Help Employees Navigate Eldercare

More and more adult employees are, or soon will be, responsible for taking care of their parents or other older relatives. This growing demographic costs employers money in missed workdays and lost productivity. And the problem is not going away any time soon.

U.S. businesses lose at least $11 billion a year to absenteeism, workday interruptions, and employee turnover caused by the care of aging relatives, according to the “2010 MetLife Study of Employer Costs for Working Caregivers.” Those who care for elderly relatives are also more likely to neglect their own mental and physical health, which can have a serious impact on the workplace.

Offering Eldercare Benefits

One of the best ways to mitigate the problems caused by employee eldercare issues is to offer benefits that reduce employee stress. About one-quarter of employers offer some kind of eldercare benefit to employees. Those range from flexible spending accounts to flex time, and even onsite eldercare centers. If you know your employees are struggling with eldercare issues, consider offering one or more of these common eldercare benefits:

• Counseling: Eldercare counseling provides help and support for employees caring for aging relatives.
• Referral services: Specialists provide employees information on care centers and other services.
• Dependent-care flexible spending accounts: Employees use pretax earnings to contribute to funds they can then use to cover eldercare costs, much like health-care FSAs. Employers can choose to match the employees’ contributions.
• Flexible work schedules, telecommuting, and leave programs: These perks don’t lessen the employee’s workload but can greatly reduce their stress.
• Dependent-care reimbursement programs: Employers reimburse employees for elder day-care costs.
• Onsite elder day care: Employers provide elder day care at the workplace.

While dependent-care reimbursement programs and onsite eldercare are out of reach for many small businesses, they are not the most coveted eldercare benefit. Small businesses can usually afford the one perk most appreciated by this group of employees: flexibility in the workday.

Because it gives them the ability to take an elder to a doctor’s appointment or respond to eldercare emergencies, employees place a high value on flexible work hours. And you may be surprised to find you get more productivity out of employees who have more flexibility. They’ll be less stressed and more able to focus when they are at work because they won’t constantly worry about being demoted or even fired because of their eldercare issues.

If your workplace can support offsite workers, consider allowing employees caring for older relatives to work from home one or two days a week. These types of flexible arrangements make your workplace more attractive and appreciated, helping you retain and recruit the best employees.

Getting the Word Out

It does no good to offer eldercare benefits if no one uses them. Often workers don’t use eldercare benefits because they don’t understand them, don’t know they exist, or consider such matters too personal to discuss at work. It’s up to you, or your human resources department, if you have one, to be proactive about publicizing your company’s eldercare benefits. Many employees don’t need eldercare benefits until they have been on the job for years, so they may not remember or have ever known you offer them.

To ensure employees use the eldercare benefits you’re paying for, talk about your programs frequently, and offer scenarios in which the eldercare benefits can come into play. Stress that long-range planning can make the transition from independence to assisted living easier on employees’ older relatives and enhance their own work-life balance.