A Silent Crisis: Working Caregivers
Few companies realize the implications working caregivers have on their internal costs and their bottom line. Still fewer companies even know where to look for these hidden costs. The closest thing a company associates with the cost of caregiving to the company is the absenteeism reports. Absenteeism may be the most obvious cost to the workforce, but it is not the only cost or the most expensive cost. Other factors such as attrition, loss of good workers, increased health insurance coverage, overtime, and constant recruitment of new workers also cost the company and the workers.
The number of caregivers in the workforce has increased threefold in the last five years and will continue to increase in the next ten years. What we are seeing today is only the beginning, and unless companies begin to help their working caregivers they themselves will not be able to keep their competitive advantage in the global economy. This is no longer a problem that affects only women in the workforce or lower income workers, but is a problem that exists at the CEO level as well as the lower administrative levels of the company echelon. For years the problem has been handled silently by the working caregiver who has given up promotions, careers and training opportunities to provide care to a family member.
In my years helping working caregivers, I have found that a successful caregiver support program goes beyond information and provides intervention, services and ongoing support tailored to the needs of each individual caregiver. This is an investment that at the end will save money for companies and generate goodwill for all. It is up to the caregivers to make the corporate world aware of our needs and to support efforts that will alleviate our ongoing burden.
By Gema G. Hernandez, D.P.A.
Excerpted from: www.caregiver.com