How to care for the caregivers
Helping employers avoid caregiver burnout through employee benefits
Juggling caregiving and work can cause mental, physical and financial strain and it’s something you, as a multinational employer, need to think about.
Today, many of your people will be members of the ‘sandwich generation’– looking after children and parents while holding down a job.
You could also have employees who are ‘double-sandwich’ or ‘triple-sandwich’ caregivers as well – they’ll be supporting grandparents and grandchildren too.
While many of your people will at some stage care for their children or parents, caregiving has a broader definition that is not always officially recognised.
Employees may be supporting family members or friends with care needs stemming from chronic illness, disability, neurodivergence or mental health crises, and loved ones going through challenging life stages like pregnancy, fertility treatment and bereavement.
The work done by caregivers provides enormous support for economies in many countries, yet the burden they shoulder can go unrecognised in society. In the United Kingdom, for example, official figures estimate around 9% (5.7 million) of the population provides unpaid care, but research estimates their numbers are far higher – with 10.6 million unpaid carers’ work providing a value to the economy of £162 billion per year, at great personal financial and emotional strain.2
As many people are likely to become caregivers during their peak career years, multinationals need to look carefully at, and potentially address, the support they currently offer. People at all levels of your organisation will need to deal with the difficulties of working and caring for a loved one. And that can have a real impact on a business.
Juggling caregiving with work can be a strain. If someone is struggling to cope with the workload in both their personal and professional life, it can heighten the risk of long-term absence, affect their performance and potentially even drive them to leave their job.3
But employee benefits (EB) programmes tailored to support caregivers with stress both inside and outside the workplace can be put in place to help ease that burden – and hopefully help them avoid burnout.
The uneven caregiving burden – who’s most likely to be a caregiver?
Despite efforts towards workplace equality, women’s career paths are still disproportionately more likely to be impacted by caregiving responsibilities. Globally, women are more likely to reduce their hours or to leave their careers due to childcare demands,4 and in many parts of the world, are also more likely than men to lead care for vulnerable relatives.2
This phenomenon is driven in part by ageing populations and living cost pressures.5 But the caregiving landscape is also shaped by societal norms. In Japan, for example, rapid declines in birth rates and traditional gender role expectations have left many women caring for their children, their own parents and their in-laws at the same time.6 The 2023 Global Gender Gap Report highlighted Japan as having a lower rate of women in the workforce and in managerial positions than many other countries.7
Career gaps can limit women’s professional development and future income potential, while their employers and colleagues lose access to their knowledge and experience.
Earlier this year, we hosted an event in Paris with AXA France and Tilia – an app-based platform blending digital resources with human assistants to help caregivers – to discuss this issue.
Sonia Dutot, Diversity & Inclusion Programme Manager at AXA France, told us caregivers deserve tailored support from employers who can recognise the skills they’re gaining while they navigate a challenging phase of life.
“The experience of caregiving allows employees to develop ‘soft’ skills useful in most roles within a company. These may include organisational skills, planning and time management, stress and emotion management, ability to adapt – all done with kindness, demonstrating resilience,” Sonia says.
“The skills caregivers develop are often under-valued, either because employees aren’t aware of them or because they don’t dare highlight their personal experience in their professional career.
"As ‘soft’ skills are the key skills of tomorrow, employers have every interest in promoting them.”
From caregiver to intrapreneur
Christine Lamidel’s experience balancing work and caregiving inspired her to become an intrapreneur (an employee who takes an entrepreneurial approach by developing new products, services or processes from within their company).
A long-time BNP Paribas employee, Christine reduced her hours to part-time for around ten years so she could provide care to her grandmother at the end of her life and to her three sons – one of whom lives with learning difficulties.
She was juggling attending appointments and assessments for her son, while also searching for information and trying to navigate what types of support her family was eligible for. Drawing on her own experience helped her understand the challenges of caring for loved ones while working. Christine said.
“Being a caregiver, and in this case a ‘double caregiver,’ made me realise afterwards the complexity of having to perform at all levels, to be organised without ever flinching. At first, I didn’t think of myself as a caregiver. Over the years I just absorbed daily tasks and managed without asking questions.”
Christine identified the issues caregivers face and came up with a solution, which was selected by BNP Paribas for development. Today, she is the founder and General Director of Tilia having used her own experiences to design the platform and blend digital resources with human assistants to help caregivers.
Tilia acts like a personal assistant – it offers caregivers services including finding professional care support and home service providers, getting quotes, arranging medical appointments and aggregating information about the person being cared for.
The platform’s goal is to “save time and promote peace of mind” so that caregiver employees can maintain both their career and their quality of life, Christine says.
“Because in reality, even if everything is done spontaneously, out of love for loved ones or out of obligations as parents, it’s not always simple.”
Market challenges
The problem of caring for caregivers is made slightly more complicated when you look at it as a global picture. Multinationals need to consider how to meet the needs of their people across the many different markets they work in.
While it’s the norm for caregiving to be provided by family members in many cultures, in mature healthcare markets, private providers and public healthcare services are also likely to be involved.2 But access to those services and the quality of care on offer can vary widely.
When caregiving support is covered by employees’ insurance, the level of cover for those services can also vary between markets and the definition of dependants may be narrow – only including spouses, for example.
The reality is disability, physical and mental health issues can arise at any time of life, and many caregivers may be supporting multiple loved ones, including wider family or friends, in caregiving relationships that fall outside eligible terms for state or insurance support.
So, what do caregivers want from employers to help plug the gaps?
Top caregiving benefits trends
Mercer Marsh Benefits found in a recent survey that caregivers tend to prefer flexible, voluntary benefits that allow them to manage their own and their loved ones’ health and wellbeing.
Specific interventions that caregivers say they find helpful include:
· preventative cancer screening
· telehealth apps
· targeted youth mental health and learning issues services
· health condition and wellbeing self-management apps.1
Elisabetta Zanellato, Account Executive at MAXIS GBN, says: “Many companies today are motivated to fix the ‘broken rung’ on the career ladder to halt the flow of women leaving the workplace. But targeting caregiving policies at women alone won’t solve the problem.
“Tailored caregiving, parental and bereavement leave, and flexible working policies will also go a long way for people facing pressures in their home lives. Workplace flexibility policies aimed at men as well as women can also help share the load more evenly, freeing up women to invest in their careers too.
“But it’s also about workplace culture: it’s up to your company’s leadership to create an environment where there’s no stigma attached to a man asking for flexible working arrangements to look after his children or ageing family members.”
Jean-David Bridoux, Business Development Manager at MAXIS GBN, says: “The reality is caregivers are at risk of leaving their jobs if they can’t get the support they need at stressful times of life. And, as Elisabetta says and the statistics show, the caregivers in your organisation are all too often going to be the women rising into senior roles.
“Asking your people is one of the best ways to find out if they feel supported. But data about turnover, absenteeism, mental health and disability insurance claims will also tell a story.
“How can you help? Remaining alert to challenges, such as care access pressures in the markets your people work in will inform you on how to create EB programmes that plug gaps for your employees and for the talent you wish to attract.”
In our recent report, ‘How do industry, culture and gender affect your workforce’s health? Insights from MAXIS claims data’ we look at different gender-based healthcare concerns – and how multinational employers can respond to them.
Download our report
Read our summary Viewpoint
[1] Anon. Mercer Marsh Benefits: Health on demand report 2023 https://www.mercer.com/en-gb/insights/employee-health-and-benefits/health-and-wellbeing/health-on-demand-report (Sourced: April 2024)
[2] Anon. Carers UK. Key facts and figures about caring. https://www.carersuk.org/policy-and-research/key-facts-and-figures/ (Sourced: May 2024)
[3] Tyler, K. (March 5, 2022) SHRM. Supporting employee caregivers. https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/all-things-work/supporting-employee-caregivers (Sourced: April 2024)
[4] Anon. OECD (2022) Net childcare costs in EU countries, 2022 https://www.oecd.org/els/soc/benefits-and-wages/Net%20childcare%20costs%20in%20EU%20countries%20in%202022.pdf (Sourced: April 2024)
[5] Ro, C. BBC (Why the 'sandwich generation' is so stressed out January 29, 2021) https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210128-why-the-sandwich-generation-is-so-stressed-out (Sourced: April 2024)
[6] Sugiyama, K. and Omote, S., et al. Heliyon (September 2023) Experiences of Japanese women simultaneously caring for children and older people: An ethnographic study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10560044/ (Sourced: April 2024)
[7] Anon. World Economic Forum. Global gender gap report 2023 https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2023/ (Sourced: April 2024)
[8] Maven Clinic. MAXIS GBN wellness technology marketplace https://maxis-gbn.com/health-wellness/wellness-technology-marketplace/maven/
This document has been prepared by MAXIS GBN S.A.S and is for informational purposes only – it does not constitute advice. MAXIS GBN S.A.S has made every effort to ensure that the information contained in this document has been obtained from reliable sources but cannot guarantee accuracy or completeness. The information contained in this document may be subject to change at any time without notice. Any reliance you place on this information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
The MAXIS Global Benefits Network (“Network”) is a network of locally licensed MAXIS member insurance companies (“Members”) founded by AXA France Vie, Paris, France (“AXA”) and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York, NY (“MLIC”). MAXIS GBN S.A.S, a Private Limited Company with a share capital of €4,650,000, registered with ORIAS under number 16000513, and with its registered office at 313, Terrasses de l’Arche – 92727 Nanterre Cedex, France, is an insurance and reinsurance intermediary that promotes the Network. MAXIS GBN S.A.S is jointly owned by affiliates of AXA and MLIC and does not issue policies or provide insurance; such activities are carried out by the Members. MAXIS GBN S.A.S operates in the UK through its UK establishment with its registered address at 1st Floor, The Monument Building, 11 Monument Street, London EC3R 8AF, Establishment Number BR018216 and in other European countries on a services basis. MAXIS GBN S.A.S operates in the U.S. through MAXIS Insurance Brokerage Services, Inc., with its registered office located in New York, USA, a New York licensed insurance broker. MLIC is the only Member licensed to transact insurance business in New York. The other Members are not licensed or authorised to do business in New York and the policies and contracts they issue have not been approved by the New York Superintendent of Financial Services, are not protected by the New York state guaranty fund, and are not subject to all of the laws of New York. MAR01396/0524
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