Millions of working Americans act as caregivers for their elderly parents. Will companies start to offer onsite elder care centers where employees can drop off their parents while the employees are working?
For large companies seeking to entice younger people to work for them, offering onsite childcare facilities has become a popular employee benefit. It is a great way for companies to signal to potential employees that they are family friendly and understand the needs of parents with young children.
Children, however, are not the only family members for whom working people must provide care.
More and more Americans are taking care of their elderly parents. Many are taking care of children and elderly parents.
Recently, Next Avenue reported on speculation that this might lead to companies offering onsite elder care facilities in "Will We Soon See Workplaces With On-Site Elder Care?"
The speculation comes from a speech at the annual Davos summit given by Welltower CEO Thomas DeRosa. He stated that taking care of a parent with Alzheimer's is a fulltime job for someone who cannot afford to hire a professional caregiver. Such a person would have to quit work, so it would be a good idea for companies who want to retain employees to have the facilities.
It is estimated that productivity losses due to taking care of family members cost $33.6 billion a year.
Of course, this is just speculation. No company has offered onsite elder care facilities yet.
It is not even clear that employees or their elderly parents would welcome it. The elderly themselves might very well prefer to remain at home rather than being transported to work with their children on a daily basis.
Reference: Next Avenue (Jan. 29, 2016) "Will We Soon See Workplaces With On-Site Elder Care?"
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