Supporting Working Caregivers with Lisa Leighton

In HRchat episode 702, we consider colleagues who double up as caregivers and ways we can support them.

Joseph Fuller's research suggested that 73% of employees are currently juggling caregiving responsibilities in some capacity. However, due to a lack of tracking by employers, the necessary support infrastructure for caregivers is often not available. The result? Each family is left to build its caregiving support system from scratch. 

This inefficiency and sense of isolation result in massive losses of around $35 billion annually for U.S. businesses due to the failure to adequately support and retain these vital workers! 

Bill Banham's guest this time is Lisa Leighton, Vice President of Strategic Development at Cariloop

Lisa leads new business acquisition and growth strategy, working with employers and partners to extend Cariloop's reach to more employees and their families. She joined the company with more than 20 years in the employee experience industry, partnering with Fortune 500 companies to create HR and Benefits programs and experiences designed to drive attraction and retention.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit hrgazettecom and visit HRGazettecom.

Speaker 2: 0:32

Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show. Hello, I am Bill Bannam, your host today, and in this episode we're going to consider colleagues who double up as caregivers and ways that we can support them. Joseph Fuller's research suggested that 73% of employees are currently juggling caregiving responsibilities in some capacity or other. However, due to a lack of tracking by employers, the necessary support infrastructure for caregivers is often not available. What's the result of this, listeners? Well, each family is left to build its own caregiving support system pretty much from scratch. To build its own caregiving support system pretty much from scratch. This inefficiency and centre of isolation results in massive losses of around $35 billion annually for US businesses due to the failure to adequately support and retain vital workers. So to talk to me about some of these issues today is Lisa Leighton, Vice President of Strategic Development over at Carryloop. Lisa leads new business acquisition and growth strategy, working with employers and partners to extend Carryloop's research and reach to more employees and their families. Lisa Leighton, it's my pleasure to welcome you to the HR Chat Show today.

Speaker 3: 1:44

I am so thrilled to be here, Bill. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2: 1:49

So, beyond my reintroduction just a moment ago, lisa, why don't you start by taking a minute or two and telling your listeners more about yourself and, of course, about the mission over at Kari Loop?

Speaker 3: 2:00

I have been in the employee benefits and experience space for over 20 years now and I have a strong passion for working with employers to think about how you can create a benefits program and an employee experience that really activates on your employee value proposition and your mission, vision and values. So I actually was introduced to CareLoop rather organically because I had many clients that I was working with who were starting to realize that their traditional benefits and programs just weren't enough to support their working caregivers. We were starting to see this trend before COVID, but then, when the global pandemic happened and all of a sudden we had a ton of people just working remotely and all of a sudden, you know, home life and work life was colliding in brand new ways, many of the clients that I was working with at the time were wondering how do I help? I'm seeing for the first time firsthand how my employees are balancing their home life, and things came to a head very, very quickly. So CareLoop our mission is really to support working caregivers.

Speaker 3: 3:24

We've been around for about 10 years. At our inception we really started off by matching a very simple model, really by matching a member in need with a licensed, certified care coach. That was kind of going to link arms with that individual and support their caregiving journey, whatever that might look like, whether that's somebody who is looking for assisted living for mom or dad who's been diagnosed with dementia, or maybe it's a working mom who has a child that has just been diagnosed as on the autism spectrum, where do you begin? What we have experienced is that when you're going through a caregiving journey, you don't know what you don't know because you've never done it before.

Speaker 3: 4:09

So CareLoop really set out to help working caregivers navigate and chart those journeys. Over the past 18 months, we've made significant investments in our digital experience to really serve as a companion to that one-on-one coaching. We want our members to be able to access the resources and tools and benefits to support their journeys 24-7. So I'm incredibly passionate about the work that we do here.

Speaker 3: 4:39

As a working mom, I was one of those people that didn't necessarily identify as a caregiver five years ago. If you would have asked me, hey, lisa, how's that caregiving going? I think I would have given you a little bit of a deer in the headlights kind of stare. But now you know, when you realize all the research that we're seeing, around almost 73 percent of people are doing caregiving right, whether you're a mom, a daughter, a sister, a colleague, a friend, a neighbor. Caregiving comes in all different shapes and sizes and I have personally seen firsthand so many incredible humans have to choose between a really fulfilling career and work life with caregiving right. They had to choose one or the other and they were leaving the workforce. And I joined CareLoop to be part of the solution, part of what's helping people be able to be productive in their work and also be productive in their life.

Speaker 4: 5:40

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Speaker 2: 6:14

I think I can relate to something you just said there and I don't have it in front of me, but when I was looking at the report yesterday, I think it was something like 42% of uh of men have to change their jobs when they become dads, um to give them more flexibility, um to give them options to to be at home. So I thought that was quite an interesting stat as well, going off what you were saying there about, perhaps you didn't think of yourself as a caregiver, as a mom, mom, okay. So staggering number 73 percent of employees are acting as caregivers or have caregiving responsibilities. That is huge, um, and what's happening at the moment, of course, is the lots of the boomers, lisa, are retiring. They're retiring en masse, the largest generation ever to exist. So as baby boomers continue to retire, how will the proportion of caregivers increase over the next few years? So how big a problem, how big an issue could this be for employers and certainly for employees, if it's not tackled head on.

Speaker 3: 7:23

Yeah, that's such a such a great question and you know we call this the silver tsunami, which is kind of a funny name. It makes me chuckle a little time every time I say it. But the reality is, by 2034, there are going to be 77 million people in the US who are 65 and older, million people in the US who are 65 and older, and we have huge and we only have 76 million people under the age of 18, right? So all of a sudden, this whole notion of being a sandwich caregiver which I am squarely in that fun generation sometimes fondly referred to as the panini generation right, because we are still raising our children, but we also have parents and loved ones who are aging and who require new levels of care. You know, the other interesting trend that we're seeing and there's been a lot of interesting articles published on this recently is that there are families are smaller now, so there's a lot of only children who are supporting their parents as they age and that can be incredibly isolating and terrifying and scary when it's only you taking care of mom or dad and helping make those decisions. You don't have other siblings to collaborate with and to fall back on that level of responsibility and that the time you're investing in caring for them just increases dramatically, right? So this is not a caregiving is not a problem that is going away anytime soon. In fact, it is only going to get bigger and more widespread across all of the generations, particularly those who are at the peak of their career and contributing their most at work. So it's really in everyone's best interest.

Speaker 3: 9:07

Not only when you're thinking about the well-being of your people, right? The reality is for a caregiving individual, right? When you are a caregiver, all the impacts of your well wellbeing are. All the different tenets of wellbeing are impacted, whether it's the you know financial, right, you're feeling a lot of stress because financially, you've got to. You've got to make sure you have the funds to support caregivers and to support the people that you're caring for. There is a crazy statistic that you know that for a working family that they are investing, something like.

Speaker 3: 9:48

Let me just pull this up for you. I've got it right here. It is wait. I want to make sure that I get the number exactly right. Oh, let me go to it right here.

Speaker 3: 9:58

26% of personal income is spent on caregiving here. 26% of personal income is spent on caregiving. Now, that number is probably grossly understated, as anyone who has paid for daycare or childcare recently might attest to. There was a long time in my career where our daycare payments were actually more than our mortgage payments, right. So there's that financial aspect. There's also the physical right when you think about the physical tolls of caregiving whether that is helping mom or dad into the shower and you throw out your back or putting off your mammogram because you're too busy, kind of caring for your kids and getting them to and fro. And then certainly it was to think about the mental health impacts on these caregivers, right, where you know stress, anxiety and burnout a root cause for so many behavioral health issues is often caregiving people. The volume of people is going to grow as we start to see the baby boomer generation age. It's going to have a huge impact on our working caregivers and our workforce in general.

Speaker 2: 11:16

And a massive impact on the bottom line, of course, as I mentioned in the intro, there the inefficiency in the sense of isolation results in big, big losses around $35 billion each year for US businesses. This is huge. Well, I guess the question is, why are more leaders, business leaders, not jumping on this issue to try and nip it in the bud as soon as possible?

Speaker 3: 11:38

Yeah, you know that is such a big, important question. When you think about the ROI on a caregiver support program, you know you're impacting productivity of employees, right, the ability for people to do their jobs more effectively because they have, you know, a care coach or a platform that is able to help them manage the tactical, the administrative tasks of care and really focus on their work. When you think about the attraction and retention of top talent, it's another interesting trend that we've seen post-COVID. Now more than ever, we are seeing employees vote with their feet. If they see that an organization isn't really making investments, isn't walking the talk and making investments in the types of programs that they need as an employee, they're going to go find a more flexible job. They're going to find another employer that is more focused on their total well-being and is solving some of the issues that they experience firsthand.

Speaker 3: 12:42

You know it's an interesting question on why more organizations don't make this investment. I think it comes down to dollars and cents, right, there is a limited budget that every HR leader has access to to support the well-being of their people, and you know they're dealing with competing priorities and oftentimes something like a fertility benefit, for example, that has a, you know, has a tangible impact on claims. Data is more attractive because they're really just, you know, looking at the bottom line and the numbers. But when you really start to peel the onion back on the ROI associated with caregiving and you really start to look at the comprehensive nature of these types of benefits, you can check a lot of boxes with this type of support and the kind of hand-to-hand experience where you're offering a dedicated care coach to every member in need. You just can't replicate that with some of the other benefits and solutions in the market.

Speaker 2: 13:47

I like to mix things up on the HR chat pod when I am a host, lisa, which is either fun for you or bad news for you, I don't know, but I'm going to challenge you now. So the next question. I want you to answer me in 60 seconds or less. The question goes as follows how do you define total well-being and why do you think it should be a focus for organizations?

Speaker 3: 14:13

Oh, great question. Ok, so and I'm super passionate about this so traditionally we've always I have always defined total well-being along the lines of mind, body and wallet, right. So your mental well-being, your physical well-being and then your financial well-being. Something interesting that we're starting to see emerge again post-COVID is this new pillar of well-being around community. So much of the research and the employee survey data, people are feeling a loss of community post COVID, whether that's because they're not going into an office anymore and they don't get to see their colleagues on a regular basis, or all that social distancing took its toll, or they recently moved and relocated and they haven't quite created their village just yet. I think that's a new tenet of well-being that we're going to see emerge in the coming months and years is really, how do we, how do we create community for our people and how do we help them build their village Right? So certainly you know a care coach. Having a care coach dedicated to you in your corner can be a nice foundation for that community pillar of well-being.

Speaker 2: 15:19

Oh, I feel like you practice that. Good work, good work, 60 seconds, okay. So follow up to that, then, and feel free to take up to a couple of minutes. Wow, you're so generous, bill, for the following. So for employers looking to fill gaps, lisa, in their total well-being offering, what are the first steps that they could perhaps take, or what advice would you give them in rethinking how they approach well-being?

Speaker 3: 15:46

Oh, I love this question. You really have to talk to your people, right? You've got to get in there and talk to your people. Talk to your people managers, talk to your line HR folks right? You want to get boots on the ground. You want to get an understanding of where those gaps are, where the friction is from an employee experience standpoint. Attend your ERG meetings right, you've got all these incredible ERGs set up at so many organizations. Going to those sessions and listening to people talk about their journey, whether that's a journey as a working mom or know LGBTQ plus colleague, whatever that might look like.

Speaker 3: 16:30

When you are kind of hearing from people firsthand, I think it gives you a really good pulse on where the gaps are in the benefits and resources that your people need. We've actually worked with a number of our customers to help them. Craft survey questions right, to ask the question you know, where are? What are we missing? Right? So so often. And we work with so many employers that are on all the best employee lists right, they've made, they've got all the awards they are, they've created this incredible employee value proposition and employee benefits experience and oftentimes, what you'll hear in those situations and this is just like makes your heart hurt as an HR leader, right, is that like I? You know I've got all these benefits. I don't really know where to go. I don't know where to begin. I'm overwhelmed. It's like you know an abundance of riches and they're overwhelmed with all the different incredible benefits that are available. So you really want to have conversations with your people, either in focus groups or through surveys, and find out what they're missing, and you know what benefits. Aren't you communicating appropriately, you know? Are you missing the connective tissue of you know, a more concierge solution that allows kind of individuals to, you know, be matched up with that right benefit at the right time, or the right resource at the right time, based on what they might be dealing with as an individual? And you've always you've got to talk to your managers, to your people managers.

Speaker 3: 18:03

One of the most startling transformations that we've seen post-COVID is that these poor people managers, right back in the day, they were just managing people. That was their job. They were, you know, making sure the work got done and making the widgets and keeping everybody on track and that was it. Well, now, all of a sudden, in this kind of new world of well-being, they're also well-being champions. They're benefit. You know're benefit guides, benefit resources, navigation resources.

Speaker 3: 18:35

There's so many hats that our managers are wearing that it can be very overwhelming when you have somebody on your team who has a spouse that's been diagnosed with cancer, you, as a manager, you're in it. You want to help that family, you want to help that individual and you know there's all these great benefits but you don't know how to help them access the right thing at the right time. So having some type of caregiver, support solution or a benefit where you can really easily allow your people managers, your HR team to create a warm handoff and hand over that individual, that family, to a guide, to a person who can help them chart their journey and access all those right benefits at the right time, that can be a really, really phenomenal starting point thank you very much.

Speaker 2: 19:14

Okay, quick follow-up to that one, then, and let's do another 60 second answer, I think, because it is just a quick follow-up. So, on back of what you said there, you're talking about the big gaps. What? What would you say? And, of course, you mentioned there that, um, you work with lots of companies doing loads of surveys. Your, your data sets are ginormous. I'm sure you're hearing from ERGs too. That's fantastic. So what would you say? Are those big gaps or pain points or top concerns employers need to be focused on this year when it comes to employee well-being and you gave a great example there when you spoke about cancer that's something that affects lots of people's families, of course and getting access to the right care at the right time. Maybe that's the number one in 60 seconds or less. What are some of those gaps pinpoints?

Speaker 3: 19:56

yeah great question. You know, honestly, I think the other gap that we've been hearing a lot in the market right now is, um and through all that survey data, is elder care. We've had a lot of organizations that have made really big investments in solving the child care crisis right Like you know, there's the Bright Horizons and Carecom so many great programs and benefits that are really geared towards employees that are at that family-forming stage of their journey. And then you've got all these, you know, older folks like me that are like whoa, wait a second. I've got parents that are aging and where's my benefit, Where's the stuff that can help support me? So we've really been hearing from a lot of the organizations that we're working with that they want to fill that gap as it relates to their employees who are caring for spouses, partners, parents, neighbors, friends that are aging, and offering a comparable benefit that they are to their younger generation employees.

Speaker 2: 21:00

Just a couple more questions for you today, lisa, before we do wrap up. Next one is kind of different, although I'm sure we'll loop it back in terms of what you guys are going up to. But uh, you, I noticed on your linkedin profile you say some lovely things about virgins thrive summit. I was lucky to attend a few years ago in, uh, new orleans, and uh, I met some so richard there, so richard branson got to shake his hand and say hello and whatnot, which was awesome, very nice, very funny, had some funny and so, yeah, very funny stories for the audience, that's for sure. Um, briefly then, but why was Kareloup there? How was it for you guys and any other events that you and your team will be at in 2024?

Speaker 3: 21:45

yes, oh, great question. So now they're Personify Health now, right, so they've changed their name. On us, I think I'm going to be calling them Virgin Pulse for way too long. It's like when the year changes and you have to get used to writing like 2024 instead of 2023. But Personify Health they are having.

Speaker 3: 22:01

They do have their Thrive Conference. We will be there in April again. We'll be there in April again, and I honestly think it is one of the most compelling events in our space, primarily because everybody who is there, everybody who attends, there's somebody that cares about well-being, right, whether it's an organization like us at Care Loop, who we are kind of, you know, solving employee well-being needs, or whether it is HR leaders or, you know, well-being champions or incredible subject matter experts. There are very few conferences that we have the opportunity to attend that it's truly just. Everybody's there cares deeply about how people are doing and making sure that they're creating a culture of care and a culture of well-being. So that's one of the things that I love the most about that conference.

Speaker 3: 22:57

I honestly think, too, they just do a fantastic job with the speakers and the curriculum and, again, just hearing firsthand from other benefit leaders what they're doing, how they're solving the specific challenges that so many of us are facing in this space and how they're identifying gaps and filling the gaps Just absolutely phenomenal, phenomenal experience every single year. We won't ever miss it. And we are actually partnered. We are part of Virgin Pulse's or Personify Health. See, there I go, personify Health. We are part of their preferred partner network, so we have a really deep relationship with them that allows us to leverage their incredible home base for health platform and really help people again navigate the right person to the right benefit at the right time. So really love being partnered with them in the market.

Speaker 2: 23:51

Perfect, and if folks want to connect with you online to start with, before perhaps meeting you at one of these events, lisa, how can they connect with you? Is that LinkedIn? Do you want to share your email address? Are you all over other socials? And, of course, how can listeners learn more about Caroloop?

Speaker 3: 24:07

Oh, I love it. As you can probably tell, I am very passionate about the work that we do, so I would love, love, love to talk to anybody who is interested in learning more about, you know, caregiver support in general and Caroloop specifically. Linkedin is a super easy place to to to reach out to me, so please feel free to grab me there. My email address is LLayton at caraloopcom, so L-L-E-I-G-T-O-N at caraloopcom. It's also really easy to go to Caraloop's website and you can just click on the contact us form and they'll make sure it comes my way. So I'm happy to have any and all conversations.

Speaker 2: 24:54

Well, that just leaves me to say for today Lisa Layton, I've had a lovely time chatting with you. Thank you very much for being my guest.

Speaker 3: 25:00

Wonderful. Thank you so much for having me. I loved having the opportunity to chat today. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 25:06

And listeners as always. Until next time, happy working.

Speaker 1: 25:13

Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show. If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette and remember for what's new in the world of work? Subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit HRGazettecom.