Behind the Growing Momentum Around Caregiving Support in the Workplace

As the workplace evolves to support employees in their personal lives as well as their careers, a number of the world’s top companies are beginning to realize the same thing: Many of their employees are caring for children or aging parents—oftentimes both—and nearly all of those employees are looking to their employers for support.

Caregiving support is a growing trend among employee benefits, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with companies such as Dow, Hilton, and Voya Financial responding to employees’ need for support.

“There’s a growing momentum” around caregiving support, said Carole Mendoza, vice president of benefits at Voya Financial in New York City. “With more employees speaking up about their unique needs and more visibility of those needs post-COVID, we know more about what support employees need to be most productive at work.”

Changing demographics and an increase in the number of caregivers—and the number of those caregivers who need support themselves—are bringing the issue into sharper focus.

Many employees—roughly 1 in 4, according to Pew Research—are in the sandwich generation, supporting the needs of aging parents while also raising school-age children.

There’s also an increase in the number of people who self-identify as disabled, indicating a growing need for caregiving support, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting that workers with disabilities are steadily increasing, with a record high number of individuals self-identifying in 2023.

Another indication of growing momentum: Both presidential candidates—Kamala Harris and Donald Trump—have spoken out in favor of caregiving support, with the two even favoring the expansion of coverage to at-home senior care.

That’s significant, said Amy Friedrich, president of benefits and protection at Principal, a benefits firm headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, noting how it shows that attention to the issue is reaching new levels.

“This is an issue of rising importance. No matter the party affiliation, it’s become apparent that the caregiving crisis cannot wait any longer to be addressed,” she said. “Whether I’m with co-workers, friends, or family, caregiving often comes up as a topic of concern. With caregivers making up approximately 20% of the U.S. labor force, this is an issue for employers, too. I suspect that the most comprehensive, effective solutions to this crisis will have both a public and private component.”

Impact on Employers

Aside from the sheer number of caregivers, part of the reason employers are paying attention to the issue is they are seeing the impact of caregiving challenges among their employees and in their organizations at large. Those issues were highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was eye-opening in showcasing the stress and vulnerabilities facing caregivers. It accelerated many conversations around why—and how—to help.

Recent research reveals some of those impacts. A study by Voya found that caregiving responsibilities severely or majorly affect several other aspects of employees’ finances, including home purchases (40%), mortgage and rent payments (38%), the costs of having a child and of child care (35%), and college expenses or student loans for themselves or their dependents (30%).

ComPsych, a Chicago-based mental health provider, recently released a sample analysis from its absence book of business, which covers more than 6 million people. The company found that 20% of employees who took caregiving leave between January 2022 and June 2024 later took a leave for their own medical condition. Among these people, mental health (15%) was the most common reason for their medical leave, followed by surgery (11%), pointing to both the mental and physical demands of caregiving.

That data, said Jennifer Birdsall, clinical director of ComPsych, underscores “the very real impact caregiving has on people” and indicates that not supporting caregivers may further exacerbate problems down the road for employees.

“From the emotional drain it can cause to the physical demands of competing priorities or helping another person with basic daily functions, caregiving puts people under a tremendous amount of stress,” Birdsall said.

Caregiving challenges also impact retention: According to the Principal Financial Well-Being Index, which looks at the financial well-being of employees and employers, 13% of employees who identified as caregivers—caring for a child, adult, or both—reported having left a job due to their caregiving responsibilities.

“Employers want to retain their valuable employees and recognize they are often balancing more than just the demands of their roles,” Friedrich said. “They see the stress and the impact caregiving can have on employees at work—and they know it can ultimately affect an employee’s decision to stay in their position.”

On the flip side, according to Voya data, U.S. workers are more likely to stay with employers that provide access to health spending and savings accounts (51%); voluntary benefit offerings, such as critical illness, hospital indemnity, disability income, and accident insurance (51%); and comprehensive caregiver planning resources (36%).

All of those factors “can have a significant impact on those with disabilities and their caregivers, who often face financial challenges connected to their dual responsibilities at home and work,” Mendoza said.

Areas of Support

Employers are supporting caregivers in a variety of ways.

Child care support, which is offered by many employers in the form of various benefits—including child care stipends, access to or discounts for child care centers, tutoring help, and flexible schedules—is one aspect, although that support can be expanded by addressing even broader needs.

“We have historically seen ongoing efforts to support employees with child care needs, but we’re increasingly seeing elder care come into play,” Friedrich said. “And for the especially vulnerable population caught in the middle—they’re juggling both.”

Providing caregiving resources, such as backup care and platforms that help employees find care for family members, can be a tremendous help, experts said, and these resources are being offered by companies including Voya, Dow, and Hilton.

Midland, Mich.-based chemical company Dow, for instance, announced in August new benefits to provide its 19,000 North American employees with caregiver support. A caregiving benefit from provider Cariloop was among the new perks it rolled out. Through the platform, Dow employees can access a content library and a suite of digital tools to utilize when planning and managing the care of a family member. Through Cariloop, employees also have access to “care coaches” who can guide them through their caregiving journey and assist with researching and vetting resources.

Dow also partnered with TOOTRiS, a tech platform specializing in child care solutions, to give employees access to a range of child care strategies tailored to each family’s needs.

Both Hilton and Voya offer Wellthy—a service that matches employees with a dedicated care coordinator to help them care for loved ones who are aging, chronically ill, disabled, or in need of medical care.

“I used this benefit myself to help support an aging aunt who was in a VA hospital 3,000 miles away,” Mendoza said. “My care coordinator was a tremendous help.”

Voya also provides a special employee assistance plan that matches employees and their family members with clinicians who have the experience to provide insight into the disabilities and caregiving community, as well as backup in-home care for children and older adults who need support ordinarily provided by the employee or someone else.

“These benefits can be expanded to caregivers by considering the many roles that employees are playing in their lives—caring for children, parents, siblings, and others—and offering to all employees the unique benefits that will help to address these caregiving needs,” Mendoza explained.

Flexibility—allowing employees to work from home to watch over family members or take them to appointments, for instance—is also a key factor in caregiving support and a common benefit offered to caregivers, Mendoza said.

Getting Started

For employers looking to get started on caregiving support, industry insiders say the first step is to understand workforce demographics and identify how many of their employees are caregivers.

“Take time to understand the nuances of the nature of their caregiving to understand if they are supporting children, dependent adults, or elder adults, and how that’s impacting their work and personal lives,” Friedrich said. “Of course, this is easier to do if you have a small business. For larger businesses, it will be important to utilize your regular feedback or listening data to better understand how this is affecting your workforce.” 

From there, employers can identify which benefits or areas of support might be most helpful. The specific needs may vary from organization to organization, but the one constant is being empathetic and understanding to employees who are caregivers, Friedrich explained.

“It will be important for employers to lean in with empathy to understand how caregiving responsibilities may be affecting their employees,” she said. “Empathy and business results are sometimes seen as either-or, but I see some of the best-run businesses doing both well. You don’t need to pick one or the other.”