Benefits for Caregiving Employees

Study Notes

Organizations offer various benefits to help employees with caregiving responsibilities, such as elder care counseling, educational fairs, support groups, and flexible schedules.
Backup care programs provide temporary care for employees' elders or children when their regular arrangements fall through.

This category of benefits includes paid vacations, bonuses, payments for holidays not worked, paid sick leave, maternity/paternity leave, sabbaticals, severance pay, and military and jury duty.
The United States is the only country where paid time off is not mandatory.

Group term life insurance provides death benefits to beneficiaries and may also include accidental death and dismemberment benefits.
Premium costs are typically paid by the employer, with the face value of the life insurance equal to two times the employee's yearly wages.
Employees can often purchase additional amounts of insurance for nominal charges.
Many companies allow employees to purchase life insurance for their spouses and dependents through their company plans.

There are two major ways to categorize pension plans.
Workers' compensation insurance provides death benefits to surviving spouses and dependents and covers workers injured on the job, regardless of fault.

Many organizations aim to create a work-life balance that allows employees to balance work with personal needs.
Research shows that 60% of employees prefer work-life balance benefits, and employees are 20% more engaged and satisfied when they achieve the right balance.

Some employers grant benefits to employees who establish domestic partnerships, including same-sex and unmarried opposite-sex couples.

Elder care refers to care provided to an elderly relative by an employee who remains actively at work.
Caregiving can negatively impact employee health, besides affecting organizational productivity and employee costs.

Flexible benefits plans allow employees to choose the benefits that best suit their needs.
Employees select benefits from a core package of life, health insurance, sick leave, and vacation, and then use a limited amount of funds to purchase additional benefits.
Online employee benefit systems have become mainstream for administering benefits, providing employees with passwords to access and manage their benefits.

Administering benefits programs can be costly and time-consuming.
Online employee benefit systems can result in significant cost savings, improved accuracy, decreased processing time, and greater employee satisfaction.

Communicating employee benefits information is important.
Some countries have implemented laws that make it easier to share information about employee benefits.