Are you offering the right type of benefits to your caregiver employees?

If you haven’t heard by now, our population is aging rapidly. The first of the baby boom generation began turning 65 in 2011, and since then every eight seconds a person turns 65 — that’s 10,000 people every day! In the current workforce, 61% of employees are caring for a loved one outside of work. As a result, caregiving has become a universal reality, not only for the individual, but also for corporate America. No industry, profession, company, or level of seniority is exempt.

The ability to successfully integrate work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all employees. As a country, we have failed to take the rising burden of unpaid care seriously, and because of that, countless employees are suffering. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECDs) reported that, out of 41 countries listed in the work-life balance index, the US is ranked number 29.

Read more: 9 employee benefit programs that support caregivers

It is common knowledge that productive and reliable workers are invaluable assets to a company. In terms of ROI, an employer’s highest priority should be retaining and improving the productivity of their current workforce. Doing so will help to maintain stability in operations and be beneficial to the company’s overall performance. In addition, employee retention will help decrease the substantial costs incurred when replacing a worker due to turnover and lost productivity.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on some of the reasons why employees leave a job. According to a study by AARP, employees with caregiving responsibilities who recently left their position most commonly did to have more time to care for their loved one, because they couldn’t find qualified or affordable paid help or because of job inflexibility and stress.

In general, employees often make the decision to quit because they do not get the right kind of support they need from their employers. Yet when caregivers have the benefits they need, they are more likely to stay on the job.

Read more: Caregiving efforts are excluding Gen Z and millennials

Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Businesses come in all sizes, with different levels of resources and a diverse workforce. Therefore, it’s about more than just providing any care benefits. It must be the right type of care benefits.

A study by the Harvard Business School (HBS) found that approximately half of employers tracked data on their employees who are caregivers, 26% gathered information on their employees’ needs related to care responsibilities, and even less (24%) recognized that caregiving had a direct impact on their employee’s performance. The failure to understand these issues is a key factor in the misalignment between the benefits companies currently provide and what employees need.  

Results from the survey also found that, of employers who offered some type of caregiving resources, 71% of workers were unaware of the offerings, and only 34% had taken advantage of them. Why? Maybe they were not offering the right kind of benefits.

When HBS compared employer and employee opinions about which caregiving benefits were the most valuable for staying on the job, the findings revealed that there was a misalignment between three things: What employers think their employees want; what the companies currently provide; and what employees actually want and need.

Read more: Papa brings on-demand caregiving support to employee benefit plans

For example, employees said the most popular benefit for retention was “referral services for caregivers.” Seventy-eight percent of employees said that benefit was “very important” to their decision to stay with their company. However, only 38% of employers considered caregiver referral services as an effective benefit for retaining employees, and only 29% of employers offered that benefit.

When employers were asked what the most effective benefit was for retaining employees, they responded with “subsidies for eldercare services.” Around 70% of employers described the benefit as “very effective,” yet fewer than 10% of employers offered the benefit.

The extent of these misalignments suggest that employers are inadequately informed about the needs and preferences of their workforce. By not offering benefits that employees want, companies are likely to lose valuable assets.

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

Committing to a strategy that provides the right kind of care benefits — and designing the policies required to execute it — might take some extra time and resources up front. But overall, it shouldn’t be difficult or too costly. The idea is not to simply spend extra money and offer more benefits, but to customize the benefits that will support your employees.

By incorporating community resources and taking advantage of favorable programs, leaders can create a cultural shift that celebrates and supports the lives of its employees more effectively. These efforts, in turn, help create a productive and sustainable workforce for their company.

Be proactive in terms of how you envision the future of your workplace to be. Become a corporate leader. Pioneer innovative solutions. Create and share your best practices. Inspire other companies to follow in your path. Most importantly, take the time to listen to your employees needs by normalizing the discussion around aging.