More employees juggling work and elder care
When Yasmin Meralli was relocating her father, who had Parkinson’s disease, from British Columbia to Ontario, she needed to find him a nursing home.
Her employer, the Bank of Montreal (BMO), offered an employee assistance program (EAP) that let her find nursing homes in her area by entering her postal code into an online search engine.
With a few clicks of a mouse, she had printed off the list of nursing homes, along with a list of questions to help her pick the right one, and set off to examine each one.
“I didn’t have to spend that time and effort looking elsewhere for that information. It helped me with my work because it reduced the amount of time I had to spend outside of work doing other stuff,” said Meralli, who is now the vice-president of diversity and workplace equity at BMO in Toronto. “It really felt to me that I worked for a company that cared.”
In 2002 more than 1.7 million adults aged 45 to 64 cared for ailing seniors, according to the Statistics Canada report Balancing Career and Care. Of those caregivers, 70 per cent were employed.
Balancing work and caregiving isn’t easy. A survey of more than 8,000 family caregivers by in-home elder-care provider Home Instead Senior Care based in Omaha, Neb., found 76 per cent reported feeling overwhelmed by caring for loved ones.
With 13.7 per cent of the Canadian population 65 or older, according to the 2006 census, more and more employees will have to juggle their career with caring for an aging relative. Employers that offer services and supports to help employees manage this juggling act will have an advantage when it comes to recruiting and retaining talent, said Meralli.
“We’re all after top talent. You build a reputation and the reputation is often what attracts people to an organization,” she said. “(These programs) help you build that reputation as a company that cares.”
If an employer ignores the affect caring for an aging relative has on employees, it’s setting itself up for an increase in absenteeism and a decrease in productivity, said Pat Irwin, president of Toronto-based ElderCareCanada, an elder-care consulting firm.
Even while at work, employees will spend their time thinking about their ailing relative or dealing with care-related emergencies, she said.
Caregiving is a drain on an employee’s time and emotions, especially when it comes to an ailing parent, said Irwin.
“It’s the long goodbye,” she said. “Even though your parent isn’t dead, the parent you knew is gone.”
Without the proper supports, employees may develop anxiety, depression or moodiness, said Janise Smith, director of operations of Home Instead Senior Care’s Scarborough, Ont., branch.
“They feel alone, as if no one else has this problem,” she said. “There’s a feeling of isolation.”
To show employees they’re not alone and to support them, employers can offer seminars on elder-care issues, sign up with an EAP that has elder-care services, let employees know it’s okay to take a day off to care for a relative and even offer emergency back-up elder care, said Smith.
“The bigger companies in particular have an elder daycare right there in their facility,” she said.
BMO provides several supports for employees caring for family members, said Meralli.
The bank’s “people-care days” allow an employee to take a few hours, a half day or a whole day off to take a relative to a doctor’s appointment or handle a family emergency.
“They’re intended to help you balance multiple commitments,” said Meralli.
There are also flexible work arrangements. One employee who was caring for her 100-year-old grandmother needed to be at home in the morning when the caregiver arrived, so she was allowed to arrive at work late and leave late, said Meralli.
Based on an employee’s situation, the bank will try to put together a package of benefits — such as flexible work arrangements, vacation time, short-term leave, people-care days and compassionate care — to best help the employee.
“The whole intent is to provide a supportive, flexible workplace,” said Meralli.
At work, there are quiet rooms that can be used for a variety of purposes and some people like to use them as a place to de-stress and unwind, said Meralli.
“Sometimes it’s just nice to be able to get away someplace quiet for a while,” she said.
Her employer, the Bank of Montreal (BMO), offered an employee assistance program (EAP) that let her find nursing homes in her area by entering her postal code into an online search engine.
With a few clicks of a mouse, she had printed off the list of nursing homes, along with a list of questions to help her pick the right one, and set off to examine each one.
“I didn’t have to spend that time and effort looking elsewhere for that information. It helped me with my work because it reduced the amount of time I had to spend outside of work doing other stuff,” said Meralli, who is now the vice-president of diversity and workplace equity at BMO in Toronto. “It really felt to me that I worked for a company that cared.”
In 2002 more than 1.7 million adults aged 45 to 64 cared for ailing seniors, according to the Statistics Canada report Balancing Career and Care. Of those caregivers, 70 per cent were employed.
Balancing work and caregiving isn’t easy. A survey of more than 8,000 family caregivers by in-home elder-care provider Home Instead Senior Care based in Omaha, Neb., found 76 per cent reported feeling overwhelmed by caring for loved ones.
With 13.7 per cent of the Canadian population 65 or older, according to the 2006 census, more and more employees will have to juggle their career with caring for an aging relative. Employers that offer services and supports to help employees manage this juggling act will have an advantage when it comes to recruiting and retaining talent, said Meralli.
“We’re all after top talent. You build a reputation and the reputation is often what attracts people to an organization,” she said. “(These programs) help you build that reputation as a company that cares.”
If an employer ignores the affect caring for an aging relative has on employees, it’s setting itself up for an increase in absenteeism and a decrease in productivity, said Pat Irwin, president of Toronto-based ElderCareCanada, an elder-care consulting firm.
Even while at work, employees will spend their time thinking about their ailing relative or dealing with care-related emergencies, she said.
Caregiving is a drain on an employee’s time and emotions, especially when it comes to an ailing parent, said Irwin.
“It’s the long goodbye,” she said. “Even though your parent isn’t dead, the parent you knew is gone.”
Without the proper supports, employees may develop anxiety, depression or moodiness, said Janise Smith, director of operations of Home Instead Senior Care’s Scarborough, Ont., branch.
“They feel alone, as if no one else has this problem,” she said. “There’s a feeling of isolation.”
To show employees they’re not alone and to support them, employers can offer seminars on elder-care issues, sign up with an EAP that has elder-care services, let employees know it’s okay to take a day off to care for a relative and even offer emergency back-up elder care, said Smith.
“The bigger companies in particular have an elder daycare right there in their facility,” she said.
BMO provides several supports for employees caring for family members, said Meralli.
The bank’s “people-care days” allow an employee to take a few hours, a half day or a whole day off to take a relative to a doctor’s appointment or handle a family emergency.
“They’re intended to help you balance multiple commitments,” said Meralli.
There are also flexible work arrangements. One employee who was caring for her 100-year-old grandmother needed to be at home in the morning when the caregiver arrived, so she was allowed to arrive at work late and leave late, said Meralli.
Based on an employee’s situation, the bank will try to put together a package of benefits — such as flexible work arrangements, vacation time, short-term leave, people-care days and compassionate care — to best help the employee.
“The whole intent is to provide a supportive, flexible workplace,” said Meralli.
At work, there are quiet rooms that can be used for a variety of purposes and some people like to use them as a place to de-stress and unwind, said Meralli.
“Sometimes it’s just nice to be able to get away someplace quiet for a while,” she said.
