Factors Affecting the Development of Employer-Sponsored Eldercare Programs:

Abstract

Little is known about the characteristics of employers offering formal eldercare programs and how their attributes differ from those of employers wthout such programs. Similarly, information is lacking about the factors that enhance or inhibit the develop ment of eldercare programs and about which benefits meet the varying needs of employees, usually women, who combine work responsibilities with caring for an older relative. This exploratory study found that large employers with higher proportions of women workers and managers are more likely to have eldercare programs. Employers with such programs also tended to have higher levels of awareness about work-family conflicts and espoused company philosophies that favor assisting employees with their family concerns. They also offered more extensive benefits related to those caregiving concerns and were more knowledgeable, compared to employers without such programs, about which of those benefits (e.g., vacation and personal leave, flexhours, seminars) are used for elder care purposes. Both types of employers identified the lack of employee demand and of community resources as inhibitors and the support of top management as the most important enhancer of the development or expansion of eldercare programs. Both also reported the greater likelihood of implementing generic family caregiving benefits in the next two years, rather than formal eldercare benefits.