Employees’ lack of access to reliable and affordable care is costing businesses when it comes to productivity and retention. Caregiving-related absenteeism causes companies to lose $3 billion annually in productivity. On top of that, employees who aren’t satisfied with their company’s benefits package are willing to look elsewhere. In a survey of employees who recently left their jobs, 42% said they quit to work for a company with better benefits.
It’s no surprise then that 88% of employers say child care benefits have a positive impact on employee productivity, and 90% say the same about their employee retention and recruitment efforts. That’s why adding care benefits like child care (as well as senior care, pet care, and self-care) can help your company productivity and employee retention, while also helping meet inclusion goals.
Why employers should offer care benefits
Whether your company is in growth mode or right-sizing your business due to an economic downturn, it’s important to make sure you’re always caring for your most valuable asset—your employees.
Many employers may not realize that 73% of the American workforce are caring for a loved one. That’s almost three-quarters of all workers who are caregivers for a child, senior, or other adult.
We recently surveyed our users to learn more about the impact of Care benefits on their lives. A whopping 87% of them said that without a benefit like Backup Care they literally wouldn’t be able to show up to work some days. So, no matter whether your company is hiring or adjusting your headcount, you should know that your employees will continue to need access to care.
Caregiving benefits for every employee and life stage
The idea that benefits are one-size-fits-all is out. “How can I best support my team?” is the approach companies should take to ensure the benefits they offer meet their employees’ needs, no matter their life stage. However, employers should also be aware that one of the most-wanted benefits for employees is family care benefits.
In a recent survey by Care, 59% of employees said they want family care benefits, and 70% said they are more likely to stay at a company where they receive those benefits. Only 28% of employers surveyed thought their employees were more likely to stay if they have access to family care benefits, which means many are missing the mark, and could potentially lose employees as a result.
Offering family care benefits is one of the best ways companies can support their employee retention and productivity goals. That’s why 57% of HR leaders said they are prioritizing childcare and 51% are prioritizing senior care more than they have in the past. Family comes first, and whether employees are working from the office or home, they need care options for their loved ones.
Caregiving products and solutions
Flexibility and choice are essential to making care benefits work for everyone. We offer a full suite of benefits that cover the entire spectrum of care, and several ways you can customize your company’s Care benefits to best meet your employees’ diverse needs.
- Care Membership: Employees get unlimited, premium access to the world’s leading network for finding and booking child care, elder care, pet care, housekeepers, and more. Employees can find regular, part-time, or ongoing care, as well as resources in the Care Community, including articles, pay rate calculators, and step-by-step guides.
- Backup Care: Backup Care offers quality, vetted, subsidized solutions to help your employees when their regular, ongoing care is unavailable. This means fewer missed work days and increased productivity.
- Care Specialists: More than just a referral service, Care Specialists provide personalized support across all stages of life. Employees will receive 1:1 expert guidance for major life events from people experienced with solving their unique problem.
- On-Demand Tutoring: Employees receive 24/7 access to thousands of professional tutors for grades K-12 through college—providing essential educational support for your employees and their children, all at no cost to families.
- Breastfeeding Support: This program helps breastfeeding parents return to work with 24/7 personalized support from board-certified lactation consultants, and an optional milk shipping program.
- LifeMart Discounts: LifeMart is a members-only employee discount program that makes everyday life more affordable by offering savings on major brands and everyday essentials.
All of our services are accessible on a mobile app in a custom portal, so we actually create this online presence for your employees to access the range of Care benefits you’ve designed.
The impact of Care
There are a lot of different metrics you can use to measure the impact of family care benefits, including employee satisfaction, retention, and lost productivity.
For example, access to Backup Care benefits saved retail giant Best Buy more than 7,000 days of missed work since they launched their program. Employees at San Diego-based Sharp HealthCare missed 4,500 fewer days of work in just six months thanks to Backup Care.
Numbers like that are pretty staggering, and clearly show what a major impact access to Care benefits can have not only on company productivity, but on employees’ lives, since they can go to work knowing that their loved ones have the care that they need.
What to keep in mind when evaluating benefits packages
The first thing to consider when designing a family benefits program is that there is not one single care need in your workforce you need to solve for. Caregiving needs vary based on life stage, so you should be looking for a flexible program. Make sure you’re providing options for your working parents, senior caregivers (and everyone in between) that they feel comfortable with, and can afford.
Second, it’s really important to design a benefits program that’s scalable. In the past few years many workforces went hybrid or remote, which means your employees could be spread across multiple states. You’ll want to make sure you’re providing care benefit options that work for your employees no matter whether they’re based at headquarters or their kitchen table.
Third, you should think about offering equitable benefit options. It’s amazing to offer a robust paternity leave policy, but that only addresses the first few months of a child’s life. As those babies grow up and their parents go back to work, they still need care. For working parents whose children are grown and out of the house, they may have a parent that needs support, or a pet that needs care when the employee travels for work.
How to get started with Care
If you’re ready to start offering Care benefits to your employees, reach out to our team. We’ll connect you with a Care expert who’ll work with you to understand the care needs of your workforce, including reviewing any relevant employee survey data you may have. There are three phases to implementing Care benefits:
- We’ll recommend a program that’s designed to meet the needs of your diverse workforce. This step may include a ZIP code analysis to see where there are gaps in employees’ current coverage and to make sure you’re getting the right coverage for your area, as well as a customized calculation of how much your business could save using our benefits.
- Once you decide to partner with Care, we’ll introduce you to our implementation team. This step can take anywhere from four to six weeks, depending on the complexity of the program and any customizations that may be needed.
- After you implement the program, our best-in-class account management team will help you manage the program on a day-to-day basis. They’ll give you the tools and the resources that you need so you can communicate with your employees and educate them about their new Care benefits.
Contact us to learn more about how Care benefits can help support your business and your employees.
