As Starbucks changed the coffee experience and Netflix outsmarted Blockbuster
As Starbucks changed the coffee experience and Netflix outsmarted Blockbuster, it’s time for the private sector to innovate a new work-life-care ecosystem improving the worker and corporation’s experience.
CAREGIVERS’ COSTS IN THE WORKPLACE:
- Today family caregiving responsibilities are seen as completely unrelated to the corporation for which this employee works when within 5 short years this division will no longer be possible due to the number of care challenged individuals among an organization’s employed.
- The scale of the “caregiving crisis” is miscalculated. Exclusion of employers has led to a misunderstanding of their economic threats and needs. The needs and daunting negative impact caused by non-action. sector employer must be incorporated.
- Solutions for the aging era must disrupt many current ideas, programs, and staff. The vision must shift to the digitally connected age across a modern work-life-care ecosystem. Broadly talented teams can design this. The core technology is in place. Positive outcomes are the right measures. There is a well-known study completed by Met Life in 2012, which sought to quantify the loss of productivity that businesses experience due to employees taking on caregiving responsibilities.
They estimated the financial loss to businesses nationally to be:
It is important to note that due to the lack of a modern comprehensive care system, even for a major reputable organization like MetLife, estimating these numbers is incredibly difficult. Many of the costs are currently “immeasurable” in the traditional sense because they are not tracked or reported in any way.
Part of the solution will be putting objective measures in place to better understand the scope of impact so that cost savings for businesses that implement effective life-work-care strategies can be determined.
As the existence of the “God Particle” recently validated by the scientific community, we know this impact exists. We can see and feel it in very tangible ways, but it is hard to quantify.
And some are of a mindset that if you cannot quantify, it does not exist. This is why developing measures and beginning to get true numbers is so important. You cannot address a problem or benefit from an opportunity if you cannot first measure it.
Impact on Team
Additionally, these numbers DO NOT reflect the impact on the team, which I have already briefly discussed earlier, and it is nearly impossible to put a number on although the impact is very real.
For sake of the scope, consider an average size team of 7 people working together to meet business, customer and regulatory demand. Now, imagine that just 1 of these team members is in a position of being a part or full-time CCE. The 1st or 2nd time this team member has a crisis the impact may be minor.
The team regroups, tries to come together to fill in the void. The 3rd or 4th time it happens, it may no longer be a few hours or an unscheduled absence, but days, (6 being the national average) unanticipated by management and the team with no real way to mitigate damage.
The team is finding itself strained, less capable of meeting deadlines and consumer demand. Quality slips; morale tanks. Team members try to be supportive but begin to feel resentful. This puts management in a difficult position of being completely unable to plan for even the next day. This, unfortunately, is a reality for too many organizations today. Now imagine that it is not 1 in 7, but more like 2-3 out of 7.
How does this impact your 7-person team’s ability to function?
What happens if these 2-3 people have to leave suddenly because your organization does not have a mutually beneficial system in place that allows them to care and remain productive? Now, imagine that 2-3 out of every 7 people that your organization interviews are facing similar challenges, although obviously, you can’t discuss the fact in an interview. What odds does this give you to recruit and retain quality talent? This sounds very doom and gloom, but this is actually what is going to give you the competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive global economy.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
The socio-economic impact of this care-challenged population of “unrecognized” workers is already highly present as you can see, but because the numbers look “low” in relation to the current workforce, it is not considered anything other than a “personal problem”.
Nationally speaking, as a culture, we place little value on the caregiving role or the aging populous and just expect someone else to “take care of it.” Out of sight – out of mind.
However, when you couple what we already know about the impact of caregiving with the next phase of the baby boomer cycle then we have a significant challenge on our hands.
In order to see this systemic change, there must be a change in mindset and values. This “old” role must be cast aside so that we can make this transition into a more productive economic system. There is a tremendous opportunity for business growth, entrepreneurship and wealth creation for those who work to address our value structure and infrastructure of the care system.
EMPLOYERS WITH CARE CHALLENGED PEOPLE:
Do you know who they are?
Remember, the “caregiving” workforce by some estimates is a $522. Billion-dollar “industry.” That unmanaged “workforce” is a true opportunity for wealth creation for a corporate takeover. The problem is there is not the clarity of services need to deliver. Talent capabilities are limited and there is no revenue. One last point, the people expected to be the workforce of this new corporation are typically skilled, recruited, and motivated to keep their current paid job.
Yes, currently, unpaid family members. Who is also working in a paid position, perform most “caregiving”. These CCEs are performing an emotionally charge and demanding role with little skill or preparation. The entrepreneurs and businesses that tap into changing this model can easily do it.
This is a multi-billion dollar industry begging for solutions such as on-demand direct entrée to professional and agency resources, use of integrated communications solutions, career decision making and carer training and other support, services, you name it, will find the wealth generation potential nearly limitless.
Lifeworkx conducted a cross-industry survey to get a better grasp on the extent of this challenge. This is the most current report. We gave participants a very clear explanation of what being care-challenge is.
- Providing 10 or more hours/week of active care to a loved one (excluding healthy child) who cannot care for him/herself and also 1 or more of the following:
- Finding you unable to meet performance standards at work experiencing care-related health challenges (stress, fatigue, depression, excessive weight gain/loss, etc.)
- Seriously considering/exploring other employment options that allow you to find an improved work-life-care harmony?
Impacted Age Group
We found that the largest impacted age group was 35 to 44 at around 60% of those in the age group finding themselves to care challenge. Those are consider as some of the highest productivity years for an individual.
About 15% more males than females find themselves care challenge. This finding deviates from most studies referencing a higher number of women than men caregivers. We already discussed that the days of having a spouse in the home to provide care have passed. Men and women alike are feeling the weight of a broken care system.
The above is where we are today, with numbers and impact to increase significantly by 2021. These employees are in our organizations. Providing care beyond their pay grades within a broken care system coupled with an employment system does not know about the hidden costs of care.
Hidden Cost Of Care
- The cost to replace the large numbers of employees who leave due to lack of policy to let people work where, when and how they want so that they can meet their caregiving needs.
- Cost of salaries paid to CCEs who leave before “fully trained”.
- The cost of recruiting, which today can exceed 2X annual salary of the individual to be replaced.
- Cost of customer surveys that say they wouldn’t do business with companies that don’t offer progressive work and working values and supports and vote with their feet every day.
- The cost of lost customers when the company cannot meet demands.
- Cost of sinking morale.
- The cost of lost day to day productivity.
- The cost of inability to attract the best-skilled people to your business or keep them.
- The inability to schedule and allow people to take time off that they have earned as a company benefit because they are “filling in” for CCE’s.
The cost of lost earnings and increased talent expenses.
This business dilemma is not as silent as it seems. It only goes unrecognized for what it is. Perhaps because we in many ways have accepted it as reality, do not want to consider that the impact is, in fact, this great. Or we see attempts to address it as complete futility. But there is a way.
Developing the right employment brand can change this employee care dynamic. Retain your talent by beginning to develop systems that recognize the coming shift and prepare for it. Prepare the organization for a new work ecosystem.
New Work Ecosystem
- “Our business understands and supports workers challenged with family care needs. We know that elder care is different than childcare and requires a different model for our mutual success.” (note: so does the care solutions for veterans and developmentally disabled).
- “Our goal is to provide every worker the support they need to make informed decisions about family caregiving and their job continuity. We will train our team for a One Talented Team ™ and CareWise ™ culture.”
- “We will vigorously advocate for a modern at-home/local care delivery system based on values. 2021 demographic facts, the full application of technologies, resulting in a superior care experience for all.”
- Will take a corporate protectionist posture to attract and retain our talent. The Way We Work ™ provides tools for hiring teams and workers to address the changed work/working/care ecosystem. The lack of preparation for an at-home/local healthcare team. Even it is not a good reason to expect already working people. That to be the backbone of the United States’ care solutions.”
- “Our leadership, career, talent, compensation, reward and learning systems will recognize 2021. That needs and be align to meet the nontraditional workforce and probably a distributed business operation.”
- “We will – where possible – address our business. Product and services development to include elements supporting the work-life-caring ecosystem designs across functions and industries.”
Also, read about Employee Family Caregiving Expectation
