About thirty percent of the American workforce currently has some caregiving responsibilities. That includes men and women, at all levels of your organization.

These employee-caregivers provide volunteer assistance in the activities of daily living for someone who can’t manage for themselves. On average, your employee spends five-and-a-half years working in this unpaid position, while trying to remain productive working for you.

Employee-caregivers regularly change their work schedules, reduce the number of hours they work, or eventually stop working altogether. U.S. employers pay out an estimated $6.6 billion annually to replace employee-caregivers who leave the workforce.

The situation is not improving. Our aging population with increasing longevity creates additional pressure on these volunteer family caregivers. Plus, our overburdened healthcare system seeks to reduce costs by relying even more on family to provide care at home.

There are many benefits that support employee-caregivers. Paid leave, flexible schedules, working from home are a great start.  Eliminating policies that stigmatize or discriminate against caregivers helps create an organizational culture that allows for higher productivity.

Yet, caregivers indicate that what is missing is more digital assistance.

Employers looking for better support systems find digital tools ease the logistical and emotional burdens of employee-caregivers.

The majority of caregivers don’t use digital tools. Despite the vast array of available digital tools that could support caregiving efforts, only 7% use or have used technology.

• There are so, so many options. Too many. It’s hard to know what will actually help.
• Many options are expensive, often on contracts over several months or even years.
• Discovering the technology and implementing it is time-consuming. And the one thing an employee-caregiver does not have is extra time.

• Disseminate information within a controlled group (family, friends and care providers).
• Coordinate care
• Remote monitoring or check-ins on their loved one
• Manage medication including obtaining prescriptions and refills and adhering to meds schedules
• Help navigate the healthcare system
• Deal with documentation like financial and insurance benefits and claims
• Keep track of medical procedures and records
• Manage legal processes and records
• Connect with other caregivers for peer support
• Help restore a healthier balance in their lives
• Find ways to feel less guilty and lonely
• Search for and hire quality care for backup
• Keeping the recipient of care involved and informed

Critically, employee-caregivers don’t find it helpful to use several apps or spreadsheets. They prefer as few integrated digital tools as possible.

There are significant barriers to the implementation of digital tools for employee-caregivers. Employers recognizing that implementation is enhanced through human support find increased utilization of digital tools. Employee-caregivers operate under incredible stress and monumental time constraints. Just taking the time and effort to search for and learn new tools can be insurmountable. Specific hands-on help reduces or removes these barriers.

Direct access to a person familiar with the platform the employer offers to employee-caregivers helps in the initial set up stages. The tech coach sets up the app and helps your employee start entering data. A coach provides lessons to start and remains available to answer questions.

Employers offer Care Coordination to reduce the logistical burden on their employee-caregivers. Along with digital tools, the care coordinator manages tasks like sourcing third-party care or performing full scale case-management services. Care coordinators capably oversee care plans, medical, legal, and financial plans, plus documentation assistance.

Caregivers, especially those who are employed, seldom identify as a caregiver. Their family duties are just normal and “what any good son/daughter would do”. There is often concern that others question their career commitment if they even mention caregiving responsibilities.

A CareWise™ Organization recognizes the reality that sooner-or-later the majority of American workers take on caregiving responsibilities in addition to holding down a job. Over 3.6 million Americans turn 65 every year. Our Baby Boom generation now requires more care than ever before.

Executives and managers are not exempt. And when caregiving responsibilities hit in the C-suite often the culture of the organization becomes far more supportive. Frequent communication to every employee, at every level in the organization, helps both identify needs and access appropriate benefits.

CareWise™ Workshops help tactfully introduce new cultural components into the workplace. Creating a corporate culture that recognizes and openly accepts employee-caregivers requires starting a conversation. CareWise™ tools allow for open communications so employers learn how to support caregivers as they work.

Employees must self-assess to see how their caregiving responsibilities affect their day to day lives. This helps overcome those initial implementation barriers. Plus, the self-assessment process creates a higher level of receptivity and responsiveness for benefits and digital tools available to them.

Digital health solutions offer a greater connection for users and potentially better engagement. Plus, available real time data leads to superior clinical healthcare.

But there are other considerations employers weigh before deciding to sign on for digital tools to support employee-caregivers.

• Absenteeism
• Presenteeism
• Attrition
• Attracting talent
• Morale and engagement
• Company culture

There are several pay structures available for different digital platforms and solution-based options.

• Per employee per month for the entire staff
• Monthly fee for eligible employee-caregivers
• Cost-sharing with users
• Project-based fees for workshops, surveys, assessments, recommendation reports
• Flat fee for resources such as workshop materials, white papers, and general advice

There are additional HIPAA-compliant methods to reach out to employee-caregivers as an employer offers new programs.

• Incentives for adherence to the program
• Measure decreased employee-caregiver stress
• Check for increased productivity with the employee-caregiver and their team
• Decreased attrition
• Lower absenteeism

The employee-caregivers in your organization may have given up looking for digital tools and other resources. Often their dual employment (working for you and their caregiving responsibilities) is so fatiguing that they can only keep up with the minimum required of them. Just the idea of taking on a new task, even if it might save time or energy, overwhelms them. So, although they have ideas about what would help, they don’t actively seek that support.

If asked, employee-caregivers request tools and resources in these areas:

• Methods to connect with other patients and caregivers dealing with similar conditions
• Management tools for medications, prescriptions, scheduling, oversight, and insurance
• Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS) and other patient in-home monitoring tools
• Information access
• Disease specific connections

Most employee-caregivers cope with dual employment by denying themselves care. They get tired, burned out and frazzled. Over time, they feel they must decide between their careers and their loved one. The guilt associated with facing this decision is immense. And on average, the caring cycle continues for five and a half years.

Some estimates suggest that over 60% of the American workforce will have caregiving responsibilities over the next three decades. Employers must step forward to support employees, or pay the higher costs of low productivity, lack of employee engagement and high attrition rates.