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Workers Want Employers
Help
Elder Care by Employees
is Silent Productivity Killer
Dec. 9, 2003 As people live longer
lives it is inevitable that more younger Americans will face the burden
of caring for aging relatives, and new research says it is beginning to
be felt in the work place. Elder care has been called the "silent
productivity killer."
Human resource (HR) professionals say
employee expectations regarding elder care benefits have increased, and,
as a result, most organizations expect costs for these benefits to
increase in the next five years.
Often, employers are unaware that
employees are dealing with elder care issues. An AARP/National Alliance
for Caregiving study from as early as 1997 estimated that one in four
American households struggled to provide care for an elderly individual.
Another, from Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, estimated
productivity losses due to elder care issues ranging from 11 to 29
billion dollars per year. The SHRM 2003 Elder Care Survey reflects
similar findings as 47 percent of HR professionals report seeing an
increase in the number of employees dealing with elder care issues over
the last several years. Despite the increase, only 25 percent of
organizations offer elder care benefits.
The problem continues to grow as the
baby boom generation gets older and more pressure is placed on the
"sandwich generation" to provide care for their children, in addition to
an aging relative. HR professionals expect the number of employees
caring for an aging relative to increase in the next five to 10 years.
These rising figures stress the importance of the role of HR
professionals in understanding employees' challenges and developing
strategies to improve job satisfaction and productivity, while also
looking to improve the organization's bottom line.
"The increasing need for elder care is
an inevitability," said SHRM President and CEO Susan R. Meisinger, SPHR.
"Employers have an opportunity to either anticipate and manage it in a
way that benefits both the employer and employees, or let it smack them
in the face a few years from now, dragging down productivity and
increasing turnover as a result. Organizations simply can't afford to
ignore the cost of this reality."
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 plus 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.
Source of Information:
The Society for Human Resource
Management (SHRM) is the world's largest association devoted to human
resource management. Representing more than 175,000 individual members,
the Society's mission is to serve the needs of HR professionals by
providing the most essential and comprehensive resources available. As
an influential voice, the Society's mission is also to advance the human
resource profession to ensure that HR is recognized as an essential
partner in developing and executing organizational strategy. Founded in
1948, SHRM currently has more than 500 affiliated chapters within the
United States and members in more than 100 countries. SHRM is online at
http://www.shrm.org.
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