Eldercare support the frontier in family-friendly benefits

Progressive employers have revolutionized support for employees building and raising families. Fertility benefits, parental leave, child care assistance and lactation support have become standard offerings at forward-thinking organizations. Yet there's room for innovation within this family-friendly approach, especially for employees caring for aging loved ones. Benefit advisers are in a perfect position to help fill the vacuum. 

Elder caregiving is having a cultural moment. High-profile figures are bringing eldercare conversations into the mainstream. They include Seth Rogen, who has become an advocate for Alzheimer's awareness through his mother-in-law's journey, Taylor Swift, who publicly supported her mother through cancer treatment, Bradley Cooper, who cared for his father through lung cancer and Brandee Evans, who has shared her experience caring for her grandmother with dementia. Their visibility is helping normalize what millions of working adults experience quietly every day.

Caregiving exists on a spectrum and most employers have only addressed half of it. An invisible caregiving crisis is afoot. While companies invest heavily in supporting employees through early parenthood, 73% of working caregivers are simultaneously caring for aging parents or relatives in some way. It's a responsibility that's becoming increasingly common as America experiences its largest wave of aging adults in history. For those following along, the U.S. hit "peak 65" in 2024.

Nearly 54 million Americans provide care for an adult family member, with 61% working full-time. Among employed caregivers, 79% report missing work due to caregiving responsibilities, averaging 18.5 hours per month. That's vastly more time than many employees spend in training or professional development.

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Eldercare's complexity gap

When employers do address eldercare, the solutions typically fall into two categories: backup care services and employee assistance program (EAP)-style referrals. While these resources provide value, they often underestimate the complexity of eldercare decision-making.

Backup care, designed for short-term eldercare emergencies, doesn't address the sustained, evolving nature of elder caregiving. Meanwhile, traditional EAP referrals, while helpful for immediate crisis support, rarely provide the structured guidance needed for complex decisions like transitioning a parent to assisted living, navigating memory care options or coordinating care among multiple family members across different geographic locations.

Unlike calling a babysitter, eldercare decisions often involve life-altering choices about housing, medical care, legal arrangements and family coordination that can take months to research and implement.

The economic impact of unsupported elder caregiving is substantial. Research shows that caregiving responsibilities cost U.S. employers about $33.6 billion annually in lost productivity, with individual employers losing an average of $2,110 per working caregiver per year.

Hidden costs include increased absenteeism (caregivers are 2.5 times more likely to miss work frequently), reduced productivity (67% of caregivers handle caregiving tasks during work hours) and higher turnover rates.

Most critically, elder caregiving disproportionately affects senior-level employees, those with the highest value to organizations and the most institutional knowledge.

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Forward-thinking employers recognize that true family support requires addressing caregiving needs at every life stage. Just as organizations have developed sophisticated approaches to supporting new parents, similar strategic thinking can address elder caregiving challenges. The following steps can steer employers in the right direction:

1. Enhanced flexibility beyond remote work
   Elder caregiving crises are unpredictable and often require same-day responses. Consider "emergency flexibility" policies: fast-tracked remote work approval for caregiving crises and flexible core hours during intensive care periods.
2. Structured decision-making support
   The most time-intensive aspect isn't finding resources, it's organizing complex information across multiple family members, healthcare and care providers. Beyond traditional EAP referrals, employers flex their wellness offerings by providing access to technology platforms that centralize family communication, care research and healthcare navigation. 
3. Eldercare-specific mental health resources
   Caregiving grief, decision fatigue and role reversal stress require specialized support. Consider caregiving employee resource groups or support groups specifically for working caregivers, grief counseling for progressive conditions like dementia and workshops on managing family dynamics during care decisions.
4. Proactive education and planning
   Unlike childcare, most employees become eldercare novices overnight. Offer Eldercare 101 workshops covering legal, financial and care planning basics, lunch-and-learns on topics like Medicare navigation and early planning resources before crises hit.

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As the population ages, elder caregiving responsibilities will only increase. In less than 5 years, all baby boomers will be over 65, meaning virtually every organization will have employees facing some of these challenges.

Companies that proactively address eldercare support will have significant advantages in recruiting and retaining top talent. Just as fertility and parental benefits became differentiators in the 2010s, eldercare support represents the next frontier in family-friendly benefits.

The employers that get ahead of this trend and recognize that caregiving support must span the entire spectrum of family life will build more resilient, loyal and productive workforces.