Each month, Work & Family Connection invites a nationally renowned work-life professional or researcher to share opinions, perspectives and progress with our readers. The guest columnist for October 2006 is Marsha Cooper, Director of Provider Relations & Strategic Planning for Work Options Group.
Backup care update: trends, challenges & successes
Absent caregivers costs U.S. employers $7 billion annually
Sandra Sadowski, an employee of Children’s Hospital & Health System in Wisconsin (CHHS), has parents who live across the country in Arizona. Her father cares for her mother, who has Alzheimer’s, and on several occasions she has had to provide care for her parents when her father is sick or needs respite time.
Sadowski is one of nearly 16 million full-time U.S. employees who balance both careers and caregiving responsibilities for parents, spouses, children and other loved ones who may live in their home or in another state. When she and other employees miss work to deal with breakdowns in care for their loved ones, the resulting absenteeism costs employers more than $7 billion per year, as reported in the 2006 MetLife Caregiving Costs Study.
Employers offer backup care to reduce absenteeism
To address employee caregiving concerns and reduce absenteeism caused by caregiving responsibilities, it’s estimated that 14% of companies offer some type of backup care assistance, according to the 2006 SHRM benefit survey. This assistance may include reimbursement to employees who arrange their own backup care, access to a list of caregivers who may be able to offer short-term care, access to an on-site childcare center on a space available basis, or access to a full-service backup care program.
Backup care becomes “full-service”
The latest trend in backup care is offering employees a comprehensive, full-service solution that provides temporary care to employees’ loved ones of any age, in any location, whether they are healthy or mildly ill. It addresses all types of breakdowns in care by providing access to an exclusive contracted and licensed network of in-home care agencies, nanny agencies, and child/adolescent care centers in locations throughout the nation. A full-service backup care program responds to every type of breakdown for every employee in order to provide the maximum benefit to the broadest array of employees within an organization.
To access a full-service program, employees simply call a toll-free number at any time of the day or night, receive individual consultation, and request temporary care either in their home, in the home of a loved one, or in a center near a home or work location. Employees have access to a specific number of backup care hours per year (typically 100 hours), and are billed after care occurs for a reasonable hourly co-payment (typically $2 per hour per person). The temporary care is provided either in centers (that must meet or exceed state licensing guidelines) or by in-home providers (that are CPR/First Aid trained, background checked, and have relevant caregiving experience.) By offering a program that is trusted, affordable and convenient for employees, employers reap the benefits and tangible return on investment that is attributed to reduced absenteeism.
Top trend - an increase in adult/elder care
Sadowski has used the backup care program several times to arrange for temporary care for her parents in Arizona. She says she actually would have missed several days of work on each occasion, in order to fly back to Arizona and provide care. Her employer, CHHS, partnered with Work Options Group to offer the Backup Care Optionsprogram to employees, beginning in Fall 2005. During the first year that the program was offered 13% of employees’ requests for backup care were for adults or elders.
Work Options Group, which provides full-service backup care to nearly 100 clients, has seen the overall percentage of adult/elder care cases increase from 8% to 13% in the last two years, and anticipates a continued increase in the number of these types of cases.
“As the workforce ages and as the sandwich generation juggles caregiving responsibilities for both children and parents, we anticipate increasing demand for backup care provided to adults and elders,” says Cindy Carrillo, Founder & President of Work Options Group. “Employers are seeing the trends and realizing that employees have caregiving responsibilities for loved ones of all ages. This issue has grown beyond simply a childcare concern, and full-service backup care is a part of the solution for both employees and employers.”
Carrillo has many clients that combine a full-service backup care program with other dependent care programs such as onsite childcare, dependent care reimbursement, and resource & referral – all in order to reduce absenteeism, increase productivity, enhance recruitment/retention of top talent, and assist employees in balancing both work and life responsibilities.
Offering full-service backup care presents new challenges
Because dependent care assistance has historically addressed only childcare concerns, one of the biggest challenges in offering a full-service backup care program is educating employees about the expanded nature of the service. Marketing and communication efforts must emphasize that care is available for all ages and in all locations.
As examples, backup care can be provided when:
- A regular caregiver is ill or taking vacation time
- An employee’s child or loved one is ill and requires care at home
- An employee’s spouse or loved one is recovering from medical treatment
- An employee is traveling on business and needs care either at home or in the destination city
- A school or a child care center is closed for holidays, parent/teacher conferences, etc.
Another challenge is ensuring that employees understand the high quality of care their loved ones will receive. It is critical that employees have trust and confidence in the backup care program, in order to feel comfortable placing a loved one in a center or having a caregiver enter the home. Additionally, employees must be provided with information – through telephone consultation, online resources, checklists, etc. – that helps them communicate expectations about the care for their loved ones and facilitate a positive experience.
A full-service backup care program includes marketing assistance (materials, website, training, etc.) that helps companies communicate the program’s benefits and address employees’ concerns.
Employers present the business case for backup care
Full-service backup care programs offer tangible results. A full-service backup care provider helps companies determine the average hourly cost of employee absenteeism, tracks the number of hours of backup care provided to employees, and calculates the cost savings and return on investment. As an example, KPMG estimates that its backup care initiative saves the company approximately $3.36 million annually and Prudential anticipates a $650,000 savings over 3 years of offering full-service backup care.
“Employers of various sizes and industries are able to present a strong business case for offering backup care,” says Carrillo. “The concept initially gained popularity in companies that focus on work/life, but backup care has become a ‘must-have’ program for a broader spectrum of companies. It makes good business sense to offer proven solutions that help employees get to work and remain productive while they are at work.”
Written by Marsha Cooper. As Director of Provider Relations & Strategic Planning for Work Options Group, Marsha Cooper is focused on continued expansion of Work Options Group’s exclusive National Provider Network, which already consists of more than 3,000 individually contracted child and adolescent care centers and 1,900 individually contracted home healthcare agencies and nanny agencies throughout the U.S. and Canada. Before joining Work Options Group in Spring 2006, Cooper spent 14 years as Managing Director of Caregivers on Call, a provider of corporate-sponsored in-home care.