According to the MetLife Caregiver study, businesses across the United States lose between $17.1 billion and $34.2 billion every year due to absenteeism, lack of presenteeism, crisis management, and reduced work schedules for full-time employees who are also caregivers.
Can your business afford to have employees abruptly excuse themselves from work to care for an aging loved one? Addressing the needs of working caregivers is critical to the growth of Rhode Island businesses. Losing a key employee due to caregiving responsibilities could be catastrophic.
Consider the following:
• Rhode Island has the highest proportion of people over the age of 85 in the United States. (“Inspired Living in Rhode Island,” released Feb. 26, 2019)
• By 2020, 21.3 percent of the Rhode Island population will be over the age of 60. (U.S. Census Bureau)
• Alzheimer’s disease is projected to increase to as many as 27,000 Rhode Islanders by 2025. (Alzheimer’s Association of Rhode Island)
• There are more than 176,500 people over the age of 65 employed in Rhode Island. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Rhode Island is not alone in shouldering the issue of increased longevity.
Consider the national data:
• Forty percent of Medicare recipients over the age of 65 need assistance every day. (The Home Care Association of America and Global Coalition on Aging 2016 report “Caring for America’s Seniors: The Value of Home Care”)
• Twenty-five percent of family caregivers are millennials and 50 percent are under the age of 50. (The National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP Public Policy Institute 2015 report: “Caregiving in the U.S.”)
• The typical caregiver is a 49-year-old employed woman who provides 20 hours of care to her mother each week. (“Women and Caregiving: Facts and Figures,” a report by the Family Caregiver Alliance)
Empower supervisors to be flexible when applying policies.
The Society for Human Resource Management’s 2018 Employee Benefits survey found that nationwide, only 10 percent of companies offer eldercare referral services (a decline from 13 percent in 2017), just 1 percent of businesses offer on-site eldercare fairs, and less than 1 percent of businesses subsidize the cost of eldercare.
It is time for Rhode Island businesses to review what policies and resources are in place to support employee caregivers. In this tight labor market, how can a company balance compassion and empathy with the need to conduct business?
Respect Caregiving Needs
Your business will not win when an employee is forced to choose between caring for their family and coming to work. Foster a culture that allows employees to ask for what they need. Offer the same flexibility that you would for someone with small children. Senior centers and adult day health programs have snow days and transportation troubles just like schools do.
Include caregiving for parents in any language that discusses family-leave policies. Empower supervisors to be flexible when applying policies. Caregiving for an aging loved one is often spread across many years, with sudden bursts of intensity after an illness or accident.
Most organizations that provide assistance to seniors are sorely underfunded. As a business, provide support to the agencies and organizations in your community that help seniors maintain their independence. A small donation may mean the ability to obtain a vehicle that can transport seniors to a doctor’s visit so your employee doesn’t need to take the day off.
Businesses in Rhode Island could follow the lead of many investment and insurance companies by bringing in a gerontologist before retirement.
A gerontologist can provide information and referrals for services, coordinate caregiver resource fairs, provide educational seminars and offer full-service care management. By guiding seniors and their family through the turbulent waters of health care, caregiving and social expectations, a gerontologist can save businesses time and money.
Eldercare programs improve worker retention, reduce stress levels and improve productivity.
It’s time for Rhode Island businesses to take action – our economic growth depends on it. n
Deborah Burton is the owner of Scituate-based Aging Easily LLC and creator of RIElderInfo.com.
