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By Gema G. Hernandez, D.P.A
At time when
private enterprises are trying to increase productivity,
reduce costs and enhance the quality of their products
or services there is a growing crisis in corporations
today that is preventing them from achieving their
corporate goals. Few companies realize the implications
working caregivers have on their internal costs and
their bottom line. Still fewer companies even know where
to look for these hidden costs. Only one in seventy
midsize to larger companies knows how to address this
issue.
The closest thing a company
associates with the cost of caregiving to the company is
the absenteeism reports. Even in cases where absenteeism
is recorded, the relationship between the numbers of
days missed by workers and the reason for the number of
days is not clearly established. Absenteeism may be the
most obvious cost to the workforce, but it is not the
only cost or the most expensive cost. Other factors such
as attrition, loss of good workers, increased health
insurance coverage, overtime, and constant recruitment
of new workers also cost the company and the workers.
The number of
caregivers in the workforce has increased threefold in
the last five years and will continue to increase in the
next ten years. What we are seeing today is only the
beginning and unless companies begin to help their
working caregivers they themselves will not be able to
keep their competitive advantage in the global economy.
This is no longer a problem that affects only women in
the workforce or lower income workers, but is a problem
that exists at the CEO level as well as the lower
administrative levels of the company echelon. This is a
problem that also affects working men, and young and
older workers alike. For years the problem has been
handled by the mid level managers who have used leniency
in granting permission for workers to leave early, come
late, refuse to work overtime and while the managers
have done their best to help good workers balance jobs
and work the poor workers have been left alone to tackle
the problem. For years the problem has been handled
silently by the working caregiver who has given up
promotions, careers, training opportunities to provide
care to a family member. But these individual solutions
are no longer appropriate or recommended.
The first sign
of relief for working caregivers came with the passage
of the Family Leave Act which allows workers to take
time off to care for a frail family member. This law
helps working caregivers by guaranteeing their jobs
while they take unpaid leave to care for the family
member. But it does nothing to educate, facilitate,
support and provide the necessary assistance to working
caregivers after the crisis situation ends. It does
nothing for the company which loses a valuable worker on
a temporary basis and is replaced by a not so
experienced worker. Many working caregivers have
forfeited this unpaid leave option because of the
unbearable financial burden giving up a paycheck
represents to them and even though they needed the time
off they were not able to afford it. Many working
caregivers are not even aware of the law that protect
them from losing their jobs.
Many working
caregivers have given up a job at a financial cost to be
borne by them alone for years to come. Financial costs
in the form of a lower pension or no pension at all,
lower social security at the time of retirement and the
loss of a job at a time in their lives when finding
another job becomes almost impossible.
We have reached a point in the road
that something should be done. On one hand government
can pass a law to financially support the Family Leave
Act by mandating that employers with more than 50
workers offer at least a portion of the time off with
pay. California is the first state in the nation that
has passed such a law. On the other hand, companies are
requesting that the Mandates of the Family Leave Act be
weakened in the form of less time off or plain
dismissal. This is not going to solve the core problem,
on the contrary, it will produce more absenteeism, loss
of good workers and increases in health care coverage
resulting from higher health claims by working
caregivers.
The solution from the point of view
of the working caregivers and from the financial
perspective of the company is one and the same. That
mutually beneficial solution is for companies to include
in their benefit package a working caregiver assistance
program. Those companies that have done it have achieved
a higher degree of worker satisfaction, reduced
attrition of good workers, have increased the quality of
their products and services and kept the loyalty and
goodwill of their workforce. For working caregivers this
has been the answer to their prayers. They no longer
have to miss work, come late, leave early, be on an
infinite number of phone calls or spend their entire
working day worried about mother, father, or husband at
home.
In my years helping working
caregivers have found that a successful caregiver
support program goes beyond information and provides
intervention, services and ongoing support tailored to
the needs of each individual caregiver. I have also
found that if corporations see this as an imposition,
not as a quality control measure, they will never make
the investment in the program. It is up to us caregivers
to make the corporate world aware of our needs and to
support efforts that will alleviate our ongoing burden.
Contact your human resource department and find out what
they offer in terms of working caregivers, and if they
don’t, let them know that assistance exists to support
corporations to deal with this challenging and growing
crisis.
For corporations to maintain their
competitive advantage in the global market they need
dedicated and experience workers willing to give 120% to
their jobs this is achievable is they now that
corporations are willing to help with their family
caregiving responsibilities. The rewards are there for
companies that provide assistance to the working
caregivers. This is an investment that at the end will
save money and generate goodwill for all.
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