Getting Your Employees Attention Back to Work

It is 9:00 am on a Monday morning. Do you know where your employees' attention is? Is it on work?

Picture this. You are at work. The phone rings. It is your aging father's neighbor calling to say that Dad is walking around outside in his pajamas and seems confused. You have a full day of meetings and deadlines. Your heart sinks as you try to figure out how to care for your dad and keep your job.

The phone rings again. This time it is the school nurse saying that your asthmatic child is having trouble breathing.

According to the American Productivity Audit, one-third of respondents said dependent health concerns were a top reason employees were not able to focus on their job while at work.

What you may not know is that the situations above can just as likely happen to a working woman as to a working man. However if a woman gets the troubling phone call, she is more likely to talk about it at work while the man will not (2003 National Alliance for Caregiving national survey).

Millions of working adults - men and women - are juggling the competing demands of caring for a chronically ill or disabled parent, raising a family, and managing a career.

Working caregivers sacrifice leisure time, and often suffer stress-related illnesses. Negative effects on working caregivers include time lost from work, lower productivity, quitting a job to provide care, lost career opportunities and lower future earnings. Eventually, some 16 percent quit their jobs to provide care full-time. Work disruptions due to employee caregiving responsibilities result in productivity losses of $1,142 per year per employee. According to the Washington Post, researchers estimate that the cost of informal caregiving in terms of lost productivity to U.S. businesses is $29 billion annually.

Caregiving Takes Work-Life Toll

A recent MetLife study dubbed "Juggling Act" revealed some of the productivity-killing adjustments that caregivers choose to make to their work schedules:

  • 84% make phone calls

  • 69% arrive late or leave early

  • 67% take time off during the workday

  • 29% make up work at another time

In addition, a national survey conducted by the National Alliance for Caregiving in 1997 found that two in ten working caregivers turned down the opportunity to work on special projects; almost as many avoided work-related travel. Forty percent of the survey respondents said that caregiving affected their ability to advance in their jobs.

What Employers Can Do

Here are seven measures you can take to reduce employee stress, increase productivity and decrease lost work time due to employee caregiving responsibilities.

  • Offer "cafeteria style" employee benefits which allow employees to select supplemental dependent care coverage to reimburse costs for in-home care or adult day care. Benefits also should cover therapeutic counseling for employees to help cope with the stresses of caregiving.

  • Provide information on helpful Internet sites or resource centers.

  • Organize in-house caregiver support groups or coordinate with local community groups or hospitals so that employees can attend an outside support group.

  • One of the most critical benefits for an employee with caregiving responsibilities is time. Flexible work hours, family illness days, and leave time are key. Data from the Bureau of National Affairs (1993) found that flexible scheduling improved job performance, decreased lateness and employee turnover, and increased job satisfaction.

  • Companies with 50 or more employees must comply with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which allows for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a seriously ill parent, spouse or child, while protecting job security. Smaller firms can use the FMLA guidelines to provide support for individual employees.

  • Hold a company "caregiver fair" or a series of lunchtime seminars on issues such as health care planning before a crisis hits or coping skills for caregivers.

  • Offer private long-term care insurance coverage for employees, their spouses, and dependents.

    Employers have a stake in designing responsive and effective programs to support their caregiving employees. Research has demonstrated that the cost to employers of lost productivity and other factors related to caregiving employees' difficulty in balancing work and family is high. Taking action immediately starts to increase productivity, lessen direct and indirect financial costs, and enhance employer/employee work/life relationship ? which directly impacts on employee morale, satisfaction and retention.

    About The Author

    Michael Christian is the President of Patient Advocate Solutions (PAS). PAS provides healthcare navigation and insurance resolution for consumers, employers and healthcare providers. Contact him at (732) 564-9800 or www.pas-now.com

    In The News:

    • pen paper and inkwell


    cat break through


    What Every Manager Should Know About How to Maximize the Two People Inside

    Every one of us, in reality, has two people inside:... Read More

    Delegate, Dont Abdicate

    One of the key skills for the leaders of growing... Read More

    Allowing Employees Responsibility

    Merely assigning a task with detailed instructions is not effective... Read More

    Just The Facts

    Attitudes are more important than facts. Dr. Karl Menninger... Read More

    Delegation - The Basic Steps To Reducing Your Workload And Creating A Successful Team

    If you have a task greater than you can handle... Read More

    What To Do When Your IT Project Is Late, Over Budget, and Looks Like It?s Never Going To Work

    Here's a scary statistic. According to four prominent research firms,... Read More

    Build Your Business (On A Shoestring): Hire a College Intern

    Starting up a new venture or business can be one... Read More

    Top Ten Tips About Communicating with Your Employees Effectively

    Communication is the basis of who you are as a... Read More

    Feedback - Make it Descriptive

    Have you ever heard yourself say to a team member... Read More

    New Job, New Culture: Do You Fit In?

    It seemed like a good decision at the time. A... Read More

    Turn Your Speech Into A Leadership Talk

    My experience working with thousands of leaders world wide for... Read More

    Creativity and Innovation Management ? Feasibility

    Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

    Focus and Shoot

    One of my earliest childhood memories is watching Lew Alcindor... Read More

    Sexual Harassment Policy Guidelines Part I

    Sexual Harassment Policy Guidelines ? Part IPermission is hereby granted... Read More

    Magnificent Meetings - 5 Tips for Success

    Your impact at meetings will determine in a big way... Read More

    Experiences of Management Coaching (Part 2)

    In our experience, we have found that there are several... Read More

    What is Knowledge Management Anyway?

    When you think of all the things companies have, you... Read More

    Customer Focus - Just 5 SimpleThings You Need to Think About

    You can boil down the difference between successful businesses and... Read More

    What 80% of Businesses Don?t Know: Tips for Improving Your Working Capital Management

    What is the number one way to prevent failure in... Read More

    Meaningful Diversity: Creating Cultures of Inclusion

    In the fitness room the other day, I caught a... Read More

    How Managers Can Help Retain Their Best Employees

    A major problem for employers today is attracting the best... Read More

    What Every Manager Should Know About How to Conduct Successful Meetings

    Do you announce a meeting and find either no one... Read More

    3 Reasons Why CRM Strategies Fail

    Customer relationship management (CRM) is one of the most effective... Read More

    Innovation Management ? Emotion, Habit, and Culture can be Hard to Change!

    Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

    Get Meeting off To a Great Start

    When asked what part of their job they find a... Read More

    A Tricky Supervision Challenge

    Many managers believe that treating their team members as responsible... Read More

    Outsourcing Problem Analysis

    As an HR professional, you have responsibilities in several broad... Read More

    How to Hold Effective Staff Meetings

    Many people believe that they conduct effective meetings, when all... Read More

    The 20/60/20 Rule Of Leadership. Dont Go Solving The Wrong Problems

    Several decades ago, a passenger jet approached a Florida airport... Read More

    Business Innovation ? Organizational Structure

    Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

    Does My Bum Look Big in This?

    If a good manager asks his workforce for their opinion... Read More

    Coaching Can Get The Boss In Shape

    Who tells the boss that they can improve their management... Read More

    Ringing Doorbells Without Howitzers

    Many operations leaders have been there, done that with re-engineering.... Read More