The blind spot employers can’t afford to miss: the care generation

Yet many continuously fail to see one of the biggest factors pushing valued employees to reduce their hours, step back from leadership roles or leave work altogether: caring responsibilities.

This is no longer a niche workforce issue.

As people increasingly have children later in life, and parents and relatives are living longer, an increasing number of employees are being “sandwiched” by having to balance childcare and caring responsibilities at the same time.

According to Carers UK, there are 5.8 million unpaid carers across the UK, including 1.7 million providing 50 or more hours of care each week.[1]

Caring is also far more fluid than many employers realise. Research from the Centre for Care found that, between 2010 and 2020, around 4.3 million people became unpaid carers each year, while more than 4 million left caring roles. In practice, this means that almost anyone in an organisation could find themselves taking on significant caring responsibilities at short notice.[2]^,[3]

The challenge is that much of this remains invisible.

Many people who spend hours each week managing appointments, paperwork and care arrangements never see themselves as carers. They’re simply helping Mum, supporting Dad or dealing with the latest family crisis. Many carers don’t identify themselves as such, which means managers often don’t realise what people are juggling until they’re already faltering.

The hidden retention challenge

Historically, caring responsibilities have been treated as a personal issue to be managed outside work, but that distinction is becoming increasingly unrealistic.

The greatest risk to employers is not occasional absence, it’s the gradual loss of experienced employees. The mistake is to see caring support as a wellbeing perk: it’s increasingly a retention issue. Some of your most experienced people may be quietly managing a second unpaid job outside work. If they feel unsupported, businesses risk losing their valuable expertise.

What meaningful support looks like

The Carer’s Leave Act 2023 now gives employees the right to one week of unpaid leave each year for caring responsibilities, able to be broken up or taken all at once, but legislation alone isn’t enough to tackle this problem.

Increasingly, employers are recognising this. A growing number now offer access to specialist care services that can help employees navigate often complex care systems, whether that’s understanding local authority support, assessing care home options for an elderly relative, arranging care for a disabled family member, or accessing neurodiversity assessments and support for adults. Some larger organisations partner with providers that can offer practical, hands-on support ranging from emergency childcare to care navigation services. However, these solutions can be more difficult to implement cost-effectively for smaller employers, where workforce numbers may not justify the financial cost of organising dedicated programmes.

For SMEs, support is therefore often less about formal services and more about creating a culture of understanding. Managers could offer flexibility around working hours, enable employees to attend appointments without taking a full day’s leave or facing unnecessary bureaucracy, or allow temporary adjustments to working patterns during particularly challenging periods. These all count towards the difference between retaining an experienced employee and losing them.

For smaller employers in particular, this flexibility can be a powerful advantage – most carers aren’t looking for special treatment, they want understanding, flexibility and confidence that being honest about their circumstances won’t damage their career prospects. Having this trust and support from their employers only encourages hard work.

As caring responsibilities become a defining feature of modern working life, supporting carers is no longer just an employee benefit. It’s a retention strategy.

Sources

1. Carers UK, Key Facts and Figures (2025), [carersuk.org]
2. Centre for Care, [centreforcare.ac.uk]
3. Carers UK, Cycles of Caring: Transitions in and Out of Unpaid Care (2022), [carersuk.org]
4. Carer’s Leave Act 2023