In a Cariloop webinar poll, two-thirds of attendees expected a sandwich generation employee facing a care crisis to get manager flexibility. Fewer than one in six expected care navigation or Backup Care. That gap raises a question for HR and benefits leaders: does your support help employees solve care problems, or does it mainly give them time to solve those problems on their own?
At 9 a.m., an employee learns her father is being discharged from the hospital earlier than expected and cannot safely stay home alone. Her child’s school closes unexpectedly. She’s scheduled to lead a client presentation at 11.
Attendees at a recent Cariloop webinar on the sandwich generation were asked what support this employee would most likely receive at their organization.
| Expected support | Share of respondents |
| Manager flexibility | 67% |
| PTO or a leave option | 52% |
| An EAP or list of care resources | 41% |
| Not sure what would be available | 22% |
| Care navigation and Backup Care | 15% |
Source: Cariloop webinar poll. Respondents could select multiple answers.
The most common answers—flexibility and time off—give the employee room to step away or adjust her schedule. Far fewer attendees expected her to get support finding care or covering the immediate gap. Flexibility and leave can help, but the employee still has to work out what her father needs and who can help him, what to do about her child, and how to handle that presentation she’s prepared for.
This poll highlights an employee support gap that affects retention, as employees can’t keep doing their best work if every care disruption leaves them on their own to find the next step.
Who is in the sandwich generation?
The sandwich generation includes people caring for children while also supporting aging parents or other adult loved ones. It’s broader than the familiar picture of someone in their late 40s or 50s raising teenagers and beginning to help a parent.
Cariloop Chief Care Officer Breanna Boysel said nearly a third of caregivers are in the sandwich generation, which matches what Cariloop Coaches see. The group can include employees raising young children while helping a parent manage a chronic condition, as well as people supporting siblings, spouses, grandparents, adult children, or loved ones with disabilities.
The role can start earlier than employers expect. Liz O’Donnell, author and founder of Working Daughter, an online community for women care and careers, said people in their 20s join the community, and grandparents describe their own sandwich generation responsibilities as they care for grandchildren. Caregiving isn’t only a women’s issue, however. KPMG economist Matthew Nestler said his research found workers providing unpaid elder care are about evenly split between men and women.
Many employees don’t call themselves caregivers. As Boysel put it, caregiving may begin with “a phone call, or a fall, or a diagnosis.” Someone may research care options, coordinate appointments, and keep family members informed before they recognize their responsibilities have become ongoing care.
Why is elder care difficult to plan around?
Childcare often follows a schedule, but elder care can change with little warning. A school closure or provider cancellation can disrupt a familiar arrangement; a fall, new diagnosis, or hospital discharge can create new care needs in an instant.
O’Donnell recalled when she began to see herself as more than a working mother. She took a vacation day to take her 80-year-old mother to a doctor over an hour away. But her day started at 5 a.m., answering work emails. After the appointment, she picked up her mother’s prescriptions, helped her father with his computer, and filed a work article before speaking at an event that evening. That night, she realized she was also a working daughter.
The appointment was one part of a day bookended by family needs and work. When a loved one’s situation changes, employees may need to find care, arrange transportation, talk with family, and decide what happens next, often during work hours. Flexibility can make room for those tasks, but employees may still need help figuring out where to turn and what to do.
How can caregiving affect employee retention?
Caregiving challenges don’t always result in an immediate resignation. They may first show up as missed work, reduced focus, declined opportunities, or an employee stepping back from career advancement. Over time, employees who struggle to balance their responsibilities may begin questioning whether their current role is sustainable.
Boysel described caregiver pressure, saying, “They’re trying to remain committed to both their families and their jobs while also serving as the infrastructure holding a complicated care experience together.” She added, “We often talk about workplace burnout and caregiver burnout as though they happen separately, but that’s rarely how people experience them.”
When care stays invisible, employers may see the effects without understanding the cause. As Nestler put it, “You can’t solve what you don’t measure. And if you don’t measure something, then formally it doesn’t exist, but of course it exists.”
Exit interviews may not reveal the connection, either. Nestler cautioned that employees may not be fully forthcoming about why they’re leaving. HR leaders can get a clearer picture by asking about caregiving directly and looking for patterns across employee feedback, missed work, leave, and benefit use.
What should an employer caregiving strategy include?
A caregiving strategy needs to help employees at different points in the care journey, including planning before a crisis, coordinating ongoing care, and Backup Care when facing a sudden gap. Boysel described three kinds of support:
- Planning and care navigation: Help employees understand their options, prepare for family conversations, research care, and plan before a situation becomes a crisis.
- Ongoing coordination: Help organize appointments, documents, providers, and family responsibilities as needs change.
- Backup when care falls through: Help when a school closes, a provider cancels, or an aging adult suddenly needs supervision.
These supports work alongside flexibility and leave. Employees also need to know where to turn, and managers need to understand what help is available and how to respond. O’Donnell said, “If we don’t have the culture that supports it, then the benefits never get used.”
Where can HR leaders begin?
When polled, 37% of webinar attendees said their organization had not yet developed a caregiving strategy. Planning and care navigation was the next most common gap, at 17%.
| Where is the greatest gap in your current caregiving strategy? | |
| We have not yet developed a caregiving strategy | 37% |
| Planning and care navigation | 17% |
| Manager education and workplace culture | 12% |
| Understanding who our caregivers are | 12% |
| Backup Care for unexpected disruptions | 12% |
| Measuring utilization, outcomes, or ROI | 8% |
Source: Cariloop webinar poll.
Employers don’t need to address every gap at once. Boysel recommends starting with the workforce: identify which care moments create the most disruption, whether current benefits provide information or help solve problems, and whether employees across roles and locations can access support.
That means asking employees what they’re experiencing. An anonymous survey or care census can help surface needs people may not raise in a one-to-one conversation. Follow-up discussions can help HR understand where employees get stuck and what kinds of help would make a difference. Then you can pilot an approach and examine how it relates to workforce outcomes.
Start by asking this: if an employee’s care arrangements fell apart today, would they know where to turn, and would their manager know how to help?
Watch The Sandwich Generation: The Workforce Employers Can’t Afford to Overlook on-demand to hear Breanna Boysel, Matthew Nestler, and Liz O’Donnell discuss the care responsibilities sandwich generation employees carry and how employers can support them.