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November is National Family Caregiver Month, which is a perfect time for employers to reexamine how eldercare is affecting the workplace.
Industry research estimates that eldercare can cost U.S. businesses billions of dollars in terms of absenteeism, employee replacement, eldercare crises, unpaid leave, workday interruptions and full-time to part-time job changes.
In addition, a MetLife Mature Market Institute 2006 study revealed nearly 60% of adults caring for an aging family member are working full-time.
"We know that eldercare is challenging and employees need help," says August Stieber, national sales director of Bensinger, DuPont & Associates, a national EAP firm. "During the first half of 2007, [we] experienced a 30% increase in requests regarding eldercare services compared to the same period last year," Stieber notes. "We expect requests for this type of service to continue to increase as the workforce ages."
He advises employers to allow for more flexibility in job schedules, to create job sharing opportunities and to develop committees, focus groups and leadership resources on eldercare.
Meanwhile, some employers are providing senior-care benefits in the form of service providers that offer backup eldercare. For example, a worker calls the vendor about a family emergency and the vendor contacts a professional caregiver, who then gets in contact with the employee.
"In a lot of respects, senior care has been an underground issue," says Cindy Carrillo, president of Colorado-based Work Options Group, a third-party provider that offers backup care for infants, school-aged children and seniors.
"When someone has a baby, employers see the process unfold and then the employee has the baby and pictures to show for it. You don't talk about mom falling and breaking a hip," she adds. "We're trying to help educate employers that senior care is a concern.
