Millions of employees leave for work each morning already having provided hours of care. They will check in on a parent's medication, coordinate a spouse's medical appointment, or manage a child's complex health needs before their workday even begins, and they will do it again after they clock out.
According to AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving, 63 million American adults now provide this kind of ongoing care, a number that has grown 45 percent since 2015.
Most of these caregivers are also working. Seven in ten working-age caregivers hold a job while managing their caregiving responsibilities, and half of them report that caregiving disrupts their work in some way, whether that means arriving late, leaving early, or taking unplanned time off.
For HR professionals and company leaders, this is not a fringe issue affecting a small subset of the workforce. It is a widespread reality that shapes attendance, focus, and retention across nearly every team.
Family caregiving refers to the unpaid support adults provide to a loved one managing chronic illness, disability, or the effects of aging. It has grown into one of the most common, yet least visible, responsibilities in the American workforce.
According to Caregiving in the US 2025 from AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving, the caregiving population looks markedly different than it did a decade ago:
These numbers point to a role that is intensifying, not easing. Caregivers today are managing longer commitments and more complex tasks, including medical and nursing duties once handled almost exclusively by trained professionals. More than half now perform these tasks, yet only 22% report receiving any training to do so.
For HR professionals, the practical implication is straightforward. Care giving is no longer an occasional accommodation request confined to a handful of employees. It is a mainstream experience that touches every department, every job level, and nearly every team.
Caregivers rarely support someone with a single, simple need. Most are managing a loved one's serious or progressive health condition while juggling several overlapping responsibilities at once.
According to Caregiving in the US 2025, nearly half of care recipients are age 75 or older, and the most common conditions include age-related decline, Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia, mobility limitations, cancer, and recovery from surgery. Conditions like these rarely stay contained to caregiving hours alone.
They follow caregivers into their finances, too. Many caregivers see real financial consequences as a result of their caregiving responsibilities, from stalled savings to mounting debt, and for a lot of households, caregiving becomes a second, unpaid job layered on top of existing financial obligations with no clear end date in sight.
Ongoing caregiving places an emotional and physical toll on a person's mental health, physical well-being, and sense of connection to others.
Emotional strain is common. 64% of caregivers report high emotional stress tied to their caregiving duties, and many also describe real physical strain, poor sleep, and a general decline in their own health while caring for someone else.
Public health data from the Centers for Disease Control echoes this pattern, linking sustained caregiving to more frequent unhealthy days and reduced sleep. Isolation compounds these effects, particularly among caregivers who felt they had no real choice in taking on the role in the first place.
Taken together, these challenges make clear that caregiving is not simply a scheduling issue employees can manage on their own time. It is a health issue with direct consequences for the workplace.
An Employee Assistance Program is a workplace benefit that gives employees confidential access to counseling, referrals, and practical resources for managing personal challenges, including the demands of caring for a family member.
That access matters more than ever. According to Caregiving in the US 2025, the share of working caregivers with access to caregiver-specific programs through their employer, such as information, referrals, or an EAP, has grown from 23 percent in 2015 to 39 percent today.
EAPs reduce caregiver stress by giving employees a confidential, low-barrier way to talk through what they're managing before it becomes a crisis.
A caregiver juggling a parent's declining health alongside a full workload doesn't always need a major intervention. Sometimes what helps most is a short-term counseling session, a referral to a local support group, or simply someone pointing them toward resources they didn't know existed.
Because EAP services don't typically require a diagnosis or a lengthy approval process, caregivers can use them at the first sign of strain rather than waiting until the situation becomes unmanageable.
Guidance and counseling through an EAP typically starts with an initial consultation, where an EAP professional helps the caregiver understand what they're facing and connects them to relevant next steps.
A brief from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services describes this process directly: EAP professionals can provide an initial assessment for employed family caregivers and then refer them to community resources for eldercare assistance. From there, caregivers can also be referred for counseling sessions addressing the stress, sleep difficulties, and emotional strain that often come with the role.
A caregiver doesn't need to know what kind of help they need. The EAP is built to help them figure that out, and that's what sets it apart from benefits that require an employee to self-diagnose before they can use them.
Most employees managing caregiving responsibilities never tell anyone at work. According to Caregiving in the US 2025, only 49% of working caregivers say their supervisor even knows they're caring for a family member. That means HR cannot rely on employees to self-identify before offering support. Strategy has to be proactive rather than reactive.
This is a meaningful shift in mindset for many organizations. Benefits and policies that exist on paper only help if employees know about them, feel safe using them, and don't have to disclose more than they're comfortable with to access support.
A caregiver-friendly workplace is one where policies, communication, and manager behavior work together to make support easy to find and safe to use, without requiring an employee to justify or over-explain their situation. A few practices make the biggest difference:
None of these require a large budget or a new benefit. They require consistency, visibility, and a workplace culture where asking for help doesn't feel like a liability.
Ulliance provides Employee Assistance Program services designed to support employees through the personal and professional demands of caregiving, alongside the broader range of life challenges an EAP is built to address.
Employees juggling caregiving responsibilities can turn to Ulliance for one-on-one support, connections to local eldercare providers, and help thinking through hard decisions about a family member's care.
Ulliance also partners with HR departments and people managers directly, providing consultation on spotting the signs of caregiver strain and getting the word out about available benefits across a workforce.
Our trademarked Resolution EAP Model® takes a solution-focused, short-term counseling approach that offers a flexible number of sessions, rather than the fixed visit limits found in many traditional EAPs. For caregivers, whose needs can shift and extend as a loved one's condition changes, that flexibility means support that adapts to the situation rather than running out partway through it.
The goal is straightforward: give caregiving employees a place to turn before strain becomes burnout, and give employers a partner in building a workplace where that support is easy to find.
What kind of support can an EAP provide to a family caregiver?
An EAP can provide family caregivers with confidential short-term counseling, referrals to local eldercare resources, and guidance for navigating difficult caregiving decisions, all without requiring a formal diagnosis or lengthy approval process. Many programs also help caregivers manage the emotional strain of the role, from stress and sleep difficulties to feelings of isolation, giving employees a practical first stop before a caregiving challenge becomes a full-blown crisis.
How can HR support employees who are also family caregivers?
HR can support caregiving employees by training managers to recognize signs of caregiving strain, communicating EAP and leave benefits regularly rather than only at onboarding, and offering flexible scheduling where possible. Normalizing the use of support benefits, such as having leaders speak openly about using an EAP, also helps. Since only about half of caregivers tell their supervisor about their role, proactive communication matters more than waiting for employees to ask for help.
What is a “sandwich generation” caregiver?
A “sandwich generation” caregiver is someone who is simultaneously caring for an aging parent or ill spouse while also raising children under 18 at home. This dual responsibility affects a significant share of family caregivers, particularly those under age 50, and often means balancing two demanding caregiving roles while also managing paid work, which can intensify both financial and emotional strain.
How does an EAP help reduce stress for caregiving employees?
An EAP reduces caregiver stress by giving employees a confidential, low-barrier way to talk through what they're managing before it becomes a crisis. Rather than requiring a major intervention, an EAP can offer a short-term counseling session, a referral to a local support group, or guidance toward resources an employee didn't know existed, often at the very first sign of strain.
Why don't more employees tell their employer they are a caregiver?
Many caregivers hesitate to disclose their role at work, often out of concern about how it might affect the way they're perceived professionally. According to Caregiving in the US 2025, only 49% of working caregivers say their supervisor knows about their caregiving responsibilities. That's why HR strategies that don't rely on disclosure, such as communicating benefits broadly and training managers to recognize signs of strain, tend to work better than waiting for employees to come forward.
When you partner with Ulliance, our Life Advisor Consultants are always just a phone call away to teach ways to enhance your work/life balance and increase your happiness. The Ulliance Life Advisor Employee Assistance Program can help employees and employers come closer to a state of total well-being.
Investing in the right EAP or Wellness Program to support your employees will help them and help you. Visit https://ulliance.com/ or call 866-648-8326.
The Ulliance Employee Assistance Program can address the
following issues:
• Stress about work or job performance
• Crisis in the workplace
• Conflict resolution at work or in one’s personal life
• Marital or relationship problems
• Child or elder care concerns
• Financial worries
• Mental health problems
• Alcohol/substance abuse
• Grief
• Interpersonal conflicts
• AND MORE!
References:
Caregiving for Family and Friends — A Public Health Issue; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; National Association of Chronic Disease Directors
https://www.cdc.gov/healthy-aging-data/media/pdfs/caregiver-brief-508.pdf
Caregiving in the US 2025; AARP; AARP Public Policy Institute and National Alliance for Caregiving
https://www.aarp.org/pri/topics/ltss/family-caregiving/caregiving-in-the-us-2025/
Family Caregivers: Challenges and Opportunities; UnitedHealthcare Community & State
https://www.uhccommunityandstate.com/content/articles/family-caregivers--challenges-and-opportunities
Identifying Employer Supports for Family Caregivers of Older Adults Issue Brief; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/identifying-employer-supports-family-caregivers-older-adults