Productivity
HR professionals estimate that nearly 15 percent of employees in their
organization deal with elder care issues. But, a significant percentage of
respondents witnessed employees who missed a full day from work (59 percent),
encountered workday interruptions (44 percent) or stress-related health problems
(29 percent). Sixteen percent of all respondents said they had experienced
turnover or attrition due to elder care issues.
The impact elder care has on employees is even more profound depending on the
size of the organization. HR professionals from large organizations (500+
employees) are much more likely to report workday interruptions, strained
employee/manager relationships and missed appointments and meetings than HR
professionals from small (1-99 employees) and medium-sized (100-499 employees)
organizations. Twenty-three percent of respondents from large organizations and
21 percent from medium-sized organizations report seeing turnover due to
employees challenged with elder care issues. Only four percent of small
organizations said the same.
Employer Response
While SHRM research indicates a quarter of organizations offer some kind of
elder care benefit, nearly one-third of HR professionals agreed or strongly
agreed that employers have an obligation to provide resources and assistance for
employees facing elder care issues. The biggest challenge, however, is cost.
Nearly 40 percent said elder care benefits are too costly for their
organization, and one-third said there would not be enough employees utilizing
elder care benefits to justify changing current benefits packages.
The most common benefit employers offer is unpaid leave under the Family and
Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for elder care reasons (88 percent), but FMLA leave
does not apply to organizations with fewer than 50 employees. Most organizations
(76 percent), regardless of size, provide unpaid leave for elder care issues,
but the length of leave varies by organization. Benefits providing financial
support for elder care come most often in the form of dependent care flexible
spending accounts, which are offered by 64 percent of organizations. Most HR
professionals indicated the benefits could be used for employee’s parents and
the parents of their legal spouse. The majority of respondents said their
organization makes exceptions to formal policies to provide more flexibility to
employees facing elder care issues.
Fifty-eight percent of HR professionals agreed or strongly agreed that it was
necessary to increase the contribution amount permitted under dependent care
flexible spending accounts to help employees financially deal with elder care
issues. Nearly the same percentage agreed or strongly agreed that individual tax
incentives for the purchase of long-term care insurance covering older relatives
would help defray the costs of employer-provided long-term care assistance.
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is the
world’s largest association devoted to human resource management. Founded in
1948, SHRM currently has more than 500 affiliated chapters within the United
States and members in more than 100 countries. Visit SHRM Online at
www.shrm.org.
