How employers can support and empower caregivers at work

HR and benefit professionals must reexamine how to manage the challenges that caregivers face if they want to keep up with workforce trends. Many caregivers live in multigenerational households. Others from the so-called "sandwich" generation juggle careers with caregiving for their children and elderly parents. There are even "club-sandwich" caregivers who manage their children, grandchildren and elderly parents along with careers. 

No matter the circumstances, success is predicated upon all caregivers needing not only a flexible work schedule, but also an organization with a transparent and inclusive culture. It's an issue that HR and employee benefit advisers increasingly will be searching for strategic solutions to on behalf of their employer clients.

The experience of our company's co-founder, Rey Ramirez, serves as a teachable moment for the industry. Since his extended family needed help with finances and health issues, he and his wife invited them into their home. Three caregiving scenarios emerged: In addition to taking in his in-laws, Rey agreed to house a nephew while he finished the last few semesters of college, as well as a sister-in-law who needed support in her bout with pancreatic cancer.  

Read more: Caregiving efforts are excluding Gen Z and millennials

Crediting his Hispanic culture, he says the mission is that those who have the means to do so must help relatives whenever possible. "You first do what you are comfortable with, then you manage your work responsibilities," Rey explains. "But that does take some thoughtfulness on what you can and can't do." 

To balance a worker's time away from home, some corporations have adopted the digital transformation office, a model that offers remote or hybrid work structures. These jobs may also offer other perks such as unlimited paid time off for salaried workers. We believe a company's culture needs to let caregivers feel comfortable asking for help when they need it most and be transparent with their managers when seeking a flexible or reduced schedule. 

Multigenerational households with sandwich generation caregivers face challenges because oftentimes a caregiver's time at work competes with family obligations. For example, these caregivers may need to choose between finishing a work project, or taking an ill family member such as their elderly parent to the doctor. Rey says that being a sandwich caregiver does take some discipline to keep up with family and work obligations. He has missed out on after-work networking events to take care of his multigenerational household. 

Read more: 'I was just a daughter and a mother': Sandwich caregivers struggle to manage it all

Organizations must have a culture of trust and belonging in place — led by CEOs and trickling down to front-line managers — in order to effectively support their caregivers' need for flexibility and empathy, according to Lori Bernardoni, an HR professional with LinkedIn who specializes in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) issues and employee engagement and experience. That way, caregivers may speak up about their needs to balance work and their outside duties.  

"I'm really lucky that I work for an organization that is saying 'we trust that you will get your work done' because I can work at early hours in the morning," she says. "Trust has been built into the work culture."

A caregiver to her elderly parents for seven years, Bernardoni works remotely so that she may continuously help them address significant health issues, such as loss of memory and hearing. One parent also needs help managing property, so that's another responsibility outside of health support that she is tasked with. 

Read more: 9 employee benefit programs that support caregivers

A workplace must have written policies in place to address any issues that may arise for a caregiver in a multigenerational household. For example, an organization may use a hybrid work model so that workers can work remotely a few days a week. Another possible solution is that a company may allow for a break to take care of a family member as long as the employee returns to their workload afterward.

Supporting sandwich generation caregivers will become more difficult as multigenerational households expand to younger workers. For example, research by the Pew Research Center's Rick Fry shows that 48% of 18- to 29-year-olds in the U.S. last year lived with a parent, or a parent lived with them; in 7% of those populations the young adult was the head of the household. Pew's multigenerational research also found that, "regardless of whose home they lived in, most 25- to 34-year-olds living in a multigenerational household (86%) had a parent in the home in 2021." 

The research also suggests that sandwich generation caregivers are becoming "younger, more female and more diverse." The survey of respondents, for example, shows that "women now represent a greater proportion of caregivers – increasing by four percentage points in just the last two years (64%) – and millennials grew ahead of baby boomers and Gen Xers, now comprising more than one-third of all multigenerational caregivers."

Organizations can help with caregivers by offering the relevant resources to them so that they can get extra help or advice. HR departments, for example, should have specific resources on hand from vendors, nonprofits or governments when a caregiver needs extra support at home. That way they can focus on work. 

Organizations also can tap their DEI initiatives to retain caregivers. 

"From a culture perspective, employees should feel engaged and that they belong," Bernardoni says. "'Do we feel that we can be authentic?' That's part of building a culture of acceptance and trust in everything that you do."