Taking Care of Family Caregivers’ Good for Business
If you work in a company’s human resources department, chances are that you are going to have an employee who is also serving as a family caregiver, facing demands on the home front.
While the numbers of how many family caregivers there are varied, the number has been growing in wake of COVID-19. A Bank of American 2019 Workplace Benefits Report said it was 45 percent. An AARP study had the number at one in six Americans being caregivers.
No matter what the actual number is, human resource staffs need to be ready and have solutions in place to help employee-caregivers.
“We know the numbers are growing,” said Alan Hubbard, NTI’s chief operating officer. “People are making the decision whether to leave their jobs to take care of their families, and that can be a difficult decision financially and career-wise.” NTI helps Americans with disabilities, family caregivers, and veterans find remote working opportunities with free training and job placement services. You can register at www.ntiathome.org.
One step a company can take first is to offer working alternatives, whether it be the opportunity to work at home, which can be a time saver with commuting and scheduling. Remote works also allow employees the option to have the peace of mind to know they aren’t miles away if something happens.
“You have to understand what your employee is going through, and you want to support them,” said Hubbard. “You don’t want to lose good employees and showing them that you know what they are going through is a good step to keeping them.”
Studies show 71 percent of family caregivers worry about their job security. Place in the company structure is also a concern family caregivers have. Showing your support to the employees takes major things off their minds.
Employers must also make sure their employees know what programs are available for them. The Bank of America survey said 83 percent of the surveyed employers offer caregiving support programs, but there was an information disconnect as 71 percent of the workers were unaware, and only 34 percent had taken advantage of them
"Training managers have to understand that caregiving and its responsibilities are an important part" of providing caregiving benefits, said Rani Snyder, program vice president at the John A. Hartford Foundation, in a Society for Human Resources (SHRM) article.
Supporting your caregiving employees can be a benefit to companies, according to AARP, with recruiting and retention of talent, better workplace loyalty, a boost in productivity, and a significant increase in company share prices.
“As more people become caregivers, how companies assist them could be a big factor in adding talent to your team and keeping them,” said Hubbard. “The programs you put in can help you make and save money in the long run.”
(NTI helps Americans with disabilities find at-home employment with free training and job placement services. You can register at www.ntiathome.org.)