Papa for Employees: A Pal for Life’s Challenging Moments

Today's workforce is more multigenerational than ever before—meaning employers need to offer flexible benefits that can meet a wide range of needs. From Gen Z to Boomers, workers today are in different phases of life, and as such, have contrasting priorities and preferences.

Caregiving, however, remains a common challenge for employees across generations, with roughly 73% of employees caregiving in some capacity. Family caregivers often experience higher levels of stress, anxiety, or depression, and it’s inevitable that these difficulties spill over into their jobs. More often than not, caregiving burdens can result in reduced focus and productivity at work and can cause employees to take more time off or quit altogether. 

In a recent survey of 2,000 full-time employees who have taken time away from work as a result of care, 71% said support for their caregiving needs would have helped avoid or reduce time away from work, while 27% said they need someone physically present for their loved one. 

Employers cannot afford to remain indifferent to the growing costs of this hidden “care economy.” Those who don’t take employees’ caregiving responsibilities into consideration—and offer flexible benefits that can meet them and their loved ones where they are—will inevitably pay the price.

From our legacy work supporting older adults with social needs, like loneliness, we’ve seen firsthand how support from a Papa Pal can have ripple effects throughout entire families and communities. 

For several years now, we’ve worked with employers around the country to serve as a reliable source of assistance and an extra set of hands for their employees during life’s most challenging moments. Just like with our health plan members, there are so many ways employees receive help from a Papa Pal, but what we see most often is:

Three of our own Papa employees generously shared how they use their “Papa for Papa” benefit to help care for themselves and their families to bring these three use cases to life. Let’s meet them. 

Barb is part of a big family, loves to bake, and those who know her best call her “the eternal optimist” because she can always find the positive in any situation.

With Barb’s husband and much of her extended family working long hours, she serves as the primary caregiver for her live-in grandmother, 87-year-old Gladys. Gladys suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, and vertigo, and is in the beginning stages of both renal failure and dementia. Barb has also stepped in to help her aunt, who underwent back surgery earlier this year.

You can imagine how many doctor’s appointments fill their schedules. Barb has had to take a lot of time off of work to care for her family members, and her own health has suffered significantly. Getting a Papa Pal for her aunt and grandmother has taken a load off her shoulders. 

They share a Preferred Pal, who “is absolutely amazing,” Barb says. “It puts my mind at ease knowing that I have someone who cares.” Barb says their Papa Pal is trustworthy, honest, kind, and so patient with her grandmother. “It’s easier for my grandmother to talk to her than to us,” Barb says. “Once you find someone who an elderly person feels that comfortable with, that’s a huge sign that she’s a keeper for sure. She’s a truly inspiring individual to all of us.”

Barb admits caregiving has been exhausting and at times, overwhelming. Not only has she had to take time off of work to care for her grandmother, but the dementia often makes her grandmother combative, which adds additional mental stress.

“If it wasn’t for Papa, even though I’ve missed quite a few days of work, I would’ve had to miss a lot more,” she says.

The Papa benefit means so much to Barb—more peace, more rest, less time off work, and the comfort she gets from knowing she and her family are not alone. 

Camila, a young mother of two sons (7 years old and 6 months old), recently moved to a new city. Her husband currently works out of state, so she’s been solo parenting while postpartum. On top of that, she’s studying for a new certification. It's been hard juggling her work, her studies, her son’s homework, the baby’s needs, meal prep, and keeping the house clean—both mentally and physically.

Papa has been a lifeline. “My Pal has been my angel,” Camila says. She helps out with light household tasks and gives Camila another adult to talk to. She even helped Camila get to the hospital when her son had appendicitis, and they’ve all gone out for ice cream together. 

She makes Camila’s burden lighter in big ways and small, which has improved her mental health. Instead of feeling exhausted and overwhelmed, she is able to breathe, relax a little, and believe that everything is going to be okay.

The Papa benefit has also made Camila a better employee. She’s coming to work less frazzled, more refreshed, and it shows.

“I take more care at my job,” she says, “because I don’t want to lose these benefits. With other jobs, you don’t get this opportunity.” 

Debbie, in her 60s, is a widow and cancer survivor with a passion for helping others. 

When her daughter passed away unexpectedly, Debbie was alone, distraught, and grieving—and Papa was there for her. “My Pal came over, and she took care of the house, of me, of the dogs, and she kept coming over.” She tells of a particularly dark time when her Papa Pal comforted her by making an angel food cake and reading her stories. “That was about the best thing I've ever had to take this weight off,” Debbie recalls.

Unfortunately, the hard times kept coming. This year, Debbie lost both her brother and mother-figure. She was overcome with grief and anxiety and couldn’t take care of the house, couldn’t walk to get the mail, could barely get out of bed. “I better call Papa,” she thought to herself. “I can’t even breathe.”

Debbie’s new Papa Pal, also a cancer survivor, is helping her take small steps to feeling like herself again. She helped Debbie leave the house for the first time in 14 months.

“Without Papa, I would not be surviving this,” Debbie says. She feels so special as a Papa employee to be given the gift of a Papa Pal when she needs one most.

Having that physical and emotional support also helps Debbie do her job better. “Working for Papa gets me out of my head,” she says. “When I’m working, I’m so channeled into the members, I feel what they feel, and the world goes away. With Papa, you never go it alone.”

With rising needs and expectations among employees, it has never been more important for employers to support their workers both on and off the clock. Offering a benefit that can flex to meet a wide range of needs and grow with employees over time is a win-win for employees and their employers alike.