HR Dive speaks to HR leaders and Benefits Specialists around the world on why it doesn’t matter what your workforce looks like, you have employee caregivers who need help. This article features Cariloop’s CEO, Michael Walsh, discussing the importance of supporting working caregivers. If you would like to learn more about how Cariloop’s Caregiver Support Platform® could help support your employees, schedule a demo. HR Dive knows that life is hard for working parents — and you don’t need to be one to know it’s the truth.
“Family caregivers are no less in need of support, paying an estimated $190 billion per year in caregiving costs alone, according to Merrill Lynch, which measured responses from those taking care of adult care recipients. So like with parenting, there’s added financial pressure to the time-strapped struggle to take care of parents, teenagers, uncles, aunts, grandparents and even neighbors on top of getting their day-to-day work done. But employees don’t need to meet those challenges by themselves; employers can take several steps and even work through existing solutions in order to support caregivers during a critical time. And as personal stories about caregiving emerge from all levels of organizations, including management, the issue may be of growing importance to benefits administrators, Michael Walsh, CEO of Caregiver Support Platform® Cariloop, told HR Dive in an email. There are other reasons for increased awareness: the low unemployment rate, increases in mobile accessibility and platforms, increased utilization of FMLA leave, and turnover as result of personal and family health issues.
“We believe that supporting family caregivers in the workplace as they care for their parents, in-laws, spouses, siblings, and children is going to continue to become a major factor in every employer’s long-term benefit strategy,” Walsh said.
What can employers do?
Employers can take several steps and work through existing solutions to support employees during a critical time. But what does that look like in a modern workplace? Above all, Walsh said, the employers getting caregiving “wrong” are the ones who are ignoring employee needs in this area of benefits altogether. Walsh pointed to a white paper he co-authored with Renee Albert, director of benefits at Facebook, that highlights steps the social media company had taken in order to improve its own offerings for caregivers.”
Click here to read the full article. Originally posted by HR Dive. Written by Ryan Golden.
