Caring For Your Employee Caregivers
By: Gretchen Barry, BuddyIns
November is Long-Term Care Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness about the need for planning for a long-term care event and the options available. Whether employees are caring for an adult loved one or they need care themselves, either event can impact their futures and the company’s bottom line. Long-term care refers to the personal and medical assistance that people may need when they are unable to perform basic daily activities, such as bathing, dressing, eating, or moving around. Longterm care can be provided at home, in a community setting, or in a facility. This article will not cover the different types of funding solutions for long-term care as there are many. What I want to cover is the impact of care on individual employees. According to a 2020 report by AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving, there are about 53 million family caregivers in the U.S., and most of them are also working. Long-term care is not only a personal issue, but also a workplace issue. Our national caregiving crisis greatly impacts companies directly as employers report key employees coming into the office late and leaving early to care for loved ones at home or in a facility. Productivity decreases as these employees effectively have another job to do.
If one were to quantify the amount spent on unpaid caregiving it would total $500 billion dollars annually, or more than the annual GDP of 90% of the countries in the world (America is Running Out of Family Caregivers Just When It Needs Them Most, WSJ.com, 2018). Employers and benefit brokers should be aware of how caregiving impacts employees and what they can do to support them. Here are some key points to consider: Caregiving impacts employees' health, productivity, and finances. Caregiving can take a toll on their physical and mental health, as well as their ability to balance work and family responsibilities. Caregivers may experience stress, burnout, depression, anxiety, sleep problems, chronic diseases, and lower immune function. They may also face reduced work hours, lower income, higher expenses, and lower retirement savings. A family member's long-term care event can have a significant impact on an employee's career and well-being. It’s important to remember that it can happen to anyone, at any age, due to an accident, illness, or sudden disability. A long-term care event can affect an employee's availability, performance, and satisfaction at work. It can also affect their relationships with their family, friends, and coworkers. Employees may have to take time off work, reduce their hours, change their schedules, relocate, or quit their jobs to care for their loved ones.
