The pandemic exposed a critical gap in Corporate America’s support for its employees: the lack of care benefits to help workers meet the needs of their children, their elders, and other family members. Many companies rushed to respond by adding new benefits, greater job flexibility, and other support measures. Now employers they face a new concern. In what’s being called “the great resignation,” millions of workers are leaving companies, and even careers, for new arrangements that support the lifestyles they want.

In this environment, employers facing a competitive labor market are continuing to re-evaluate benefits, especially those related to health and family. According to a recently published Future of Benefits report from Care.com, an online marketplace for caregivers, 63% of employers plan to expand child care benefits, and 41% plan to expand elder care benefits. I talked with Natalie Mayslich, Care.com’s general manager of consumer and enterprise, about this changing dynamic, in which employers are recognizing a larger interest in the care needs of their workers. Excerpts:

What are the most important changes you’ve seen in health and family benefits in the last year?

It's never been more clear than during the pandemic how important and foundational care is in our ability to work. So during the pandemic, I think one of the most interesting things that has happened, and one of the most important, is the rise of the caring enterprise. Because employers have had a firsthand view into the homes, the lives, and the families of their employees, we're now seeing them recognize employees as people, and these people have loved ones and they have responsibilities beyond work.

We saw that sentiment reflected in our research. We’ve also seen that echoed in the exponential growth of our enterprise business. When I think about the good that has come out of the past year, what we've learned is really this: The caring enterprise exists, the need for care benefits is now recognized and continuing to grow and accelerate.

Why should we be talking about senior-care benefits right along with child care? Why do you think senior care is a neglected area for employers?

It is unfortunate that senior care is sometimes a backseat or secondary priority. I think the reality is the pandemic highlighted not just our child care crisis, but also the need for more elder care support. Particularly what we saw happen in nursing homes and adult living homes: The family caregiver who has parents or loved ones in those homes was turning to us to help get them out, to look for alternative options, or to get more information.

There's a growing population of adult children who are being crippled by the needs of their aging loved ones while they're continuing to work. Senior care should 100% be top of mind, and we believe, equivalent to child care benefits–particularly when you think about the growing aging population and the underlying demographic shift that's happening in the U.S. There needs to be more of a commitment to senior care, otherwise companies won't be able to retain their more seasoned employees, and even some of their younger employees who are already in the role of family caregiver.

Many employers instituted “emergency” provisions in the last year. For example, they expanded elder care leave, remote or hybrid work arrangements, and flexible working hours. Do you think these will become permanent? Should they?

Working families had care challenges well before the pandemic and will continue to have care challenges well after the pandemic. That's not changing. What's changed is employer awareness of the care challenges and what they're willing to do about it.

I'm optimistic as we think about coming out of the pandemic and all of the benefits that a caring enterprise has delivered to their employees. The ROI they have reaped will be the permanent rule and not the exception. And fundamentally, because care is so core to what we do, I would expect that the employees are raising their hands and asking for more from their employers in order to continue to be productive as they go to work.

Mental health is getting more attention these days. What is your take on the way employers are responding? Where are they getting it right and where is the room for improvement?

The pandemic has shone a light on many things, including the need for mental health and wellness, and the pandemic itself has had a pretty significant impact on employees’ mental health and wellness. We're thrilled to see employers playing a role in supporting the mental health of their workers, and our report showed that we positively impacted the outcome of mental health by providing care support.

So I think there's two parts: There's addressing mental health and wellness head-on, and we've partnered with a third party in order to be able to provide that benefit to our enterprises because they've been asking for it. We recognize it as a key core need. Then there's the other care benefits, or adjacent ones, that are actually impacting and causing the stress that is requiring a third-party mental health and wellness service. We need to reduce the stressors.

Three million women have left the workforce in the last year. We don’t have enough time in the day to talk about all the things that should be done about that, but could you talk about a few that you see?

We’ve undone 50 years of progress. In the past nine months, millions of women have had this choice between care for their children or collecting their paycheck, and that is absolutely insane. And when we talk to our employers and we talk to our HR partners, 95% of them say that a big contributing factor to female attrition are care concerns for their children, for their parents. As we think about bringing women back and trying to undo the tremendous attrition that we've seen in the workforce, I don't know how we can have that happen or how we can make meaningful progress there without proper child care benefits in place.

What are programs employers can use to draw women back to work?

Proper child care, 100%. Return-to-work programs are another one we've taken to market to our employers and we will continue to champion. And [there must be] an overall recognition from both sides of the market that it's not just a female problem. Maintaining women in the workforce, and continuing to invest in diversity, equity and inclusion is enterprise-wide and is a problem for all genders and all classes of folks.

I'm hoping to see a lot come out of [President] Biden and our investment in our care infrastructure from a political standpoint. I also am hoping that there's a continued investment in care infrastructure by employers who are looking to continue to grow women's participation in the workforce.

To what degree should a company’s workforce demographics influence how they build care support into their benefits and policies? What are mistakes to be avoided here?

Here's the challenge. Care isn't limited to just new parents, and so it's hard to talk about demographics and the care benefits that are necessary. There's a sandwich generation that's caring for both kids and their aging loved ones, so if you think about limiting care benefits to just new parents, it will be a good start, but will not address the entirety of the workforce.

Ultimately, as we think about care benefits, I'm not sure that the employer should be the one gauging what care benefits are necessary for their employees based on their pure demographics so much as on principle. And based on macro data, you know that your employees will be parents, will have aging loved ones, will have mental health and wellness concerns, will have these care concerns that span beyond just ensuring their child is well cared for.

So as we think about our services, we keep saying: Flexibility of care is key. Flexibility in terms of who you're caring for, the type of care they receive, and also the care questions that you may be asking. I think the mistake would be to be too prescriptive of the type of care [based on] the population you're serving. Instead, offer more flexible options so that your employees can leverage the care they need, when they need it, without having to sort of raise their hand and say “you forgot about me.”

According to Care.com’s Future of Benefits report, 61% of employers are deprioritizing on-site child care in favor of more flexible care benefits. Do you think this shift is simply a result of an increasingly remote or hybrid workforce, or is there a bigger change happening?

I think there are two things going on here. Hybrid work and remote work, which we expect to continue, necessitates something more than just on-site child care. And I think there's a bigger trend here, which is control and flexibility for employees. On-site child care is prescriptive, whereas an option to choose on-site child care, choose an in-home caregiver, or choose something else—the provisioning of care and how, where, and why you receive it–should be in the hands of the employees and not the decision of the employer.

What’s at risk for employers who don’t reconsider their health and family benefits even after the effects of the pandemic wind down?

I think the reality—and we've already seen it start—is that employees will leave jobs that are not supporting them with the care that they need, and perhaps they will leave the workforce altogether. Then we have this perpetual cycle of workforce attrition, struggling to recruit from a smaller labor pool–and the cycle continues. The risks are really high, and employers are starting to realize that.

Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner who sponsored this story, Care.com.

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a writer, editor, and content strategist based in Richmond, Va.

Bridging the Human Connection Gap: How Technology Can Bring Workers Together

The sense of disconnection that Dave Wilkin felt while growing up was painful, but it became a powerful motivator that would change his life. “I learned the hard way that if you don’t have mentors, if you don’t have networks, and if you don’t have relationships–you just don’t get access to the same career or learning opportunities,” Wilkin told From Day One. “I was a gay kid in a really small town, and that’s a really tough place to be. How could I find people who were like me that I could aspire to be like?”Ten Thousand Coffees–or 10KC for short–a networking tech company that Wilkin co-founded and now leads as CEO, is how he hopes to rectify the connection deficit. It’s one that millions of workers experience, especially in the era of remote and hybrid work. Wilkin remembers how it felt to be isolated, imagining a career but with no way to get there. “It’s like sitting on an island all by yourself,” he said.Networks of close relationships grow careers, engage employees, boost morale, and keep workforces intact. According to a 2023 survey by Gallup, employees who have a mentor are 58% more likely to feel that their employer offers equal opportunities for advancement. Forty-eight percent of those who have sponsors feel the same way.Yet for Wilkin, it’s not good enough to leave such relationships up to chance, so he’s giving it a shot with a fast-rising technology: machine learning. His solution is 10KC, which adapts the tech that powers online dating matches to identify meaningful workplace connections, combined with a learning platform to make the most of those connections. The mixture produces connectivity at scale. The platform connects workers based on 50 factors, including skills, career path, location, time zone, interest areas, and affinity networks, then brings them together for productive conversation.The results are impressive. “We’ve decreased employee churn by 25% to 35% among our platform users, and we’re looking at tens of thousands of data points,” he said. Plus, 10KC has been able to increase participation in employee resource groups (ERGs) by two to three times. “A lot of HR and talent leaders think about mentoring and networking in its traditional formats–one-directional relationships where a mentor guides a mentee–but the new world of artificial intelligence and machine learning allows HR leaders to think about mentoring and networking in much more dynamic, personalized ways.”Dave Wilkin, co-founder and CEO of Ten Thousand Coffees (Photo courtesy of 10KC)Ultimately, Wilkin’s ticket out of his hometown of Lively, Ontario, was a full ride to the University of Waterloo. That marked a change in his life, not only because it was an exceptional education, but because it came with mentors and role models. “Those were the most game-changing people in my life because they helped me figure out what skills I needed to learn, what kind of programs I should study to get involved, and how to job-search.”No single relationship gave Wilkin his footing, but it was the sum of his mentors that made the difference. “There’s no such thing as a single mentor,” Wilkins said. “It’s much more dynamic than that.” It takes mentors, sponsors, peer-to-peer relationships, and reverse mentors, where a more junior employee supports one of their seniors, to create a network that propels a career.Preventing Those Missed ConnectionsThough Wilkin had to wait around for serendipity to bring in mentors, he saw a better way: Don’t leave it up to chance. Expecting workers to network on their own creates too many missed connections. With planning, companies can create proximity in distributed workforces.This can be especially important following a merger or acquisition in which two discrete organizations must come together to form something greater than the sum of its parts. And for leaders who travel, a smart network match can help them make the most of site visits. “The next time you travel, schedule a time to get to know your teams and have career conversations, rather than hoping that you bump into your colleagues in the elevator,” Wilkin said. “Find reverse mentoring opportunities so you can pick up new skills while on the road. Promote your practice area or simply learn who’s sitting in your company.”The Network Opportunity GapThere’s a distinct difference between the well-connected employee, who knows a lot of people by name (and maybe some office gossip), and the engaged employee, asserted Emily Dickens, head of government affairs for the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) in a 2022 interview with Gallup. “She’s happy, and she knows who to talk to in order to get things done,” Dickens said. “To really thrive and have a life well-lived, you have to have a work experience that is personal. You need to create relationships that outlast your time with the company. Unfortunately, this can be difficult for many professionals.”Traditional networking programs fail too many people. There’s a gender gap when it comes to mentorship and sponsorship. McKinsey and LeanIn.org’s 2023 Women in the Workplace report found that women are less likely than men to be “in the know,” and be able to access both mentorship and sponsorship opportunities at their company. Women are less likely than men to feel included in important company networks, according to SHRM’s Dickens.Another opportunity gap is based on seniority. Though internal mobility rates are up since 2021, according to LinkedIn, advancement opportunities are not evenly distributed. Workers at the manager and director levels are more than twice as likely as individual contributors to make a move within the company. Consider also that workers at the highest echelons are less likely to be female, less likely to be people of color, and less likely to be disabled.Taking the initiative in networking isn’t well-received in every workplace, said Wilkin. Skipping a level can get you in trouble, or at least earn you some suspicious looks. Asking around about other people’s jobs while seeking out sponsorship and mentorship can look like you’re trying to circumvent authority, leave your team, or conduct some (light) espionage. “If you’re a sales manager and you go above your boss to talk to somebody inside the company, you might get your wrist slapped,” he said. “There’s a lot of bias and barriers to networking inside of a company.”Yet companies that are too hung up on the norms of the hierarchy may be passing up major engagement and retention opportunities. Employees who have access to mentors and sponsors are twice as likely to be engaged than those who don’t, per a 2023 survey by Gallup. And according to LinkedIn, employees who make an internal move are 64% more likely than their non-moving peers to stay with their employer for at least three years. Beyond Mere Connection: Learning Skills and CollaboratingLately, Wilkin has been particularly interested in turning networking into learning communities. What if you could form a network of people learning skills independently, then bring them together for application and collaboration?“To reinforce a learning program, you might just think of pairing an intern to a senior leader to close that loop, but a more strategic talent and HR leader is looking at how they drive transformation through networking experiences,” he said. When a company can create a web of new managers or a web of workers adopting new AI applications, that new knowledge can be reinforced in a dozen new ways. “A network of relationships is where the majority of learning, talent, retention, career growth, inclusion all happen, but that has to be deliberate,” Wilkin said. “Using networks to help organizations become more innovative, retain their best colleagues, and be more efficient–it’s the next frontier of learning and development.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Ten Thousand Coffees, for sponsoring this story.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about work, the job market, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Quartz, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.(Featured photo by PeopleImages/iStock by Getty Images)

Sharing Their Truths: Working Parents Reveal the Benefits That Matter Most

Each year, HR leaders ask themselves: What benefits do my employees want? And what will provide me the most ROI? But many are left without answers.In a recent survey of 2,000 working parents conducted by Ovia Health, 62% said that their employers are not family friendly enough.The need for family friendly benefits is clear. Additionally, 94% said family benefits are a top priority and 73% said they would consider making a lateral move to another organization that offered better benefits and a family-friendly culture.In a From Day One webinar, Corrinne Hobbs, general manager and vice president, employer market organization at Ovia Health, discussed the results of the survey. Hobbs offered insight on current benefits offerings, where more support is needed, and what matters most to employees. Family Benefits That Match Today’s Culture“Women’s health benefits are one of the fastest growing segments within healthcare,” Hobbs said. This is due to changing circumstances during and post-pandemic as more and more workers experienced shifting work-life balance due to hybrid schedules. It’s also due to the increasing range of types of families that need to be accounted for as lifestyles become more diverse. In this current marketplace, “employees have more control and more power than they have had in the past,” said moderator Siobhan O’Connor, chief content officer at Atria Institute. Therefore, it’s even more critical that employers make sure these specific needs are being served.While most companies do offer some family benefits, Hobbs says, there is often a disconnect between perceived needs and actual needs of employees. “There’s a strong push for employees to have better fertility benefits in their workplace. And 38% of respondents said that they’re looking for their employer to provide alternate family planning support,” Hobbs said. This is especially true with more and more single by choice or LGBTQIA+ parents in the workforce, and an overall trend of people waiting until later in life to have children. Unfortunately, many workplaces do not offer benefits to cover the costs of these services, which can be exorbitant.Siobhan O'Connor of Atria Institute interviewed Corrinne Hobbs of Ovia Health during the webinar on family-friendly benefits (photo by From Day One)Incorporating these benefits helps build an overall inclusive corporate culture and can be a way to help retain senior level female employees. Additionally, 83% of respondents said that perimenopausal or menopausal symptoms affect their ability to work, but only 1% receive benefits to help with those symptoms, says Hobbs. In order to “make sure that whatever you’re providing is equitable and inclusive all around,” a diverse range of age and gender must also be factors incorporated into a comprehensive benefits plan.Providing Better Family BenefitsWith family benefits top of mind for employees, Hobbs says there is a clear way forward for organizations looking to provide better care. The most important, according to respondents, is family leave. Hobbs advises: “Make sure that it’s paid, that it’s for at least four months, that it’s inclusive to both parents and that you don’t have to dip into your sick leave or your PTO before taking leave. That is a stress factor for many.” And employers must account for alternate pathways to parenthood, such as adoption, which might entail different costs or timeframes, she says.Hobbs says employers should not only plan for parental leave, but also for parental return. One way to do this is by setting up a return-to-work program to make it easier for parents to re-enter the workforce, noting that it’s a smarter investment than having to endure the cost of hiring someone new. Gradual part-time schedules can ease the burden on stressed parents, as can accommodating PTO policies, flex time, and hybrid or work from home options.Additionally, managers need to be prepped on how to work with returning parents. “A manager training program to ensure a family friendly workplace and ensure that people are able to bring their full selves to work without fear of repercussions is critical,” Hobbs said. ERG support groups can also provide a sense of community support within the workplace.Incorporating Digital Healthcare and AdvocacyOvia Health uses predictive analytics to power millions of members’ care and engagement with their health. Such apps can help provide crucial education about health symptoms, Hobbs says. For example, 85% of respondents said they don’t know much about menopause and how it may affect their performance. Ovia can help fill that gap through online resources, and also provide peer support groups. “We have a community wall where people with uteruses can talk about symptoms together and really feel a sense of community and commonality with others who are going through some of the [same] things,” Hobbs said. Finally, Ovia can also match employees with proper treatment.Using health assessments and surveys, Ovia gets to know its users and can provide highly personalized information to current, expecting, or potential parents. Health alerts will pop up based on users’ reported symptoms, and the app even provides proactive healthcare outreach to guide users through any bumps on their fertility journey.“Digital solutions offer round the clock access, education, and opportunities to really delve deeper into topics,” Hobbs said. “And they also come with advocacy, helping you navigate and understand these complex situations.” The app accounts for a wide variety of families and lifestyles, helping employers provide better care to a diverse workforce. “We have 50+ personalized clinical pathways and programs to support women and families, and then we personalize the experience for each member based on the dynamic health assessments and digital symptom report,” Hobbs said, describing the data-driven service as “person-centered care.”Hobbs says that while women have increasingly reached the upper echelons of the corporate world in recent years, women’s participation in the labor market is currently at a 33-year low. Having a family-friendly workplace can help ensure talented women stay on. “It costs upwards of $75,000 to replace an employee,” Hobbs said. By offering a diverse suite of benefits companies can retain top talent, encourage a more diverse workforce, and save money in the process.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Ovia Health, for sponsoring this webinar. Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, and CBS New York.

Designing the Care Benefits That Employees Need Now

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