Imagine receiving a breaking news story notification on your phone about one of your favorite athletes. You click the link to find them sitting in front of a microphone and bravely confessing a long held secret that has caused them to struggle in a way that you couldn’t have imagined. The athlete ends the presser by announcing they are stepping away from the team and the sport that they’ve given much of their time, energy and life.
You are stunned. You are sad for them. And as you reflect on their words, you realize that you chalked up their previous string of performances and absences to being in a slump.
Whether employers realize it or not, they have members of their teams being crushed under the burden of their own secret, as three out of four employees are doing double duty as family caregivers.
According to AARP’s Valuing the Invaluable Report, these full time and part-time employees are “providing an average of 18 hours of care per week for a total of 36 billion hours of care annually,” amounting to almost $600 billion in unpaid labor. The strain of this workload has led to 19 percent of employed caregivers parting ways with a job to take care of a family member.
Unexpected breaking news notifications are not reserved just for our beloved sports stars. The uptick in surprise email notifications of employee departures and status changes are coming from the cherished, rising stars, journeymen and leading women on our work teams.
So how can employers tackle the trend of performance slumps and breaking news departures from the valued members on their teams?
Provide a safe playing field
According to AARP’s How Providing Caregiving Affects Your Workforce, employers are unaware of 47 percent of employees’ family caregiving situations. One reason for this nondisclosure is the discomfort some employees feel in sharing a private, family matter with their colleagues. Another cause is employees do not want their commitment to work being questioned. Other reasons vary and can include an employee’s desire to be considered for new opportunities and promotions.
An easy way for your caregiving teammates to have a more balanced approach to their performance inside and outside of your company is by creating a caregiving-friendly workplace culture. A late 2023 Forbes article outlines that creating shared agreements, employee resource groups and policies for company caregivers can create a safe playing field for them.
Equip employees with winning tools
When employed caregivers lack support to manage their work and home responsibilities effectively, they reach a critical juncture where they have to make career altering decisions. The AARP highlighted how this imbalance leads to employed caregivers altering their work arrivals and departures, reducing their work hours, going on a leave of absence and taking early retirement.
To offset the detrimental effects of this $17-33 billion annual loss to employers, Harvard Business Review points to a new work trend of organizations offering “creative benefits to address the costs of work.” From providing education on family caregiving resources to stepping up to fill the gaps in access to care services, companies can assist caregiver employee needs with targeted tools to retain their best and brightest performers.
Offer game changing opportunities
As an experienced international athlete and family caregiver, I know that the predicted increasing rate of employee caregiving seems like a daunting opponent in the field of work, but I believe it is gifting us game changing opportunities. This challenging scenario presents the perfect chance to work with your caregiving employees. Employers can support caregiving team members by embracing atypical career paths, making it easier to retain talent to stay at or return to the organization. By doing this and tapping into the value of the novel skillsets employees acquire through caregiving, new wins can be achieved together. It’s a strategy that makes for a winning playbook.
Photo: goc, Getty Images
Qiana Martin is family caregiver, thought leader, speaker and consultant who is the founder of Eat Soccer, a direct to brand and direct to fan soccer engagement company. An international athlete and former Fila spokesmodel, she has created marketing content for Bic, PayPal and T-Mobile. Most notably, she choreographed, featured and produced a clip for a Pizza Hut Super Bowl commercial, which was broadcast to 108 million viewers. The TEDx speaker was a featured expert panelist on the 2019 Cannes Lions Digital Pass and recipient of the Pepsi NYC Local Award.
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