4 Strategies for Managing Your Company’s Caregiving Costs

Previously, we shared key insights from Harvard Business School’s (HBS) report, “The Caring Company,” which highlights the shocking turnover and productivity losses caregiving inflicts on U.S. companies.

To gain control over these losses, HBS recommends that employers shift their perspective on caregiving—viewing it as a talent management challenge rather than merely a potential benefit expense—and consider these four strategies:

1. Promulgate a culture of caregiving. Such a culture requires “management to demonstrate commitment through sustained, consistent action, reassuring employees that the organization welcomes openness about caregivers’ obligations and wishes to support employees confronting caregiving issues,” the report states. “That, in turn, will oblige the organization to develop a visible, systematic plan to help employees balance their personal and professional lives, a plan that covers both on-boarding and reentry into the workplace.”

2. Adopt a framework for balancing career and life paths. “Companies will need to design career paths that are more compatible with their employees’ life paths,” the report says. These career paths must take into account the predictable patterns of a caregiver’s life and responsibilities. Doing so will enable employers to provide specific communication, support and care benefits these people need at the exact times they need it.

3. Identify the hidden costs of caregiving. “Companies cannot assess the merits of investing in more substantial care solutions without understanding the hidden cost of caregiving,” the report observes. Uncovering these hidden costs requires a number of actions including conducting a care census (a profile of the company’s care demographics and needs); developing metrics for understanding the actual magnitude of caregiving costs incurred; and pinpointing the turnover, absenteeism and presenteeism caused by caregiving. All of these actions serve as the foundation for developing an explicit care strategy and making “prudent investments” that offset turnover and productivity losses.

4. Boost the productivity of caregiving employees. This involves adopting a test-and-learn approach to implementing caregiving benefits (i.e., experimenting with benefits before deploying them widely); giving special consideration to benefits focused on critical roles and/or hard-to-fill positions; providing on-boarding benefits to returning employees; and even collaborating with other employers and local governments to develop shared solutions.

7 Steps Toward a New Competitive Advantage

Recognizing how daunting all of this might seem, the HBS authors also outline seven steps toward implementing these strategies:

Step 1: Conduct a care census to ascertain your organization’s care demographics. This critical first step, as outlined by the report, is essential if you aim to develop metrics for understanding the actual magnitude of your company’s caregiving-related costs. A care census entails: a) identifying the nature and scale of your workforce’s care needs; b) evaluating the relevance of your existing caregiving benefits; c) exploring the possibility of expanding these benefits; and d) capturing the returns associated with greater employee retention and productivity. Crucially, a care census also enables you to update your standard career paths to better reflect the life paths of today’s caregiving employees.

Step 2: Ensure that current employees are more aware of the benefits your company already offers. “Many employees appear to be unaware of the availability of care-related benefits,” according to HBS. You must communicate consistently about the caregiving benefits you already offer—and to reassure employees that your company “accepts the legitimacy of (their) care concerns.”

Step 3: Survey employees on their views of current benefits and identify the benefits they value most. HBS claims that many companies don’t know which benefits their employees desire or value most. This can create “a gross misalignment” between the benefits your employees actually need and those you offer. It also likely means the benefits you do provide are doing little to reduce turnover, burnout and lost productivity. Regular, ongoing employee surveys are vital to aligning benefit offerings to caregivers’ needs.

Step 4: Add additional benefits that address unmet needs. Your employee surveys also can help you identify any caregiver needs that are going unmet. When you decide to add a new benefit, consider rolling it out to a small test group before deploying it widely. This will help you determine which programs are likely to be well utilized and generate the highest returns on your investment.

Step 5: Monitor utilization rates. Caregiving benefits must be monitored and measured with the same diligence as other more costly benefits, such as health care and retirement benefits, states the HBS report. This is the only way to accurately assess these programs’ impact on retention, productivity and engagement.

Step 6: Assess the impact of benefits relative to expectations and in the eyes of employees. Only you and your employees can determine whether a program is worth your investment. This is why a regular care census, ongoing employee survey, and diligent monitoring are so important. They are the best methods for determining the impact of your programs.

Step 7: Customize care benefits by adding those that are meaningful to employees. The HBS report polled hundreds of employees on which caregiving benefits they currently use and which they anticipate using in the future. Caregiving provider referral services, on-site or near-site child care and elder care, and counseling services were all near the top of the lists. Again, surveying employees is paramount ensuring that your benefits remain relevant and deliver a steady ROI.

Follow these seven steps and you’ll not only create a more care-friendly culture but, as HBS notes, you will also “build a new source of competitive advantage” by attracting and retaining key talent.

If you’d like to learn more about caregiving-related benefits or other programs designed to help you employees better integrate their work and personal responsibilities, contact us here or call us at (833) 282-3366.

Caregiving Crisis: Are U.S. Employers Looking the Other Way?

“American companies are facing a caregiving crisis—they just refuse to acknowledge it.”

That’s the opening of a recent Harvard Business School (HBS) report titled “The Caring Company,” a wake-up call to the nation’s employers on the alarming human and organizational toll of caregiving. To make certain employers don’t hit the snooze button, the report goes on to state, “This neglected care crisis is only going to worsen.”

The HBS report shares data from two surveys conducted among hundreds of employers and employees, and it sheds light on how the burgeoning caregiving crisis is already wreaking havoc with workers and their employers.

Here’s a sampling of the data:

The Pervasiveness of Caregiving—73% of employees surveyed already report having some type of current caregiving responsibility. (The key word here is “current.” This figure doesn’t even take into account individuals who’ve had past caregiving responsibilities or the many who will be caregivers in the near future.)
Caregiving Erodes Performance—More than 80% of employees with caregiving responsibilities admit that caregiving affects their productivity—specifically, their ability to perform their best at work all the time (33%), most of the time (14%), and sometimes (36%).
Turnover Caused by Caregiving—Nearly one-third of employees report voluntarily leaving a job due to caregiving responsibilities. Notably, these aren’t just older workers: 50% of employees aged 26 to 35 and 27% of employees aged 18 to 25 report leaving a job due to caregiving burdens.
Impact on the C-Suite and Management—Upper-level managers, senior leaders, and highly paid men were the most likely individuals to report that their jobs and productivity are affected by caregiving.
Employers Don’t Fully Understand the Impacts of Caregiving—Shockingly, only 24% of employers recognize that caregiving influences their employees’ performance. Perhaps this is due in part to the fact that most employers (52%) don’t track caregiving-related data for their employees and few employees are willing to admit to their employers that they are caregivers out of fear that it will undermine their career prospects.

The upshot is that caregiving is laced with “hidden costs,” including major turnover and productivity losses, which are already undermining the wellbeing of American companies and their workforces. And the future looks even more troubling.

The Cold Truth
The HBS report makes it clear that the demand for and intensity of caregiving are only going to increase as our population ages. “More workers will have substantial caregiving obligations, causing them to arrive on the job physically drained and emotionally distracted. Their workdays will be subject to unplanned interruptions, undermining their productivity and inhibiting their longer-term career prospects,” the report states.

That has to send a chill through forward-thinking employers.

The HBS report is of undeniable value—if American employers embrace it, which is uncertain in light of the report’s somewhat critical tone. Telling employers they “remain strangely unaware” of the magnitude of caregiving’s economic consequences or “largely oblivious to” the growing costs of caregiving, for example, might undercut their willingness to take the report’s key messages to heart.

However, for those ready to acknowledge the escalating caregiving crisis, the question is: What can they do to combat it?

We’ll discuss that in our next post.

If you’d like to learn more about caregiving-related benefits or other programs designed to help your employees better integrate their work and personal responsibilities, contact us here or call us at (866) 675-3751.

Quantifying the ROI of Backup Care

Want to give your company an edge in attracting and hiring talent? Implement a backup care program.

That’s the scoop from a recent Motley Fool article, which cites backup care as one of five less-commonplace benefits that are truly valued by prospective hires. “Child care is not only an expensive prospect for workers, but also an unpredictable one,” the article states. “All it takes is for a nanny to call in sick, and any employee could suddenly be left in the lurch. Similarly, parents who use public school as child care are often thwarted by random half-days or days off. That’s why offering backup child care is a great benefit to entice workers with kids.”

In addition to enticing talent, you can expect to reap an array of hard and soft returns from a backup care program—and they can really add up.

The Hard ROI of Backup Care
The hard ROI of backup care (also known as direct benefits) are results you can attribute directly to implementing the program. Hard ROI is easier to quantify than soft ROI, and it’s often measured by surveying program users. Hard ROI includes:

Reduced absenteeism/presenteeism—Almost half of all working parents miss an average of four days of work at least once every six months due to child care breakdowns, and workers who care for aging loved ones miss more than 126 million workdays per year. A high-quality backup care program reduces these caregiving-related absences, as well as the presenteeism created by caregivers who show up but spend part of their workday dealing with caregiving breakdowns and emergencies.
Decreased stress—Roughly 90% of caregivers cite stress as having the most impact on their lives, so reducing their stress should be a priority. With access to a backup care program, employees know their loved ones are well cared for even when their regular arrangements fall through, which gives them peace of mind and reduces stress.
Increased productivity—On average, LifeCare’s Backup Care Connection program saved users 20 hours each in 2018. In essence, we’ve given them back half a work week—hours they would have lost to handling caregiving emergencies or providing care themselves. Backup Care Connection users tell us in surveys and quality checks that the program makes them more productive.
Stronger talent retention—Offering backup care not only attracts talent but also keeps valued talent in your workforce. As the Motley Fool article pointed out, backup care is currently a “less common” benefit but that won’t last for long as more and more employers add it to their benefits offerings. In the meantime, you can take advantage of this situation, improve the strength of your employment brand, and get a leg up on your competitors.
Improved morale and loyalty—Having access to backup care makes employees feel valued, not just for the work they do but as people. Employers who offer backup care are acknowledging that employees have important responsibilities outside of the workplace. That’s a strong foundation for building morale and loyalty—but doing so requires a high-quality program. Inferior programs can actually undermine morale and loyalty. When shopping for a backup care program, be sure you know how each program is rated by actual users. LifeCare’s Backup Care Connection, for example, has a 97% satisfaction rating.

Here are two additional indicators that a backup care program will deliver hard results for your organization: according to recent LifeCare surveys, 81% of individuals who used LifeCare’s Backup Care Connection in 2018 used the program multiple times … and 99% said they’ll use it again.

The Soft ROI of Backup Care
Soft ROI (also referred to as indirect benefits) is less easy to quantify but it’s no less significant. The soft ROI of backup care includes:

Improved health—61% of primary elder caregivers say their own health takes a backseat to that of their loved one, and 21% say their health has declined since becoming a caregiver, according to Transamerica Institute’s 2017 Study of Caregivers. Left unchecked, these issues can result in hefty costs to employers and employees alike. Backup care is invaluable in combating and even preventing the stress and other ill effects of caregiving, which can equate to substantial savings in healthcare costs.
Improved engagement—60% of employees who serve as family caregivers have reported that caregiving negatively impacts their engagement at work in at least one way (and often more than one way), says AARP’s most recent comprehensive Caregiving in America report. These negative impacts include forcing them to cut back on their working hours, taking a leave of absence, and receiving warnings about their performance or attendance. A backup care program keeps employees engaged in their work and makes negative on-the-job impacts less likely to arise in the first place.

Choosing the Right Program
As with all voluntary and work-life benefits, you want the maximum return on your backup care investment. That means selecting a program with four very specific attributes:

Flexibility and Comprehensiveness—The ideal program should encompass all forms of backup care (child care, senior care, pet care and even self care). Employees should be able to reach live care representatives 24/7/365, have access to a presecreened national network of caregivers and a variety of online resources. Another important feature is allowing employees to use caregivers or babysitters they are already familiar with, even trusted family members and friends to provide backup care. Bottom line, flexibility and comprehensiveness are key to keeping utilization high, which in turn maximizes ROI.
Care Options for Everyone—Again, in order to deliver the highest returns, your program should encompass backup care resources for children, older loved ones, pets and even employees themselves. Many programs focus only on one or two of these groups.
Ease of Use—Employees should have multiple access points into the program such as a toll-free telephone number to speak directly with highly trained caregiving specialists, online access to these specialists (including mobile access and/or an app), and online/offline access to other caregiving resources including helpful videos, podcasts, guides and other resources. Additionally, employees should be able to schedule new care arrangements, check the status and details of care arrangements, submit forms for reimbursement and more, all from a single site.
Personalized, End-to-End Support—In addition to the features and resources noted above, your employees should receive personalized education and assistance with ongoing parenting, senior care, pet care and self care needs. Backup care specialists should follow up on every case and ensure that employees understand all of their options and next steps. The best programs even offer discounts on related products and services.

These four attributes are essential to maximizing utilization and ROI of your program, not to mention giving employees the backup care support they so urgently need.

If you’d like to learn more about implementing a backup care program, contact us here or call us at (833) 282-3366.

The Secrets to Better Benefits Utilization & ROI

If you’ve ever wondered how employees feel about their benefits, here are a few noteworthy insights from the 2018 MetLife Benefits Study:

62% of employees surveyed say benefits were an important reason they accepted a job with their employer.
87% say that having insurance and benefits gives them peace of mind.
71% say they worry less about unexpected health and financial issues thanks to their benefits.
And 73% say that having benefits customized to their needs increases their employer loyalty.

Clearly, benefits matter to employees—a lot. But this raises a question that continually vexes employers: if benefits matter so much, why do employees rarely utilize them to their full advantage?

The MetLife study chalks up this utilization conundrum in part to poor “fit.” In short, benefits often aren’t sufficiently tailored to employees’ needs, they fail to provide adequate flexibility and choice and they’re lacking in much-needed nontraditional perks such as financial counseling. In fact, MetLife’s 2017 study reached similar conclusions, noting that employers who deliver tailored benefits “help an increasingly diverse workforce find the security it’s looking for.”

However, fit isn’t the only issue standing in the way of better benefits utilization. The sad fact is many employees simply don’t understand their benefits or even know about all of the programs employers offer them.

The correlation here is pretty straightforward: where understanding and awareness levels are low, utilization rates will follow.

More Communication and Education Are Essential
Just how widespread is this problem? According to a Harris Poll conducted for the AICPA in April 2018, only 28% of American workers are very confident they’re using their benefits to their fullest potential. The vast majority of employees need help in understanding the value of their benefits and putting them to use properly.

“Benefits can be confusing and they require incredibly clear communication,” noted MetLife. “When benefits information is easy to understand and framed within an employee’s reality, they see the personal value of a benefits experience.”

Indeed, educating employees on the “personal value” of their benefits is the key to unlocking greater utilization. The 12 members of Forbes magazine’s Human Resources Council recently examined the benefits utilization challenge and offered strategies on how HR can improve the situation. Here are a few:

Develop a Benefits Communication Plan—While HR professionals are well versed in all aspects of the company’s benefits, “the average employee is often less conversant in issues such as vesting, match, copay, deductible, in/out of network, etc. Crafting plain language communications is part of the formula. Work with your communications department to develop a multichannel communications strategy.”
Educate in a Variety of Ways—“Individuals learn in many ways, so HR should provide a variety of platforms to share this information. HR can provide Q&A sessions onsite, various printed and digital mediums distributed to employees and around the office, webinars for those who work remotely, record videos to share with employees and email important updates, reminders and share information on a regular basis.”
Make Everything Less Complex—One member of the Council observed, “In all the years I’ve been in HR, I’ve never encountered a person who didn’t want to fully utilize their benefits. They simply didn’t understand how to navigate the complexity or how all the benefits worked. I’ve found that making myself available for a number of days following an enrollment period and checking in with new employees to better explain the benefits really helped.”

Take a Cue from Marketing Principles
Another key thing HR can do to raise benefits utilization is to think and act like a Marketing department. That means borrowing a few of their strategies, which are specifically designed to cut through the clutter of the marketplace, educate buyers and motivate them to take action. You want these same outcomes with your employees.

Here are three Marketing strategies you should consider applying to your benefits communications:

1. Communicate frequently. Some marketing campaigns are known as “drip” campaigns because they deliver key messages in a continual flow at regular intervals over a defined period of time. Take the same approach with your benefits programs. Yes, employees are inundated with communications from other sources, which is exactly why you need to fight for their attention. Determine the frequency you think will make an impression without becoming a nuisance. For some programs, this might be quarterly. For others, greater or lesser frequency will be appropriate. And remember, employees (like all of us) pay more attention to messages that impact us personally, so benefits communications have a built-in advantage over many competing communications.

2. Communicate in small bites. This is easier to do if you increase the frequency of your communications. Communicating everything at once—at annual enrollment, for example—can be overwhelming to employees. Educating them in small doses not only makes it easier for employees to understand and digest your messages but it also enables you to keep your messages simple, which reinforces the effectiveness of your communications.

3. Personalize communications as much as possible—and make benefits real. Employees need to appreciate and understand the value of the benefits you provide. To make the value crystal clear, give employees a personalized statement or summary showing the dollar value of each benefit as well as the value of their benefits package as a whole. Also show employees how their benefits compare against those of industry or regional competitors. Of course, there are technologies and tools to help you capture the value story, benchmark your benefits and add personalization to your communications.

But what if you don’t have the budget to invest in communications tools and technologies? What happens if your HR department, like so many others these days, is busier than ever? How can you implement some of these ideas and ramp up the volume and frequency of your benefits communication?

Some HR departments turn to benefits brokers for assistance, which can be a costly proposition. A far more cost-effective solution is to seek help from your benefits providers. No one is better positioned or qualified to assist you in educating your employees about their benefits.

Your providers should have experts on staff who can help you determine the best messages and methods for your communications. They should also be able to help you decide which channels will be the most effective for reaching the various segments of your employee population, how frequently to communicate and exactly when to communicate. For example, LifeCare has a dedicated team of Marketing experts committed to supporting tailored client communication plans year round.

If you’d like to learn more, contact us here or call us at 1-(866) 675-3751.

2019 Top Recruiting Trends: Benefits To Attract and Retain Multi-Gen Talent

“Organizations that take a strategic approach to their benefits program, leveraging benefits to recruit and retain employees, are nearly twice as likely to have more satisfied employees and to report better business performance compared with organizations that are not strategic with benefits.”

That insight comes from the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM’s) 2018 Employee Benefits research report—and it’s something all employers need to keep in mind as the competition for talent gets even tougher in 2019, thanks to record-low unemployment, widening skills gaps and talent shortages, and shifting demographics (the influx of more Millennials and Gen Z workers).

These potent forces are transforming the composition of the workforce forever, which means employers need to attract workers from every generation to fill their talent needs in the years to come.

So how can your organization take a more strategic approach to its employee benefits in order to recruit and retain talent from all generations in the workforce today — Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and Gen Z?

Simple: offer your employees a range of voluntary benefits that support their unique lifestyles and needs.

Breaking Through the Noise
People are more selective these days about which jobs they apply for based on the benefits being offered, observes a 2018 article from BenefitsPro.com. “Basic benefits like paid vacation and a 401(k) aren’t enough to break through the noise anymore. … In 2019, employers will need to focus on making their entire benefits package more enticing.”

Implementing a diversified array of cost-effective voluntary benefits not only makes your overall benefits package more enticing but it also enables you to effectively serve the unique and varied needs of every generation of workers. As the benefitsPro.com article notes, “attractive benefits can make the difference between whether a prospective employee accepts a job offer or not,” and voluntary benefits provide a cadre of solutions that can be customized to attract the talent you need.

Leverage These Five Voluntary Benefits Trends
Here are five voluntary benefits that are trending in 2019 and that are highly valued by all workers:

1. Work-life programs—While each generation may define work-life balance differently, they all desire it, notes a 2018 Forbes article. “By creating a work environment that prioritizes work-life balance, employers can save money and maintain a healthier, more productive workforce,” the article states. For a nominal cost, you can launch a comprehensive work-life program that provides your employees with 24/7 access to live specialists who are trained to deal with the full spectrum of work-life issues. Plus, the results and ROI of this type of program far exceed those of self-service programs.

2. Backup care—Inevitably, the child or elder care arrangements your employees have in place will break down at some point. Unless you have a backup care program in place, most employees will have to scramble to find alternate arrangements—and many will fail. That’s why nearly half of all working parents miss an average of four days of work at least once every six months … and workers who care for aging loved ones miss more than 126 million workdays per year. A state-of-the-art backup care program saves your company’s caregivers from the mad rush to find last-minute, alternate care. Plus, it’ll help your company slash absenteeism, presenteeism, productivity losses and stress. (See our previous post on backup care to learn about all of the business benefits it delivers.)

3. Senior care management—Workers from all generations are already (or soon will be) facing the challenge of caring for aging relatives and other loved ones. Without the right support, elder caregiving can take a heavy toll on your employees (in the form of absenteeism/presenteeism, caregiver burnout and poor health) and your organization (in lost productivity, turnover and health-related costs). A high-quality senior care management program provides a spectrum of invaluable services such as in-person assessments of elders, their homes and potential care facilities; detailed care recommendations; 24/7 telephonic and online services for the employee; and more.

4. Breast milk shipping—In 2017, more than 65% of mothers with children under six years old were part of the U.S. labor force, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A growing number of employers now offer a breast milk shipping service to their nursing mothers who travel as part of their jobs. You can provide additional support to your organization’s working mothers by giving them 24/7 access to lactation consultants, discounted breast pumps, and prescreened referrals to other lactation resources, as does LifeCare’s award-winning Mother’s@Work program.

5. Financial wellness—Employees spend approximately 150 hours of their time at work annually worrying about money, according to a 2017 Mercer study. Whether it’s unpaid student loans, credit card debt, healthcare-related expenses, or saving for retirement, every generation stresses out about finances. You can help put your employees’ minds at ease and get them on track financially by providing them with reliable financial wellness services including access to financial counselors, financial planning professionals and other resources designed to educate and empower them. A 2018 Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey asked employees what would improve their financial wellness most; they cited practical guidance that would “focus on the single next thing to do—one step at a time,” along with helping them save and invest for the future. So be particularly sure your financial wellness offerings cover those topics.

By incorporating these voluntary benefits trends into your talent acquisition strategy, you’ll cut through the noise of the marketplace and draw multigenerational talent to your brand for years to come.

As always, contact us here or call us at 1-(866) 675-3751 if you’d like to discuss anything you’ve read here or how LifeCare can serve your organization.

Which Work-Life Model Is Right for Your Organization?

For roughly four decades, work-life programs have improved the lives of workers and strengthened their employers’ organizations.

Throughout the years studies have shown that work-life programs help people integrate their work and personal responsibilities more efficiently, reduce their stress levels and remain healthier and happier overall. For organizations, work-life programs raise productivity and engagement levels while reducing turnover and burnout.

The benefits of work-life programs were highlighted again earlier this year when the U.S. government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a report concluding that federal employees who take part in work-life programs are more likely to exceed expectations and better advance their agency’s mission. Ninety-six percent of the 64,000+ OPM survey respondents said they want to make use of at least one of their agency’s work-life programs.

So the question for today’s employers isn’t whether work-life programs are a wise investment. The question is … Which work-life model is right for your organization?

Two Basic Choices, One Big Difference

When it comes to work-life programs, employers can choose from two basic models: 1) the self-service model or 2) the call center model.

The self-service model gives employees access to online work-life resources such as articles, guidebooks and searchable databases (containing child care organizations, locations and contact information, for example). With this model, employees act as their own researchers and advocates, and they alone must find and utilize the resources that will help them most.

The call center model, on the other hand, offers employees the same online resources but it also provides them with 24/7 access to a call center staffed by knowledgeable live specialists who are trained to answer questions, offer guidance and personally assist employees in resolving their issues. Call center specialists ensure that employees are aware of all of the helpful resources available to them and that they utilize the best possible resources for their needs. This is especially important, as the needs of many employees are complex and fraught with critical decisions to be made. Having the ability to call specialists 24/7 to seek consultation and guidance reduces employees’ stress, saves them time and keeps them focused and productive on the job.

Here are a few examples of typical work-life issues that impact employees and how they would go about resolving them under each model:

A backup care emergency—One of your employees has a special-needs toddler and her regular child care provider has suddenly taken ill. Under the self-service model, the employee searches an online database of alternate child care providers, hoping to find ones that are certified to handle special-needs children and within a reasonable distance of her commute. She then contacts providers until she finds one she’s happy with and makes the necessary arrangements. Or, if the search becomes too difficult or time-consuming, she may give up and choose to stay home from work.

Under the call center model, your employee can contact a highly trained specialist, day or night, to help her find reliable care. After learning the details of the situation, the specialist does in-depth research to find reliable care that’s available when the employee needs it and calls back to present the options. The specialist can even make the care reservation for your employee. This unbiased, personalized support is a relief during what can be a very stressful situation, where there’s a small window dictating whether your employee will be able to get care and get to work.

Breastfeeding concerns—One of your employees is a soon-to-be or new mother and is feeling overwhelmed about breastfeeding her newborn. In addition, the stress of balancing breastfeeding and working can be a big challenge. Under the self-service model, she searches an online database of articles and guidebooks that may or may not address her specific concerns.

Under the call center model, your employee has 24/7, one-on-one access to certified lactation consultants to help her through challenges, answer questions and address concerns. This level of personalized assistance offers unparalleled peace of mind, especially for new parents.

Eldercare challenges—One of your employees is caring for his aging father who is suffering from the beginnings of dementia. Under the self-service model, he searches for materials about the condition and how he needs to prepare to take care of his father’s changing needs. Again, these materials may or may not address his specific needs and challenges.

Under the call center model, this employee can connect with a senior care expert about all the challenges he is facing. The personal touch and tailored support can be a tremendous relief during a time that can be upsetting, confusing and overwhelming, allowing your employee to make informed decisions for his loved one’s care.

Greater Support Pays Serious Dividends

Obviously, the call center model offers advantages over the self-service model. Being able to talk with live specialists means employees get the help they need faster and with less stress than when they have to act as their own researchers and advocates. This increases program utilization and ROI—not to mention satisfaction and engagement levels. Employees also feel more supported, respected and cared-for when they have access to live specialists.

In 2018 alone, LifeCare’s work-life programs (the call center model) saved clients’ employees an average of nearly 13 hours per call—that’s time they would have spent resolving their issues, often during work hours—and 82% of employees say we reduced their stress levels. In addition, 72% of our members said our programs increased their overall productivity while 80% reported an increase in employee loyalty.

If you’d like to discuss how a comprehensive work-life program could serve your organization and its people, contact us here or call us at 1-(866) 675-3751.

The Importance of Having a Diverse & Inclusive Benefits Offering

Diversity and inclusion are good for business—if you’re into profitability, growth and innovation, that is.

“Organizations with inclusive cultures are two times as likely to meet or exceed financial targets, three times as likely to be high-performing, six times more likely to be innovative and agile, and eight times more likely to achieve better business outcomes,” according to a recent article published by Inc.

Indeed, the correlation between positive business outcomes and diversity and inclusion (D&I) has been substantiated again and again by researchers such as McKinsey & Company (check out its Delivering through diversity study) and Deloitte (see its Global Human Capital Trends report). Even so, as the Inc. piece observed, while 71% of organizations aspire to have an inclusive culture, many struggle to achieve this goal.

One major stumbling block tripping them up: failure to align employee benefits with their commitment to D&I.

Inclusivity Extends Beyond Gender and Race

Your company’s hiring practices, employee development/promotion policies, and leadership principles are all crucial elements of your commitment to D&I. But they can be seriously undermined by poorly conceived and curated benefits.

“Good work on diversity and inclusion can be undone by benefits that do not align with diversity,” declares PricewaterhouseCoopers in Inclusion and Diversity – how employee benefits can show you mean what you say. “If we only give employees leave when their child is born, but not when they adopt a child, what message does this send? Getting (benefits) design wrong may turn our messages upside down.”

That’s a message worth heeding, especially when updating or enhancing your employee benefits (something you should be doing on a regular basis to bolster your talent attraction and retention initiatives). When rethinking benefits, employers often consider adding programs that enhance gender and racial inclusiveness. Of course, this is absolutely essential. However, they frequently overlook programs that are inclusive of another important group: their employees’ family members—children, elder loved ones, even their pets.

By implementing programs that address the needs of all family members, you’re showing workers in no uncertain terms that you care about and respect them as people, not just as “workers.” You’re acknowledging the significant responsibilities and concerns they have beyond their work life. And you’re showing respect for their “families” no matter how they define that term—whether they’re caring for children, older family members or friends, or pets.

All of this speaks volumes about you as a respectful and inclusive employer, and it can have a powerful, positive impact on how your employment brand is perceived in the marketplace.

Inclusive Benefits Worth Investing In

Here are five benefit programs that will help employees take better care of their families and better align your company with D&I:

1. Senior Care Management Programs—More than 1 in 6 working Americans are assisting with the care of an elderly or disabled family member, relative or friend. Full-time workers who act as caregivers miss an average of 6 workdays per year, amounting to 126 million missed workdays each year. Giving your employees access to a senior care management program helps them understand their aging loved ones’ unique needs, identify professional caregiving resources, and assist employees in implementing care recommendations—all of which can help slash those lost workdays and the stress that comes with caregiving.

2. Backup Care Programs—These programs give employees access to reliable caregiving alternatives when their regular arrangements break down. The best backup care resources: are available 24/7/365; give employees access to live care representatives, not just an online database of caregivers; are highly flexible, allowing employees to use (and pay) trusted family members and friends as backup caregivers; and provide caregiving resources for children, older loved ones, pets, and employees themselves. The demand for backup care programs continues to escalate; in 2017, utilization of LifeCare’s Backup Care Connection program increased more than 40%, and in 2018, LifeCare’s client organizations accounted for more than 70,000 visits to alternate care providers.

3. Wellness Programs—Wellness is another area where you can be inclusive and address a wide range of issues and needs. For example, you might focus on educating employees about specific health risks. Or you could provide preventative services such as biometric screenings. Or you could concentrate on specific problems such as diabetes, nutrition, smoking cessation or financial wellness. In fact, financial wellness is such a pervasive concern these days that LifeCare saw a 74% increase in requests for financial hardship counseling in 2018. Whatever you choose to focus on, giving employees access to wellness programs will pay dividends in improved employee health and your company’s alignment to D&I.

4. Pet Care Support Programs— For many of your employees, pets are family. Pets are also good for their health, happiness and productivity. So supporting pet care for your employees—particularly those who travel frequently for business—is a smart move. Pet care support can include telephonic access to specialists who can help locate veterinarians and other professional resources; pet backup care for times when employees travel or when their regular vets aren’t available; and discounts on pet supplies and services. If you think of pet care as a “niche” issue, think again: LifeCare saw a 72% increase in requests for assistance with pet care in 2018.

5. Career Development & Educational Support Programs—We’re not suggesting you pick up the educational tab for everyone in employees’ families! Your inclusiveness only needs to extend to your workers, but the career/educational programs you launch should help employees no matter what stage they’re at in their careers, what functions they work in, or whatever their professional goals are. These programs can include tuition reimbursement, student loan repayment assistance, internal coaching and mentoring programs, training workshops, and a host of other options. As research shows, career and educational support not only enhances your commitment to D&I but it also improves employee retention and the growth of your business.

Clearly, you should factor diversity and inclusion into your employee benefits. Otherwise you risk creating a serious disconnect in your messaging to win new talent, not to mention undermining the performance of your employees and your company.

As it turns out, your c-suite most likely wants greater alignment with D&I as well. A study by The Economist found that the majority of global business leaders it surveyed believe D&I promote better talent management (71%), employee satisfaction (64%), and corporate reputation (57%).

If you’d like to discuss implementing these and other work-life programs at your organization, contact us here or call us at (866) 675-3751.

Top Benefits To Help You Win the Escalating War for Talent

Fierce. Torrid. Red hot.

No, those aren’t reviews for the latest binge-worthy Netflix series. Believe it or not, they’re terms analysts are using to describe the U.S. labor market—and they’re not just hyperbole.

For the first time on record, the number of job openings in the U.S. (6.7 million) exceeded the number of job seekers (6.3 million), according to a June Bureau of Labor Statistics report. And only a few weeks ago the Secretary of Labor reported an unemployment rate of 3.7% for the second straight month—the lowest rate since 1969.

Clearly, it’s a great time to be a job seeker in the U.S.

For employers, on the other hand, it’s a particularly challenging time. Attracting new talent and keeping your best people from jumping ship requires extra thought and creativity in a booming jobs market. One of the best things you can do to strengthen your appeal to talent, not to mention your employment brand, is to offer employees a mix of highly desirable benefits.

Benefits Are a Talent Magnet
If you doubt the drawing power of employee benefits, a 2018 Glassdoor survey found that benefits are one of the two most important considerations people undertake when researching jobs in the U.S. (Salary was the top consideration by just a few percentage points.) When asked what would make them more likely to apply for a job, roughly half of the survey’s participants cited attractive benefits and perks. Additionally, 80% of participants said they would prefer additional benefits over a pay increase.

The question is … what benefits do today’s workers really want beyond medical, dental and vision plans?

Here are five of the most desired benefits programs that will bring new talent to your door and keep your most valued current employees from leaving:

1. Flexible work hours and work-from-home options—These work-life offerings are high on the list of benefits that employees desired most, literally. A 2017 list published by Harvard Business Review (HBR) showed that 88% of workers would consider taking a lower paying job if it offered flexible work hours, while 80% said the same about a job that would let them work from home. As the HBR study reported, “flexibility and work-life balance are of utmost importance to a large segment of the workforce: parents. They value flexible hours and work-life balance above salary and health insurance in a potential job.” And it’s not just parents who value these work-life benefits, as a recent article noted: “Millennials value work-life balance higher than all other job characteristics such as job progression, use of technology and a sense of meaning at work.” Bottom line, benefits that give employees greater control of their work schedules appeal to a wide spectrum of talent.

2. Financial wellness programs—PwC’s 2018 Employee Financial Wellness Survey found that 54% of full-time U.S. workers are stressed about their finances and 64% are dealing with the pressures of unpaid student loans. It’s no wonder then that financial wellness programs are among the most attractive benefits to today’s workforce. In addition to offering 401(k) and retirement plans, student loan assistance and tuition assistance, a growing number of employers are providing financial education and counseling to their employees. As the PwC survey noted, “more than half of all employees want to make their own financial decisions but are looking to have someone validate that decision. Employees want a financial wellness benefit with access to unbiased counselors and help understanding and using their benefits.”

3. Backup care—A recent article by SHRM Online observed that caregiving benefits are “growing in importance as employers see opportunities to help workers take care of others.” One key way employers are mitigating the stress of caring for children and aging loved ones is by giving their employees access to a high-quality, flexible backup care program. Backup care ensures that employees have a range of reliable care alternatives at their fingertips 24/7/365 when their regular caregiving arrangements break down. The most flexible programs even allow employees to use trusted family members and friends as backup caregivers—and to pay them for their valuable time as they would any other caregiver. Showing employees that you’re committed not only to them but to the wellbeing of their families is a tremendous draw for talent, and backup care programs are a perfect example.

4. Paid family leave—A 2018 poll by Unum found that paid family leave is the most coveted perk among working adults: 58% of overall workers and 64% of millennials prefer it over other top options. Noting that the strain of balancing professional and family responsibilities spans all generations in the workforce, an Unum spokesperson stated, “a generous leave policy can lead to higher levels of employee engagement and a competitive edge to recruit and retain top talent.” Although there are no federal mandates, several U.S. states and municipalities have implemented variations of paid family leave laws and a growing number of employers are expanding their programs and policies.

5. Skills and Career Development—You might not immediately think of developing your people as a “benefit,” but it most certainly is—and it’s one that millennials and younger workers, in particular, seek out when considering job opportunities. The 2018 Deloitte Millennial Survey found that only 40% of millennials and 30% of Generation Z believe they have the skills and knowledge they need to thrive in the workplace. The fact is not all organizations do a great job of developing their people and helping them to thrive professionally. That means you can truly set your company apart and stand out as an employer of choice by doing so.

Communication Is Key
Providing a mix of highly desirable benefits is only part of the equation. They won’t do your talent strategy, employment brand or workers much good if nobody knows you offer them. Ample promotion and communication are vital, so be sure to tout your benefits in job ads, on your social media and on your Careers website.

And remember—promoting your benefits internally is an ongoing proposition. Employees need to be reminded on a regular basis that these programs exist and how they can be used to their greatest advantage. Continuous benefits communication will not only help attract and retain talent, it will also ensure your programs deliver the greatest return on your investment.

If you’d like to chat about implementing work-life programs to support your talent attraction and retention strategy, contact us here or call us at (866) 675-3751.

5 Reasons Your Company Needs Backup Care Now

Employees love having access to a high-quality, flexible backup care program and it’s easy to understand why.

First, it eliminates the stress of scrambling to find alternate child care or senior care when regular caregiving arrangements break down. With a backup care program in place, reliable care alternatives are just a phone call, email or text message away.

Second, trusted family members and friends qualify as backup caregivers and can be reimbursed for their valuable time.

Third, employees get 24/7/365 access to live care representatives, not just an online database of caregivers. These live representatives carefully assess each employee’s unique needs and help secure the most suitable care any time of the day or night.

From your employees’ perspective, what’s not to love? But backup care doesn’t only benefit your people. It’s every bit as helpful to your organization. Here are five key ways that a flexible backup care improves your company and its bottom line:

1. You’ll slash absenteeism and productivity losses. Nearly half of all working parents miss an average of four days of work at least once every six months because of child care breakdowns, which costs U.S. businesses about $4.4 billion a year in lost productivity, according to the recent Slate article, “The Corporate Case for Child Care.” And the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Survey reported that full-time workers who care for aging loved ones miss more than 126 million workdays per year, costing their employers $25.2 billion annually in lost productivity. Implementing a backup care program enables you to curb caregiving-related absenteeism and associated productivity losses.

2. You’ll reduce presenteeism, stress and health problems. As noted in a 2017 report by AARP and the Northeast Business Group on Health, employees who balance caregiving and work responsibilities often fall prey to presenteeism (spending time during business hours dealing with caregiving challenges and emergencies). In addition, caregiving related stress and anxiety take a personal and professional toll on employees. “Caregiving employees often end up feeling isolated and/or depressed, and are less likely to have the time and energy to tend to their own health needs. This can, in turn, lead to illnesses such as diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure, causing further problems for the caregiver as well as higher healthcare costs for employers.” Again, a backup care program can substantially mitigate these negative impacts by giving employees easy access to reliable care arrangements along with resources designed specifically for working parents and people caring for seniors.

3. You’ll improve employee loyalty and morale. Providing employees with work-life support programs—such as reliable backup care—has long been regarded as an effective strategy for earning their loyalty, maintaining morale and keeping them from jumping ship. A recent Forbes article underscored this correlation, reporting that one out of four workers who felt they had no support for adequate work-life balance made plans to quit in the following two years. In fact, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health, 2 million working parents quit their jobs in 2016 because of child care problems alone. The Forbes piece also noted that employees who feel they have a positive work-life balance are more dedicated by 21 percent than those who don’t think so. To reap the benefits of improved employee morale and loyalty, the article stated, an “employer only has to offer beneficial work-life services and policies that employees can choose to participate in.” One crucial way to do this is by helping your employees better balance their caregiving and work responsibilities.

4. You’ll attract and retain talent better. With U.S. unemployment rates at historically low levels, the competition to attract and retain talent is fiercer than ever. In this highly competitive environment, supportive workplaces (those that help employees effectively integrate their work and family lives) are a powerful draw for working parents and individuals caring for seniors. They seek employers who offer supportive benefits such as backup care. Even millennials want benefits that improve their lives and the lives of their family members, according to Gallup’s 2017 State of the American Workforce Survey. The survey also found that millennials are much more willing than other generations to change jobs to get these supportive benefits.

5. You’ll be addressing a growing demand. As data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show, among married-couple families with children, 61% have both parents employed. And AARP reports that one in six employees is a caregiver for an older loved one or friend. It’s no wonder that utilization of LifeCare’s Backup Care Connection program increased more than 40% last year. As the population ages and more working families require dual incomes, the need for backup child and senior caregivers is only going to grow.

Clearly, backup care is as good for your organization as it is your employees. Even employees without caregiving responsibilities will love backup care because it prevents colleagues from foisting work on them when caregiving arrangements go awry.

Now that’s a true win-win.

If you’d like to learn more about implementing a backup care program, contact us here or call us at (833) 282-3366.

What Is a Care Management Benefit and Why Does Your Company Need It?

Did you know that more than 1 in 6 working Americans report assisting with the care of an elderly or disabled family member, relative or friend? Or that caregivers working at least 15 hours per week indicated that this assistance significantly affected their work? And, of those that identified as full-time workers acting as caregivers, they reported missing an average of 6.6 workdays per year, which amounts to 126 million missed workdays each year?

When you consider that the cost of lost productivity due to caregiving to U.S. businesses is $17.1 to $33 billion annually, it’s clear that the business case for providing support to this population leads to positive results for both employers and employees.

That’s why a comprehensive Senior Care Management program can be monumentally helpful to caregivers. This employee benefit can assist with understanding an aging loved one’s care needs, identifying resources available and also assist with implementing care recommendations, improving employee productivity and retention.

Here are some best in class components of a comprehensive Senior Care Management employee benefit program.

In-Person Assessment
It is common for people to want to stay in their home and be as independent as possible for as long as possible. Aging and disabilities can make staying in an individual’s home challenging, and sometimes dangerous. A care manager can meet with the individual in their home, along with family members, to discuss current health problems and disabilities. The care manager can also evaluate the home to determine how to make it better equipped to meet the individual’s care needs. Recommendations such as removing scatter rugs and adding grab bars in the shower may help someone who is prone to falls decrease their chances of future falls. In some cases, an in-home assessment might make it clear that staying in the home might not be the best option. A care manger can help to educate and discuss other options available to help seniors live a comfortable life in an environment that best suits their needs.

Post-Hospitalization Assessment
It can be overwhelming to try to determine what kind of care someone will need after a hospital stay or short term rehab stay. A lot of questions can be answered by the doctor, nurses and social workers within the hospital or facility. It is also sometimes helpful to have an extra professional guide. The care manager can evaluate the home to determine if any modifications would be helpful in making it safe and assist in coordinating the care needed upon returning home.

Post Assessment Support
After the expert recommendations have been delivered, now what? A fully comprehensive care management program offers 24/7 support from specialists to help implement the care chosen. Specialists can walk through the care plan, answer additional questions, address any caregiving concerns, provide a sympathetic ear and so much more. Through end-to-end telephonic support, your employees will be able to make educated decisions and confidently put a care plan in place that will provide the best care possible for their loved one’s specific needs.

These are just a few examples of how a fully comprehensive Senior Care Management program can be a great help when caring for an older loved one or a loved one with disabilities, relieving stress and saving time and money. A service like this is not only helpful and educational, but will also give your employees peace of mind and confidence as they choose the right care.

For more information about Senior Care Management services, contact us here or call us at (866) 675-3751.