How employers are providing caregiving employees support — and why they should

Missy Plohr-Memming, senior vice president, MetLife Group Benefits

Finding a healthy balance between work and life can be difficult for employees. However, for those with additional caregiving responsibilities at home — taking care of elderly family members, young children or both — it can be particularly challenging to cope with competing demands without feeling overextended. 

According to MetLife’s 2024 U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study, 44% of caregivers are stressed, 43% are overwhelmed and 42% are burned out at work. Employers must recognize the challenges facing this employee cohort, especially as they are a significant portion of today’s workforce — 73% of employees say they hold some caregiving responsibilities. 

While offering childcare benefits and expanding paid parental leave isn’t new, and many employers have made strides to support this cohort, there’s still a significant gap between employees impacted by caregiving duties and the level of care provided to this group. Eighty-four percent of employees say caregiving responsibilities for an adult family member or friend have had a high impact on them, while 67% of employers believe they are providing those individuals with adequate care. 

Employees who feel cared for by their employer are 1.5x more likely to feel happy, 1.2x more likely to be productive and 1.3x more likely to be loyal at work. Employers can close this gap by increasing support for caregiving employees, improving business outcomes in stride. 

To bridge the gap among caregivers in the workforce, employers are focusing on delivering support in critical moments and prioritizing communicating the benefits that can provide tangible help at those stages.

Addressing high-impact caregiving experiences boosts talent outcomes

MetLife’s research shows that moments associated with caregiving are among the top life experiences impacting today’s workforce. However, across these experiences, including a child struggling at school, caregiving responsibilities for an adult family member or friend, pregnancy and growing a family, employer-provided care often falls short of employee expectations. 

For employers, understanding the needs of caregivers, the impact of specific life moments and effectively showing care can go a long way in shaping an employee’s experience at work, promoting holistic well-being, and ultimately, boosting talent management outcomes — i.e., higher employee satisfaction, reduced turnover, increased productivity and increased promotion rates.

Offering benefits around managing caregiving gives employees peace of mind

Perhaps unsurprisingly, caregivers are interested in benefits that can help make their day-to-day lives more manageable, including childcare (73%) and eldercare (76%) benefits. Moreover, many caregivers are interested in benefits that provide the ability to take time away from work, including paid (95%) and unpaid leave (78%). 

Tangible resources like these can help employees balance competing work and caregiving duties throughout the week and empower them to take necessary time away from work to rest and recuperate, avoiding burnout. 

There are also less traditional benefits that can help caregivers manage their time and costs in less direct but often just as impactful ways. For instance, 82% of caregivers are interested in legal services, so a cost-effective benefit that can support employees navigating legal matters would be providing access to informative resources and a network of pre-qualified attorneys at a fixed cost. 

This can be particularly useful for caregivers, who often face complex legal situations, such as reviewing nursing home agreements, managing estate plans or understanding Medicare/Medicaid documents. These voluntary benefits also provide employees peace of mind, knowing they have the resources to navigate such circumstances.

Teaching managers how to showcase benefits and resources builds a care-first approach

When managers consistently deliver care, employees are more than twice as likely to feel cared for personally. However, many managers agree that key barriers exist, including a lack of resources (39%) and training (38%), that keep them from effectively demonstrating care. 

For example, only 18% of employers say their managers are well-equipped and comfortable discussing benefits with their direct reports. With benefits being so essential, employers are educating managers on benefit options and how to effectively highlight them to employees.

In addition to improving their comprehension of benefits offerings, employers can also empower people managers to check in with employees on how they can best support them and provide genuine, non-intrusive empathy. This is important, as there are key moments, such as growing a family, when employees who didn’t feel cared for said they could have been made aware of helpful benefits (38%) and that their manager could have been more flexible when they needed time off (32%). 

Leveraging these strategies can help employers deliver support to caregivers in ways that effectively demonstrate care when and where they need it most. Taking a care-first approach with every employee group — from recognizing work and life moments that matter most to addressing the perceived care gaps in those situations — will ultimately foster happier, more efficient workplaces. 

Unless otherwise indicated, all data in this article is from MetLife’s 2024 U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study.

Sponsored by MetLife