Supporting employees with diabetes: Considerations for employers as businesses open up
Here are five suggestions employers can consider as they plan for their employees with diabetes in a post-pandemic world.
Employers and their benefits manager teams have had a lot to tackle throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been a challenging few months. As businesses begin to open up, assessing the best ways to support employees is a priority. For employees with diabetes, there are additional considerations to keep top of mind.
With diabetes rates rising, this chronic condition is a significant issue for employers. In 2018, 34.2 million Americans (10.5% of the population) had Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, and 88 million Americans age 18 and older had pre-diabetes. Since then, the numbers have continued to rise. Diabetes-related costs have also increased, and today diabetes is one of the most expensive diseases affecting U.S. employers.
Related: How employers can help employees better manage diabetes
Whether planning a return to the workplace or extending work from home policies, companies have a new opportunity to foster a supportive environment. A survey of employees with diabetes conducted by Roche Diabetes Care revealed that specific efforts to understand their experience with the chronic condition are worthwhile. More than nine in ten (93%) survey respondents said company support that recognizes their individual healthcare needs would make them feel their employer understood diabetes and valued them as employees. Four in five (84%) said they would feel more confident and less stressed at work (78%) and less likely to leave the company (79%).
Here are five suggestions employers can consider as they plan for their employees with diabetes in a post-pandemic world:
1. Avoid the three C’s
While there is no one playbook for bringing employees back to work, there is reported scientific consensus about a general approach based on avoiding the three C’s: Contact, Confinement and Crowds. “It’s really a different way of thinking that most people in the world aren’t used to,” said Dr. Barbara Taylor, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.” These three precautions are a good general guideline together with making choices realistic for your company and employees, including those with diabetes.
2. Communicate the measures taken to create a safe work environment
According to the published research about COVID-19, people with diabetes are not at higher risk of becoming infected. Those with diabetes may still feel some anxiety about returning to a workplace environment. Flexibility, planning and communication can go a long way toward making employees with diabetes feel safe.
Explain the precautions your company has taken along with any changes, such as to company cafeterias, restrooms and large meeting spaces, that will help ensure healthy business operations. Employers may also want to create onsite spaces for condition management such as blood sugar monitoring or insulin injections and communicate how these will be maintained.
3. Provide specific support for employees with diabetes
Data confirms good glucose control is important in avoiding or reducing the severity of infection for people with diabetes. There are a number of steps companies can take to help employees with diabetes stay in control. The first is to recognize that diabetes is personal. The survey of employees with diabetes reported 81% said their own diabetes management needs are extremely or somewhat unique. A further nine in ten (89%) believe one type of diabetes management support program does not fit all.
Fortunately, there are options that employers can consider to accommodate this large and growing population. Employees say company help that recognizes the individual nature of the disease and provides support, including personalized, digital coaching and blood sugar tracking to simplify disease management at work and at home would be a significant step. A majority (92%) of those surveyed said they would be very likely to utilize this program and be more engaged in their own diabetes management.
4. Keep open communication to help people feel secure and boost morale
All employees, and especially those with diabetes, want to feel safe and heard at all times, but especially as they adjust to a ‘new normal.’ Proactive communications from company leadership and other executives involved in benefits and human resources that are empathetic and explain adjustments in business operations as well as new protocols are critical.
Just as important is listening. Employees should feel they can freely (and confidentially) share concerns. Open, two-way communication is a big part of morale-boosting efforts and making employees feel connected. Everyone benefits from feeling part of a community during these volatile and unprecedented times.
5. Provide resources for reliable information about reopening
There are resources available to employers as they look toward reopening. Guidelines have been posted by the Centers for Disease Control. Here are two links:
- Guidance for Businesses and Workplaces
- Reopening Guidance for Cleaning and Disinfecting Public Spaces, Workplaces, Businesses, Schools, and Homes
Adam Berman is director franchise marketing at Roche Diabetes Care. More information about diabetes in the workplace is available in a white paper, Changing the Course and Costs of Diabetes at Work.
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