Act

The current employee experience with many Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and patient advocacy services is solely transactional, addressing single needs at a time in isolation. And while a select few employers are giving employees the time, space and flexibility to address their caregiving challenges, time and space alone do not guarantee that employees will actually return to work with the answers they were seeking.

The needs of employee caregivers are far too great for transactional services to be enough and far too varied and nuanced to allow for point-solutions for each need that comes up. Employee caregivers need someone to go on the care journey with them — someone to be in their corner as they navigate the ongoing unknowns and challenges that too often keep them from being present with their loved ones. Employee caregivers need dedicated, personalized support. 

Experienced Care Coaches

Organizations such as Cariloop help employees navigate the often-confusing support options caregivers need to select. Cariloop’s Care Coaches provide dedicated, concierge guidance and support to employee caregivers when they need it most. These compassionate and experienced professionals help employees with a wide variety of care situations, particularly related to adult care, elder care, pediatric and working parent needs. 

Cariloop's Care Coaches have saved employees an average of 66 hours of research and care coordination for each loved one they support. In the last year alone, the dedicated support of Cariloop’s Care Coaches generated an additional 217,000 hours of productive time for employees to be more focused, engaged and present in their jobs and with their families.

As the employee caregiver crisis continues to grow, it’s imperative that employers foster a culture of care within their organizations, so employees have the resources across a wide spectrum of wellbeing needs. This added layer of support offers peace of mind for employees while improving employee wellbeing and productivity, as well as decreasing turnover.

Visit here to learn more about caring for your employee caregivers. 
 

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