Research Points to the Need for More Caregiver-Friendly Workplaces

How can workplaces support employees with caregiver-friendly policies? And which policies would be most helpful to caregivers? Pamela Nadash, Ph.D., associate professor in UMass Boston’s Gerontology Department, has researched matters of family caregiving and shares ideas that could help employers and employees alike.

This work builds on research Nadash and UMass Boston colleagues (including Marc Cohen, PhD, co-director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston, Eileen Tell, MPH, a Gerontology Institute fellow, and a host of PhD students from the program) did to inform the development of the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers. It involved a massive undertaking that identified caregivers’ biggest concerns, drawing data from more than 1,600 survey respondents, 13 focus groups, and over 150 organizations involved in caregiver support. An overview of caregiver priorities can be found the report, Building a National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers.

For National Family Caregivers Month, we asked Nadash to share some insights she’s gathered from her most recent study. Here, she shares some of the big takeaways that she and Gerontology Department PhD student Maryssa Pallis have gleaned from mounds of data, as well as some opportunities she’s identified for companies to support employees with much-needed benefits.

Caregiving Lesson #1: “Family friendly” means more than “parent friendly.”

Many employers claim to be family friendly. All too often, however, Nadash sees that their definition of “family friendly” is far too narrow.

“Even though the term is meant to be neutral, when you scratch the surface and read anything about it, it’s all about family with kids,” she says.

Yet some people provide care for adults—to parents, spouses, family friends—and their needs are often overlooked. In her work to motivate workplaces to become more caregiver friendly, Nadash encourages employers to widen their lens to include more types of caregivers. The inclusion makes a practical difference, as the needs of caregivers vary widely. A caregiver to a child will have different needs than a caregiver to a parent with dementia or a spouse with cancer. Other variables that affect caregiver needs include the care recipient’s physical and mental health status, age, and the quality of the relationship between the caregiver and the person requiring care.

Caregiving Lesson #2: As caregiving shifts to the home, families face increased pressure.

More and more healthcare is shifting from hospitals and in-patient facilities to the home, a trend that only intensified during the COVID era. Although this brings certain benefits—patients often report feeling more comfortable at home, and the risks of catching an infection or illness decrease—it places more pressure on families, who can become responsible for complex medical tasks. At the same time, workforce shortages make it difficult to find quality paid care.

“Family caregivers end up feeling the brunt,” Nadash says. Moreover, these increased responsibilities often mean they have a hard time keeping their jobs, highlighting the need for caregiver-friendly workplaces. “If people cannot sustain work, then not only might they have physical and mental health consequences due to the stress of caregiving, but they might have serious financial consequences, too.”

The financial strains on caregivers who need to cut back or quit their jobs can have long-term consequences. During her research, Nadash heard from people who were comfortably middle-class, but when one spouse became disabled and had to stop working and the other spouse had to quit work to care for them, they quickly depleted their retirement savings and had to go on Medicaid.

“This receives much less attention than it should,” Nadash says. “People emphasize the physical and mental health consequences of caregiving, but they don’t talk as much about the financial consequences, which can be devastating.”

Caregiving Lesson #3: A caregiver doesn’t always look like you might expect.

When people picture a caregiver, a specific picture often comes to mind. In reality, all kinds of people take on that role.

“Very often, people think that the typical family caregiver is going to be a woman, around age 50, who maybe has kids at home,” Nadash says. “One of the caregivers in our focus groups was a twenty-something Asian man who looked after his grandmother. The mistake is that people have this very narrow idea, which is understandable, unless you’ve lived it yourself.”

If employers are among those who have a narrow idea of who may be a caregiver, then they may overlook certain employees’ needs as caregivers.

Caregiving Lesson #4: Employers can provide valuable benefits to attract and retain workers.

Nadash’s study included interviews with companies that manage benefits for companies, including caregiver benefits. Some companies have “Cadillac” level benefits, such as financial management and psychological counseling for caregivers. Some companies even offer to help employees find paid care for loved ones.

While large corporations may offer expensive benefits like these, even less-expensive benefits can provide invaluable support to people who juggle work with family caregiving. Flexible scheduling and managerial support can be crucial to a family caregiver. This means that awareness of caregiver support must exist throughout the organization, not only at the top.

“It’s not just awareness at the C-suite level, it’s awareness at the manager level,” Nadash says. “Based on the literature, people’s experience of their workplace is very much colored by their direct supervisor. Having middle management that’s supportive is a critical thing, so education has to happen throughout the organization.”

Caregiving Lesson #5: Systems must exist to promote caregiver-friendly policies to workplaces.

“I’m a policy person,” Nadash says. “There need to be systematic ways to get employers to be aware of this issue and to take steps.”

As a model of one way to do this well, Nadash points to the Massachusetts Caregiver Coalition. The public-private partnership unites businesses, advocates, and government employees to find ways to support family caregivers in the workplace. It does so by highlighting the importance of workplace supports for employees and businesses, sharing best practices accommodating all kinds of employers and employees, and enabling culture change around caregiver-friendly workplaces.

“That model of businesses leading and setting standards is a really great model, and I’d like to see more of that,” Nadash says.

Nadash also likes the idea of a certification process that offers criteria that businesses can meet to advertise themselves as a family caregiver-friendly business. Canada has a national certification model for this already.

Many businesses evaluate the need for caregiver benefits with an eye on their bottom line, however, seeking proof of a financial benefit. Although research shows that these benefits increase retention and improve recruitment, there are many organizational benefits that may be difficult to quantify.

“Something that came up in our research was the idea of loyalty,” Nadash says. “If you are good to your employees, they will be good to you. And you can’t put a cost on that.”