According to a recent report from the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, more than 43 million individuals in the U.S. served as caregivers to an adult or child in the previous 12 months. This number will likely continue to grow as more adults age into the "sandwich generation"–those taking care of both aging parents and children simultaneously – and so will the economic value of their services, which was valued at $470 billion in 2013.

Caregivers, on average, devote more than 24 hours a week to providing this unpaid care, and the worry and stress that go along with being a caregiver make it increasingly difficult to remain focused and productive at work. It's becoming a workplace crisis, which is why employers are taking action to support caregivers and ease employee stress by offering personalized, unique benefits that employees need.

From childcare to eldercare, caregiving will impact everyone at some point in their careers. It is important to remember that each caregiver is different and therefore their health care and employee benefits needs may also be different; there's no one-size-fits-all benefit or program. In fact, studies have found a gap exists between perceived effectiveness of caregiving-related benefits and what caregivers actually want and need. Unfortunately, many employers are quick to only adopt solutions they think will help their employees. Moreover, even the most well-intended programs will not be successful if they are created using assumptions rather than real employee feedback and data.

Understand the issue

Before partnering with specialty providers and offering these type of lifestyle benefits, it's important employers seek to understand the heart of the caregiving issue for their employee population. The Caring Company, a research report from Harvard Business School's Future of Work Project, found that 52 percent of employers don't measure, and thus don't understand, the extent to which their employees are burdened by care. If this is the case, how can employers offer effective solutions and support if they don't fully understand the issue?

Many employees, for example, consider leaving their jobs due to their current caregiving responsibilities. In fact, the same report found that 32 percent of all employees had already left a job due to caregiving and 80 percent admitted it was affecting their productivity. Employers cannot ignore these numbers and we must find innovative ways to connect with the caregivers in our workforce and provide a wide variety of ways to get support.

To determine what benefits or programs would be most effective, employers should ask their workforce directly through an employee survey, creating an open channel for employees to suggest the benefits that would be the most helpful.

Employers can also study claims data to keep their finger on the pulse of how many employees have had children and could be in a childcare situation, or how many had a spouse diagnosed with a critical illness or disability. These can be opportunities to create personalized touch points and engage these employees with the available resources.

Finding the right solutions

Once employers understand the very real challenge caregiving stress causes their employees and what support they need, they can implement creative solutions and offer a multitude of family-friendly voluntary benefits. Caregiving benefits are enormously popular right now with the growing percentage of females in the workforce and the expansion of multiple generations. There are great partners employers can work with, like Cariloop, which provides a caregiver support platform that pairs employees and their families with a dedicated care coach for decision support and helpful tools to make caring for a loved one less stressful and less disruptive to everyday life.

Employers and their broker partners are also offering other voluntary benefits that target stress at its source, like onsite childcare. Some large employers are investing in emergency back-up childcare for situations when a daycare is closed, or a nanny cancels last minute. Another good example of how employers can support caregivers is offering a voluntary legal insurance option that, for a low monthly fee, can help employees avoid the stress and cost associated with legal matters like buying or selling a home, adoption, estate planning or assigning power of attorney. Since 58 percent of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings, any legal matter they may face could be detrimental to their financial and emotional well-being.

There's also a whole subset of voluntary benefits aimed at giving employees time back in the day. New and unusual "concierge" type benefits, such as grocery delivery or dry cleaning services are beginning to hit the market, which can help caregivers cross errands off their to-do lists for themselves and their family. For example, a grocery delivery service, like Shipt's same-day delivery service membership, can support the "moments that matter" by giving employees more time back with their family rather than spending their time in the aisles of the grocery store. These lifestyle benefits are far more effective in reducing stress and addressing employee burnout than more traditional offerings like employee assistance programs (which are often underutilized because of employees' privacy concerns).

Beyond offering these employee benefits to the workforce, employers must take purposeful actions with their company culture and policies to reinforce their support for the total well-being of employees and their families. In addition, meaningful perks like flexible schedules and kid or pet-friendly workplace events reinforces that family time is important and gives employees the space they need to take care of personal business while remaining present and thoughtful during work hours.

As more people become caregivers in some capacity, the workplace is feeling the impact. The Caring Company's research reports that 24 percent of employers have said caregiving influences employees' performance and presenteeism at work. Caregiving is often a full-time job in itself, and in order to prevent the stress and burnout that comes with caring for a loved one, employers must address the issue. Employee benefits targeted at the root causes of stress for families and caregivers encourages retention and develops a strong company culture that improves the health, finances and lives of employees.

Misty Guinn is director of benefits & wellness at Benefitfocus.

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Addressing the caregiver crisis in the workforce

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