You Need to Understand Your Employees’ Caregiving Responsibilities

Most of us are caregivers. Seventy-three percent of all U.S. employees, and 71% of employees globally, identify as caregivers with responsibilities to look after children, aging parents, or other family members. Fifty-four percent of employees in their 40s identify as sandwiched caregivers, providing for the needs of parents aged 65 and older while also raising children or providing for a young adult child 18 years and older.

But employers often don’t have any visibility on what their caregiver population looks like or what their needs are.

This lack of awareness is partly due to employees hiding their caregiver identities and responsibilities, often for good reason. The motherhood penalty is alive and well: Women with children are perceived as less committed, suffer lower starting salaries, and often stop progressing following parental leave. And let’s not forget the shame-infused messaging working mothers still receive. In our research, a woman in medicine described it this way: “You just can’t win. If you work part-time, you are ‘lazy,’ and if you work full-time, ‘your kids are growing up without a mother.’” It’s no wonder that a recent survey of working parents revealed that only 22% feel “very welcome” to express their identity as a caregiver at work.

Caregiving dads face stigma, too. Fathers who share openly about caregiving, request parental leave, and seek flexibility to be engaged at home can suffer the “wimp penalty” or significant backlash. Consider the case of Glen Wood, someone we interviewed as part of our research. He described the time he was head of equities for a global bank, working in Japan, and his partner gave birth two months premature while traveling in Nepal. Frantic and unsure whether his child would even survive, he requested emergency caregiving leave. He says his boss refused and told him to get back to work. When Wood insisted, he reported that he was shunned by supervisors and punished by the company.

And it’s not just parents who struggle. Caregiving challenges extend well beyond childcare: 56% of working caregivers caring for adults and 50% caring for elders say they lack consistent support for their responsibilities, according to two 2025 reports from SHRM. The need is also growing, with 18% of working caregivers expecting to take on new or additional elder caregiving responsibilities in the next five years, and 13% of non-caregivers anticipating eldercare responsibilities in that same period.

When employees—including top performers—perceive their work culture to be unfriendly to transparency around caregiving, they expend vital cognitive and emotional labor hiding their recurring care obligations, including the mental, physical, and financial burdens associated with them. This a recipe for diminished performance and attrition. Feeling unsupported as a caregiver and hiding caregiving obligations to dodge perceived career penalties leaves both women and men in a state of perpetual stress, tension, and ultimately, burnout.

To make matters worse, research at Harvard Business School reveals that more than half of organizations fail to collect data on employees’ caregiving responsibilities, thereby missing the impact these obligations have. In an interview with Vicki Shabo, a senior fellow for gender equity, paid leave, and care policy and strategy at New America, she told us: “Companies don’t even know who in their workforce is a caregiver, so they have no idea what the needs might be. Meanwhile, employees continue to [hide their caregiving load], sensing risk and feeling vulnerable about sharing this information.” The result? A caregiving conundrum: Leaders are uncomfortable inquiring and employees are uncomfortable sharing their caregiver status.

For our new book, Fair Share: How Men and Women Can Create a More Equitable Workplace Together, we culled the research on structural workplace policies that contribute to gender fairness and interviewed 100 researchers and thought leaders with deep expertise in achieving gender-fair workplaces—organizations where everyone is treated fairly, where everyone can fully participate, where everyone is included, and where everyone’s needs are represented. It turns out that there is a measurable business case for normalizing caregiving in all its forms and going all-in on caregiving benefits for employees. But this important work begins with becoming aware of the caregiving burden your employees carry.

The ROI of a Caregiver-Welcoming Culture

Smart leaders recognize that to attract and retain top talent, they must embrace the fullness of employee lives. A meta-review of 127 research studies on the outcomes associated with supporting employees’ caregiving identities reveals that truly seeing your people, welcoming their whole selves, and transparently championing their obligations at home offers a remarkable opportunity. Employees of work-life supportive leaders report more well-being, productivity, and enjoyment at work, higher commitment and retention, and even more rewarding and meaningful family lives.

The material return on investment linked to caregiving-supportive benefits is equally robust. Research by Harvard Business School professor Joseph Fuller reveals a net positive ROI for every dollar invested in benefits. Just consider employee retention: Gallup estimates that the replacement of leaders and managers costs around 200% of their salary, the replacement of professionals in technical roles is 80% of their salary, and frontline employees 40% of their salary. Fuller found that, if turnover among caregivers can be reduced by just three percent, and the cost to replace them is 50% of their salary on average, then the employer generates an ROI of more than 100%.

And don’t forget the leadership development opportunity. Employees with more opportunity to participate in caregiving often translate what they do at home into their leadership roles at work. Research shows that working parents burnish leadership-relevant skills such as empathy, relationship building, managing multiple people and projects, empowering teams, and prioritization.

Make Caretaking Visible Through a Care Census

How can businesses build trust with their caregiving employees, break through the disclosure challenge around sharing obligations, better understand what employees need the most, and create a work-life supportive organizational culture? Invite your employees to share their caregiver status.

Specifically, institute a regular, anonymized care census to identify the magnitude and nature of your organization’s workforce needs around caregiving. A routine census normalizes sharing one’s care status, especially when contextualized as an opportunity for the company to better understand the scope of need, the relevance of existing caregiver benefits, and opportunities to expand benefits and customize solutions—all to improve retention and productivity.

Until they begin asking questions and soliciting data, those in leadership and policy-making positions may not be fully aware of the nuanced needs of parents and other caregivers. Consider this reflection from our interview with former Meta executive Sheryl Sandberg: “I didn’t realize that we needed pregnancy parking until I got pregnant. And I didn’t realize we needed a bereavement leave policy until I lost my husband. If you don’t live it, you might not be aware of what people need.”

Often, merely asking people about caregiving for children, parents, siblings, and others creates epiphanies for employees who hadn’t previously appreciated the scope of their care obligations. Nicole Jorwic, the chief program officer at Caring Across Generations, finds that many people don’t realize they’ve been providing caregiving until asked to reflect on the unpaid burdens they carry. “Merely being given the opportunity to self-identify and share what we’re juggling outside of work is a wonderful way to begin building awareness and normalizing caregiving conversations,” she conveyed to us.

For leaders, this means a care census should be designed not just to collect data, but to create a safe, normalizing process that helps employees recognize and share their caregiving needs. Here’s how you can go about it.

Create an optional, anonymous care census survey. In an digital survey, ask broad questions that help illuminate employee care obligations and highlight where the company can add value through caregiving-related benefits. For example: “Do you have responsibilities outside of work that make flexibility important to you?” “What prevents you from doing your best work right now?” and “Which of these workplace supports would be most helpful?” Then list current benefits and potential future options for employees to consider. You may also want to review an existing care census, such as the University of Wisconsin’s Employed Caregiver Survey, for inspiration. Alternatively, consider consulting with a third-party healthcare technology firm to tailor a survey for your organization, aligning it with your broader workforce health and retention strategy. Deliver the census every 12 to 24 months in order to normalize caregiving conversations and track changes in employee obligations and the perceived value of care-focused benefits.

Be transparent about the objectives of a care census. Ensure clarity and consistency in messaging—from executive leaders, HR, employee resource groups (ERGs), and the survey team—about the purpose of your census. Some of the most common objectives include understanding the scope and needs of employed caregivers; the weekly time commitment and perceived impact on employee engagement and productivity; the impact of caregiving on employee emotional and physical well-being; current usage and perceived gaps in existing employee care benefits; and the company’s commitment to creating a healthy and supportive workplace for working parents and other caregivers.

Engage employees at all stages in the formulation, rollout, and communications about your care census. Actively consult with ERGs (e.g., working parents, women, fathers, eldercare) most likely to be populated by caregiving employees. Request to meet with ERG leaders or the broader membership. Ask curious questions about caregiving obligations, stressors, and how current employee benefits are meeting—or not—the need for support. Listen generously—not defensively—to caregiver pain points and frustrations and invite them in as partners in crafting, participating in, and socializing a routine care census to the broader organization. For instance, the parents ERG of the Central Park Conservancy has been instrumental in shaping and administering the organization’s care census. By defining the census questions, increasing awareness, and encouraging participation, the parents ERG served as a bridge between employees and leadership, helping ensure the care census reflects real caregiving needs and could be used to inform more family-friendly policies and support.

Share care census data both internally and externally to build trust and demonstrate accountability. Hold a town hall to review results; map caregiving needs to current and planned benefits such as flexible scheduling, remote/hybrid options, predictable shifts, emergency backup coverage, paid leave, care navigation resources, and dependent care assistance; share year-over-year trends on a public-facing page to position your organization as a leader for working parents and caregivers; and partner with employees to identify the benefits that are most meaningful and effective in practice.

Map caregiver status to gender gaps in advancement and compensation. Leaders also need data to understand the size, experience, and business impact of their caregiving population—and how caregiving may affect employees differently by gender. By examining correlations between caregiver status and the outcomes leaders care most about—such as hours worked, promotions, compensation, and retention—organizations can create visibility and identify where targeted interventions are needed. For example, if women in your company mirror the U.S. pattern and spend twice as many hours per week as men on childcare, it should not be surprising if more women decline promotions or choose lower-profile roles that offer greater flexibility. To further show employees you are acting on their input, calculate the business impact of caregiving in terms of attrition, absenteeism, engagement, and stress, and conduct a cost-benefit analysis of existing care investments.

. . .

A care census is more than a performative data collection exercise; done right, it is a strategic signal to your current and future workforce. When you measure caregiving, you can reduce burnout and workload strain, improve benefit awareness, and design flexibility that supports employees in bringing their full identities to work. The result is stronger retention, lower attrition risk, greater resilience, and a more competitive organization—one that stops treating care as a private issue and starts treating it as a business imperative.

Copyright 2026 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate.

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