LoJack Corporation Appoints John Paul Marosy
as General Manager of LoJack SafetyNet (see sidebar)

A college administrator compared the difficulty between long distance caregiving for her mother with her experiences with child-rearing: "For one thing, you're not dealing with a dependent. You don't have the authority, necessarily, to intervene. You need to add to that sibling disputes over who should help and how. You call state agencies and get a recording. Or someone's not helpful. This is probably the hardest thing a family can go through. It defies the complexity of what people go through with children."

Often, employees are reluctant to talk about elder care situations to managers or co-workers. In our youth-oriented culture, there is a stigma associated with caregiving. And that stigma is often linked to fears of retribution if an employee does come forward and admit that a stressful elder care situation is affecting his or her job performance.

For these reasons, management training about elder care is essential to preventing productivity losses. Managers may be unaware of the negative impact caregiving is having on work - and they may not know about company-sponsored supports and community resources that could help mitigate the strain on employee caregivers. A manager's awareness of and openness to addressing caregiver pressures can have a significant impact on an employee. In the words of Ellen Galinsky, co-president of the Families and Work Institute, "It's the supervisor and the company's culture that really make the difference. If your company has flextime but your supervisor won't let you use it, it doesn't do you any good."

Flexibility, Timely Information Are Key

Solutions need not be costly. A major study conducted by AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving found that the number one need expressed by employed family caregivers is for time flexibility. Options like job-sharing, telecommuting, compressed workweek schedules, and flexibility in starting and quitting time are not costly items. Yet, for a stressed-out employed family caregiver, such options can make the difference between staying on the job and quitting.

Gaining access to the right information and support in a timely manner makes a crucial difference in employee productivity. A company-sponsored resource and referral service can provide employees and their relatives with personalized telephone consultation that includes information about services and providers in the older relative's community anywhere in the U.S., as well as assistance in formulating alternative plans of action and finding needed help. The process may include referrals to a professional geriatric care manager, as in Ken's case in the example at the start of this article, so that an in- person assessment of the elder's needs can be conducted. The benefits to the employer include:

• Reduction in the amount of time employees spend on the telephone searching for and arranging services
• Reduction in employee caregiver stress and enhancement of peace of mind
• Reduction in tardiness and absenteeism by better focusing searches for appropriate housing and other residential settings, thus avoiding wasted time and effort
• Avoiding long-term stress by intervening earlier with a better plan of action According to a study by Hewitt Associates, 34% of large employers offer resource and referral services for elder care now, compared to just 5% in 1990.

Surfing the Age Wave

With the coming crest of the age wave in the next decade, millions more baby boomers will face the elder care/work balancing act. In addition, their younger cohorts at work will feel the impact, too. Recent research shows that a growing number of younger people are facing care giving challenges of their own as elder care responsibilities skip a generation and land in the laps of today's Generation X and Y employees.

Emerging technological solutions will meet boomers where they commonly seek healthcare information: online. Services like CareGiverHelper.com and others empower the employee-caregiver by providing tools for organizing information, communicating with relatives professionals involved in parents' care, and instantly linking caregivers to the resources they need to balance the demands of elder care, work, and other aspects of life.

Employers that make the investment today in providing solutions for employees facing caregiving issues will reap the benefits as we all experience the impact of our aging society. It's not a matter of whether or not elder care will have an impact on productivity; it is a matter of how effectively each employer will respond to this growing challenge.

End of 3-part series.