Employees Who Provide Elder Care Cost Money For Business And Impacts Employee Productivity

Over 44 million Americans are providing care for an adult family member or friend. This is called caregiving. Caregiving impacts the caregiver and also the employer. A majority of caregivers are working. We now know that caregiving has entered the workplace.

Caregiving demands put time and emotional pressure on anyone trying to balance the demands of the workplace with the demands of family and caring for a loved one.

Nearly 60% of caregivers over the age of 50 are working, the majority are working full-time. Nearly 40% of the caregivers are men as determined in a "Caregiving in the United States" study in 2004. (1)

The burden of eldercare impacts employers in employee productivity and lost dollars.

How does it impact your company? Have you measured the productivity losses to your bottom line?

• The total estimated cost to employers for full-time employees with intense caregiving responsibilities is $17.1 billion.
  
  
• The average cost per employee for those with intense caregiving responsibilities is $2,441.
  
  
• The total estimated cost to employers for all full-time employed caregivers is $33.6 billion (2)
  
  The 2006 estimates are that there are close to 16 million employed caregivers who are working full-time.
  
  Some of those people work for you and you may not be aware that they are faced with a challenge of balancing work responsibilities with the caregiving demands they have on a daily basis.
  
  The Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2006, said: "U.S. employers are paying an increasingly steep price in lost productivity for workers who take time off from their jobs to care for elderly family members. (3)
  
  Employers can take steps to assist their employees find worklife/caregiving balance by offering a workplace seminar that gives concrete strategies to relieve the burden.
  
  How many employees are currently affected by caregiving demands? How many expect to become caregivers in the future? Determine how eldercare concerns are impacting your business by arranging an assessment.
  
  You can arrange for individual assistance for employees from a Professional Geriatric Case Manager. You can put in place policies and procedures which have been shown to have a positive impact on retaining employees.
  
  Many employers have shifted their thinking to accept eldercare as a workplace issue and are making an effort to manage it.
  
  (1) National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, 2004
  (2) The MetLife Caregiving Cost Study: Productivity Losses to U.S. Business. Met Life Mature Market Institute, National Alliance for Caregiving. July 2006
  (3) "Employees Cost for Elder Caregiving is on the Rise", Kelly Greene, Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2006.
  

  Article Source: http://www.content.onlypunjab.com

  Cynthia Ward, M.Ed, CCM, CDMS, CRC is a Certified Case Manager and a Professional member of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers. She is the founder of Chrysalis Case Management, a private case management company. Chrysalis provides care management services to help elders, their families and caregivers plan for aging and long term care. Chrysalis Case Management PO Box 305 Weare, NH 02381 603-529-7173 www.chrysaliscm.com

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