Top 3 Solutions for Small Businesses Supporting Employees with Aging Parents

by Lara Belonogoff

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Many of today’s middle-aged Americans are caring for aging parents along with holding down fulltime jobs. How this impacts both employees and employers is discussed in a recent Business Weekly report by Karen E. Klein. In the article Klein points out what an employer’s responsibility is to its employees when an individual requests time off to care for an aging parent.

Looking at Both Sides

Employees

Rules vary state by state, but the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) covers employees who have worked for over 12 months at a company with 50 or more employees. Employees of certain public agencies, such as schools, are covered also. The law requires that an employer grant up to a total of 12 work weeks of unpaid leave to employees caring for an immediate family member, such as a spouse, child or parent. For the denizens of the Sandwich Generation—with both aging parents and growing children—this piece of legislation offers some (if not significant amounts of) reprieve.

Small Businesses

But what are employers with less than 50 employees required to do? According to the federal law any unpaid time off for small businesses is discretionary. Many small businesses do not have the resources to allow 12 weeks of unpaid time off to their employees without causing the company significant financial harm. At Gilbert Guide we understand what it means to be a small company—because we are one. And have some solutions for the small business owners who need to straddle the line between keeping their business afloat and creating a happy work environment where employees feel both protected and secure. There a few points to keep in mind when constructing your small business’s policy on family medical leave.

Instill a company policy before you need it. Don’t wait until someone asks about what the policy is. Instead be proactive and generate a manual so employees know their options.
Klein’s article points out the need to produce fair guidelines, which seems simple enough, but is an important point. If your policy is discretionary, Klein points out that the policy should always be based on the company’s present needs (rather than on individual situations) so that it isn’t—and never looks like—a form of discrimination to any employees.
Steal Gilbert Guide’s information. Yes, you read that right. We are the experts in senior care and provide a ton of information free on our website. (Just make sure you note that you got it from us, please.) We have checklists that outline what to look for when choosing a facility or senior care service and explanations of what is covered by various reimbursement options such as Medicare, Medicaid, LTCI and more. Visitors to our site can use our Care Planner tool to figure what kind of care their loved one needs.

In the end, it seems the biggest mistake is the same for individuals and small business—being ill-prepared, not accessing all of the information that is available and not taking advantage of what is available. As even the littlest boy scout knows that your mantra should always be, “Be prepared.”

Posted in: Senior Care News