The Workforce and Senior Responsibility: How companies can stay productive, build loyalty, and avoid a Human Resource Management nightmare

Over seven million Canadians are already 65 years or older. With a population counting more seniors than 15-year-olds, the younger workforce must plan their lives to care for their elderly. Home care, that is, someone in the household acting as an informal, unpaid caregiver, becomes an affordable option. However, it has a significant impact on business productivity.

For over a decade, the Canadian economy has been haemorrhaging productivity costs by overlooking a simple fact of life: caring for family. While family care has come a long way, it falls short in our home care responsibilities to our elders. 

Here are the facts: over 20% of workers are reaching retirement age going into the year 2022, and the baby boomers’ exit from the workforce is only accelerating. In 2019, there were 250,000 retirees, with a projected increase to top 400,000 annually. Our seniors do not live in a vacuum. When they require home care, it often falls on the shoulders of their caring families. Families see it as their responsibility to ensure their parents and grandparents age gracefully and comfortably, and are wary of the cost and bad press of senior residences.

A clock pulled apart by chains from either side indicating the loss of productivity caused by the competing commitments of work and senior home care responsibilities.

Canadian business bled $1.28 billion annually in lost productivity — and that was a good year

In 2007, the Conference Board of Canada reported an estimated “$1.28 billion in lost productivity as a result of caregivers missing full days of work, missing hours of work, or even quitting or losing their jobs.” This means the workforce, presented with an economy with more positions to fill than workers, values the responsibility of caring for their elderly mothers and fathers more than they value their jobs.

An HRM nightmare in the making

The near future promises an administrative disaster for Human Resource Management. How is an HR department to retain star employees, find qualified candidates, and ensure productivity in the impending climate where senior care is everyone’s responsibility? 

Especially in the private sector, pension coverage is quite low. In fact, pension coverage has been trending downwards since 1989, from 31% to 22%. With such low coverage, unpaid home care for seniors continues to be the standard reality for most of the workforce.

Gain back Workforce Productivity — and Loyalty

The obvious answer is to provide peace of mind, ensuring employees aren’t worried about affairs at home. Incentivize them with long-term care services as part of their employment benefits. Lend a home-care helping hand to your employees. The return on investment will be tenfold.

Where to start?

The current market has many caregiving agencies straddling the private and public sectors – with the private losing out because the public is such a behemoth. Right now, many people are turning to private caregiving because they have no choice… and private caregiving can be expensive. Most private agencies — because of their collaboration with the public sector — are inflexible: price-wise, access-wise, and schedule-wise. Hard-working consumers face a “Take it or leave it” ultimatum.

You need Gold Squad.

What makes us different is our commitment to — not just our position in — the private sector. We provide customised, flexible in-home senior care services in the Greater Montreal Area. Learn about your options and get a quote by calling 438-700-9107 or booking a consultation with Heather Parnell, founder and owner of Gold Squad.