Northeast Business Group on Health and AARP Release Digital Employer Caregiving Toolkit

Northeast Business Group on Health (NEBGH) and AARP have released a digital “Employer Caregiving Toolkit,” to help HR and benefit leaders better understand the demands on employees who are caregivers, the tangible, bottom-line benefits to supporting them, and specific steps they can take to help. The toolkit is a user-friendly expansion of their earlier work on caregiving, and includes an employer self-assessment, information and downloadable resources, and a guide to digital caregiving solutions.

Research shows more than one in six employees is balancing both work and caregiving obligations. Additionally, the vast majority of employers are interested in providing caregiving support for their employees, especially in the wake of COVID-19. The toolkit is the latest in a series of collaborative initiatives between NEBGH and AARP to help employers support the millions of family caregivers in the workplace.

“Employers were implementing benefits and programs to support employee-caregivers before COVID-19, but the pandemic really shined a light on the needs of those balancing work with caregiving responsibilities,” said Candice Sherman, CEO of NEBGH. “With the volume of employee-caregivers expected to continue growing, the need for employers to support them will only continue to increase as will the benefits to doing so, in terms of productivity, and employee attraction and retention. We believe this expanded, user-friendly toolkit with new features and functionality will help employers evaluate and expand their current offerings.”

The toolkit is comprised of three main sections. The first section allows employers to conduct a self-assessment survey that yields information on how employers are thinking about caregivers in the workplace and what they already have in place. Employers that complete the survey will be able to benchmark their own results against other employers.
The toolkit’s comprehensive resources section includes information to help employers learn about the benefits of creating a caregiving-friendly workplace and what polices and programs employers are implementing to support caregivers, boost productivity and attract and retain employees. Included are the results of a benchmarking survey of 117 U.S employers on caregiving and workplace issues, along with fact sheets, checklists and tips to give employers a basic foundation for developing caregiving policies and programs.

The third section – a guide to digital caregiving tools — provides employers with a broad overview of the landscape and helps them find the solutions that will best meet the needs of their employee caregivers. Employers can easily compare the various features of the 24 tools contained in the guide. These features include but are not limited to information on backup caregiving, medication tracking, peer support groups, education materials, and vitals monitoring.

“Family and friends are the backbone of America’s care system,” said Robert Stephen, Vice President for Caregiving and Health at AARP. “The job of caregiving that family members do unpaid can be harder than a job in the paid workforce – and most caregivers are balancing both roles at the same time. We hope that this toolkit will help workplaces better support employee caregivers, and by doing so, enhance productivity and enable workers to keep up with their duties.”

The toolkit is free for employers and the public, and can be accessed here.

About Northeast Business Group on Health
NEBGH is an employer-led, multi-stakeholder coalition that empowers members to drive excellence in health and achieve the highest value in healthcare delivery and the consumer experience. NEBGH employer/purchaser members cover 6 million lives in the U.S. and 10 million globally.

Media Contact: Ed Emerman
609.240.2766
eemerman@eaglepr.com