By Lydell C. Bridgeford
When UPS employee Diane Davies needed help in taking care of her dad, who is in his 80s, a coworker told her to try Senior Helpers, a service provider that offers backup eldercare.
"My mom had gone into the hospital to have an operation, and during the procedure she had a stroke," says Davies, who works at UPS's airline division in Louisville, Ky.
Her mother, also in her 80s, went into rehabilitation. "During that time, my dad really couldn't stay at home by himself, so my brother and I had to stay with him, but I also had to work," explains Davies, who didn't take the traditional route of contacting her employee assistance program for eldercare advice.
Davies' experience at UPS reflects how employers are recognizing that workers who are caring for an aging relative need an array of options to successfully manage professional and family responsibilities. Yet in offering eldercare programs and services, employers may sometimes struggle in communicating those efforts to their workforce.
Spreading the word
Even though companies have eldercare programs and services, employees do not always know about them, says Kathleen O'Brien, senior gerontologist with MetLife Mature Market Institute. The Connecticut-based institute, which studies retirement and aging issues, conducted a survey of employees who were caregivers that worked at three Fortune 500 companies offering robust eldercare benefits. "Two-thirds of the respondents did not know that the employer had those programs," says O'Brien.
"The company may announce the services, but people are not thinking about them when they are announced, and when they become a caregiver, it's not upfront anymore."
The implication for employers is to increase employees' knowledge about eldercare services. Citing research from the Society for Human Resource Management, O'Brien says about 11% of employers train their middle managers about caregiving programs and how to work with employees using those services.
Research from the institute also shows nearly 63% of all caregivers ages 51 to 64 work, with most employed full-time. About 75% of them are the primary caregiver. In addition, male and female children of aging parents alter their work schedules to accommodate caregiving responsibilities. For instance, 54% of men and 56% of women have modified their work schedules, with 78% of men and 84% of women coming in late and/or leaving early. In addition, 38% of men and 27% of women have altered their work-related travel.
Bottom-line implications
More employers are starting to understand the financial toll eldercare may have on their bottom line, O'Brien confirms. In 2006, the MetLife Mature Market Institute and the National Alliance for Caregiving reported that U.S. companies pay between $17.1 billion and $33.6 billion annually in lost productivity due to caregiving, depending on the level of caregiving involved. That equals $2,110 for every full-time worker who cares for an adult relative, notes AARP.
Historically, most eldercare services offered in the workplace resembled the childcare benefit model in terms of offering information and referrals to agencies that could help workers who were caregivers. Some companies have moved to a more sophisticated model in which they provide a care management visit, where a long-term care specialist talks with the family to sort out the caregiving issues, explains O'Brien. What's more, some employers have onsite support groups, while others provide substantive resource materials written by caregiving experts.
"We don't really think of flextime as specifically for eldercare, but the ability [to take a] leave of absence without it impacting your job, and the ability to arrange your schedule in a different way, are benefits that help people deal with eldercare," she says.
Lending a helping hand
Maryland-based Senior Helpers provides in-home personal and companion care for seniors. This includes help with housework, meal preparation, errands, transportation, medicine reminders and Alzheimer's care. UPS, which employs about 358,000 U.S. workers, offers an employee discount program where it collaborates with companies that provide group discounts on services and products, including Senior Helpers.
"Employees who may have the need to use Senior Helpers for services are offered a discount through Senior Helpers," says Jackie Blair, a UPS spokeswoman. In Davies' case, it was a 10% discount on services rendered for a week. "It went smoothly, but more then anything, it took a lot of pressure off me in terms of work and taking care of my dad," says Davies, who has been with the package delivery company for 15 years. She is part of its administrative staff in the international support unit.
"I felt like he was being taken care of. He is at the point where, if something were to go wrong with the services, he would be able to tell me," Davies explains. "I never felt, as a caregiver, I was under a lot of pressure to retain my job." Management has been accommodating, she adds.
As the population ages, more people will start to have loved ones who are living longer. Consequently, they will need some extra help in taking care of those individuals, says Tony Bonacuse, president of Senior Helpers. "We want to help employers understand the cost associated with eldercare crises and what workers who are caregivers are going through," he explains.
The idea for the company originated, in part, by watching his mother, who was working part-time, struggle to find professional help to assist her with taking care of one grandmother with a broken ankle and another one with a hip replacement. Both women were in their 80s.
"Unless you have had a need for homecare, you really do not realize our industry exists outside of the general health care industry," Bonacuse adds.
"In a lot of respects, senior care has been an underground issue," says Cindy Carrillo, president of Colorado-based Work Options Group, which offers backup care for infants, school-aged children and seniors. "When someone has a baby, employers see the process unfold, and then the employee has the baby and pictures to show for it. You don't talk about mom falling and breaking a hip," she adds. "We're trying to help educate employers that senior care is a concern."
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