Imagine a workplace where employees feel empowered to balance work and caregiving. Where wellness isn’t just a perk but part of the organization’s DNA.
HR leaders have the opportunity to build this future—a future where employees are supported, productivity thrives, and your organization becomes a model for modern workforce care.
The numbers don’t lie: over 60% of employees have caregiving responsibilities outside of work, and the productivity loss associated with these responsibilities costs U.S. companies billions every year.
Yet, traditional approaches treat family care as a private matter, leaving employees to struggle in silence, which affects your bottom line.
CareWise Solutions™ has created a roadmap to change this—and it all starts with you. We’re here to help HR leaders like you take the lead in transforming workplaces, making them supportive, productive, and future-ready.
To equip HR leaders, we’re excited to offer the HR Professionals Leadership Guide. This extensive guide includes a comprehensive series of eBooks on critical wellness, work, and care strategies, filled with practical tools you can apply directly to your business. Topics cover everything from team leader training and employee education to creating a supportive culture for caregivers, all designed to help you take your organization to the next level. ~ Jeannette Galvanek, CEO, CareWise Solutions
Start with Values: Set the Tone for a Caring Culture
The first step? Declare your commitment. As an HR leader, introduce a corporate statement of values that places work-life integration, caregiving, and wellness at the heart of your organization. This isn’t just lip service—this is about aligning with what your workforce genuinely needs and values.
Picture this: a busy project team where two key members have family caregiving duties. They’re both highly capable, but balancing work and care takes a toll. By integrating the CareWise Education Program, you equip all employees—caregivers or not—with tools, training, and understanding to build a more compassionate, resilient workplace. Imagine the impact of managers trained to recognize signs of burnout and proactively offer solutions, from flexible schedules to support resources.
Build a Design Team: Co-Create Solutions with Your People
To really make a difference, bring employees into the conversation. Create a design team with new roles focused on understanding your workforce’s unique expectations and needs. This team works collaboratively with HR, finance, and even IT to shape a shared vision of employee support involving everyone from frontline employees to executives.
Think about it: by listening to your people, you’re building trust and actively improving loyalty. Employee loyalty to corporations is at historic lows—but what if your organization could turn that around? What if you could design policies that say, “We see you, we support you, and we’re here to help you thrive?”
Step 1: Enroll Employees and Families in CareWise Solutions™
Enrollment in CareWise Solutions™ means giving employees and their families access to a network of resources, training, and support for managing caregiving responsibilities. It’s the first step in building a foundation of trust and support.
Step 2: Diagnose Needs and Uncover Insights
Once employees are on board, it’s time to dig deeper. The diagnostic phase is where the magic happens—it’s when you uncover the real, often hidden, challenges your employees face. For example, maybe you’ll discover that your night shift team is struggling with last-minute schedule changes because many of them care for elderly parents. Or perhaps team attendance issues reveal that a significant number of employees are struggling with mental health impacts from caregiving stress.
Use surveys, interviews, and focus groups to gather insights, and don’t forget to build relationships along the way. Employees are more likely to share openly when they feel safe and respected. This phase is about more than data—it’s about listening, understanding, and preparing to act.
Tapping into Passion and Purpose
We’re not just setting goals but tapping into people’s passions. When you connect with employees on what truly matters to them, you’re not just solving problems—you’re creating purpose.
Imagine the power of having a workplace where employees feel that their personal struggles are understood and valued. This is where loyalty begins and where the true strength of an organization shines.
Conducting Discovery Sessions
Host a discovery session with a sample of employees, team leaders, and other stakeholders. Look for patterns in wellness, work, and care challenges.
You might notice, for instance, that scheduling conflicts and coverage gaps are affecting productivity and morale. These sessions are about peeling back the layers and finding practical ways to support employees at all levels.
Clarifying Objectives and Co-Creating Goals
Summarize findings in a report that speaks to both the heart and the mind. Hard data paired with real employee stories creates a compelling case for action. Your team can conduct a gap analysis between where you are now and where you want to be.
This isn’t just about numbers. It’s about seeing the humanity behind the statistics and using it to drive meaningful change.
Planning for Action and Accountability
Once you have the data, it’s time to plan interventions. Build a blueprint for change with action steps, responsibilities, and deadlines.
Maybe your action plan includes leadership development workshops, team-building initiatives, and wellness programs focused on managing stress and preventing burnout. Create accountability structures to keep everyone on track, and make sure your plan has the flexibility to adjust as needs evolve.
What Does Success Look Like?
Success is more than a target on a spreadsheet. It’s a workplace where your best employees stay with you, where people show up energized because they know their well-being matters. It’s a team where loyalty and productivity go hand in hand. Financial measures like ROI are essential, but the true measure of success is in the quality of life you create for your workforce.
Imagine a culture where wellness, work, and care are integrated seamlessly. Imagine that every employee—regardless of their caregiving situation—feels they have a path to career progression, support for wellness, and a team that celebrates their contributions. This is the vision we can help you achieve.
Celebrating Wins (Big and Small)
One last piece of the puzzle: Celebrate every win. From minor milestones to major achievements, recognize the hard work and dedication that goes into transforming your workplace.
And remember, setbacks are part of the journey—celebrate the lessons learned from those as well. Whether it’s a team lunch, a shout-out in a company meeting, or a reward system that values contributions at all levels, let your people know their efforts matter.
Make an Impact: Support the CareWise Solutions Educational Charity
Your role as an HR leader has the power to transform lives and organizations. By supporting the CareWise Solutions Educational Charity—a 501(c)(3) organization—you’re helping us bring these life-changing resources to workplaces across the nation.
Your tax-deductible donation will fuel educational programs and support systems that empower employee-caregivers and inspire HR leaders to create the workplaces of tomorrow.
Imagine being the catalyst for a new kind of workplace—a place where work, wellness, and care come together seamlessly. Join us in this mission and make a lasting impact on the lives of employees and their families.
Next Steps
Pick up the HR Professionals Leadership Guides.
Then, to learn more about CareWise Solutions™ or to make a donation, contact Jeannette Galvanek, CEO of CareWise Solutions, at Jeannette@carewisesolutions.org
Together, let’s build a future where caring for employees is just as important as the bottom line.
