COVID-19 has made the employee caregiving crisis more urgent than ever
For their own sake, it’s time for employers to forge pathways toward relief.
With more than 166,000 dead, over five million infected and tens of millions unemployed, COVID-19 has significantly impacted the life of nearly every American.
These adverse effects are not, of course, evenly distributed. Some people, including the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions, are more vulnerable than most, and certain industries – restaurants, airlines, the hospitality sector – are more severely threatened by a protracted pandemic the likes of which haven’t been seen in a century.
Of those affected, perhaps no group is more susceptible to being overlooked than family caregivers. As they go about their self-appointed duties, this group of 41.8 million unpaid, dedicated caregivers–many of whom also are juggling one or more paid jobs–are no strangers to stress and anxiety under normal circumstances, let alone the decidedly abnormal COVID-era landscape.
Related: Caregiving: The health care crisis few are addressing
For family caregivers, the pandemic has made an already-challenging situation even more daunting. According to Genworth’s Caregiving in COVID Consumer Sentiment Survey, over 50% of them felt even more stress and anxiety due to the pandemic. Eighteen percent of respondents were suddenly obligated to spend more time providing assistance to a loved one who is either older or in a vulnerable health category, with the average time investment an onerous nine hours per week.
These caregiving obligations threaten to stretch Americans thin, as 54% of family caregivers also hold full or part-time jobs. Per Cambia Health Solutions’ study, “Wired for Care: The New Face of Caregiving in America,” 14% of employee caregivers have received warnings about their attendance, and another 14% have had to turn down promotions due to their caregiving duties. Twelve percent reported being reprimanded for their performance.
Americans’ caregiving responsibilities – both before and now during COVID – are multi-faceted, wide-ranging, disparate. They are intricate, intimate matters addressed in myriad ways by unique nuclear and extended family units.
But while the crisis is complex, our response to it starts with the simplest of queries. Given the employee caregiving crisis, it is both understandable and urgent that employers ask themselves –and their employees–four short words:
“How can I help?”
Being part of the solution
Though by no means new to the employer marketplace, caregiving benefits, like those in other categories, have evolved over time. For example, programs like EAPs, considered fresh and novel just a decade ago, have become standard offerings at many companies. And while EAPs certainly offer a wide variety of programs and general information for employees, they are often too broad to provide meaningful help with employees’ caregiving needs.
Family members are often unprepared when that undesirable call comes, the one informing them of a loved one’s suddenly-dependent health situation that thrusts them into a caregiving role. The number of decisions – financial and otherwise – and myriad questions in need of answers require expertise that most people simply don’t have.
As a caregiver myself, I know all too well how stressful those moments are for even the most experienced caregivers. Many of these unprepared caregivers turn to the Internet for advice and answers, often with the sort of information overload that leads to paralysis by analysis. So many options, so little expertise with which to make an informed decision that deeply affects a loved one.
For caregivers with jobs, research time is further compressed, forcing many to conduct this delicate research at work, or at home after hours when they should be recharging their batteries.
Some even take time off work. According to the Genworth Beyond Dollars Study, 53% of all caregiving employees report leaving early or taking time off to accommodate care, and 46% of caregivers had to work fewer hours because of caregiving responsibilities. This caregiving burden resulted in higher medical costs for caregivers, which added $13.4 billion to the annual cost of healthcare for US employers. It’s also worth noting that these statistics were pre-COVID 19, meaning they have almost certainly taken a turn for the (even) worse.
When thinking through the total cost to employers, we must factor in not only lost productivity due to unplanned absences but also recruiting costs – the time and other resources needed to replace employees that ultimately leave the workforce due to caregiving duties. And even for those employees that balance, often barely, their job and caregiving responsibilities, there remains a lost productivity concern.
Some fair questions to ask in an unfair situation: Stretched too thin and overstressed, are your employee caregivers interacting with their company’s clients as successfully as they otherwise would? Are they there in body but not in spirit? And can anyone blame them if the answer to each of those questions is a resounding “NO!”?
On top of all this are the three biggest stories of 2020: COVID-19, COVID-19 and COVID-19. At a time when everyone, caregiver or not, is feeling stressed, our work interactions with customers and colleagues alike require extra care and peak performance.
Employee caregivers are not professional caregivers, and caregiving benefits assist workers with several tasks that, by and large, they simply aren’t qualified to handle. For starters, the journey will only be as successful as the road map; in terms of caregiving, this means conducting a care recipient assessment that objectively assesses care needs so that effective, customized caregiving plans can be developed.
Identifying and assessing provider options is another caregiving issue in which experience and expertise are highly advantageous. This entails not only determining provider availability but also negotiating rates based on knowledge of typical care costs.
Such expert-driven caregiving benefits allow employees to stop playing professional caregiving coordinator. They no longer need to be the mastermind and key orchestrator of a highly complex, multifactor caregiving regimen.
Those are just the broad strokes: caregiving benefits can take many forms and offer a wide swath of services. Some are fairly comprehensive, covering a more complete range of care needs, while others are much more specialized and provide greater expertise for their niche. Specific services run a diverse gamut, and may include learning libraries, consolidated facility reports and user reviews, online support groups and other self-service benefits. However some of these offerings, while undoubtedly helpful, often still require employees to make difficult decisions on their own.
Other more in-depth services include phone consultations, customized care plans and other more turnkey caregiving roadmap-making. These programs aim to alleviate the need for employees to unilaterally make expert-level decisions about matters which, by and large, they are typically laypersons. Care Advocates are available through some of these services and can provide the appropriate acumen to guide novice caregivers through a variety of challenging scenarios.
With the goal of reducing employee stress and helping employers retain their workforce and productivity, the question for many isn’t “Do we add a caregiving benefit?” but rather “Which one of them should we add?” The chasm between caregivers needs and the current level of support they receive is wide, and employers would be well served to help bridge this gap.
Larry Nisenson is the chief commercial officer for Genworth’s U.S. Life Insurance business, including CareScout® Caregiver Support Services, an innovative program designed to provide expert guidance and personal support for those struggling to find the right help for their loved one. The program leverages a network of 100,000+ healthcare professionals and facilities nationwide to provide employees unlimited access to personalized care advice and help finding suitable care solutions for their aging loved ones.
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