As a cloud-based benefits administration company, Benefitfocus is committed to helping organizations and their people get the most out of their health care and benefits programs. Beyond just providing unique solutions and offerings, its mission is to improve lives with benefits. Therefore, in 2019, the company began evaluating its own benefit offerings for its employee associates and internal teams to determine whether their benefits were truly improving lives, as well as administering proper support within the workforce. While Benefitfocus offered strong traditional benefits (medical, dental, vision, accident, short and long-term disability), the company wanted to better supplement the benefits needs of their employees by providing a more personalized, concierge service. 

So much of life requires the kind of support not offered with traditional benefits, such as the need for mental health support or assistance with finding new care facilities for loved ones. These critical moments do not fall within the parameters of conventional offerings, yet can have a monumental impact on employees’ levels of stress, anxiety and frustration. 

At Benefitfocus, the average age of employees is 38, thereby placing its workforce within the category of “sandwich caregivers” – those who are caring for their children and also providing support for their aging parents – a classification which yields potentially daunting struggles that can directly affect an employee’s overall quality of life, and, by extension, their productivity. While Benefitfocus began actively looking to expand its benefits catalog, they consistently came across Cariloop, a caregiver support company providing the best-in-class support for employees and their families.

During the 2019 open enrollment season, Benefitfocus began the process by which Cariloop could become officially available to all eligible employees and whoever their employees considered family. When the pandemic began in 2020, Cariloop was able to provide robust eldercare, pediatric, and childcare support to Benefitfocus associates. Despite unprecedented public and travel restrictions brought on by COVID, Cariloop was nonetheless instrumental in providing support and resources for caregivers who had loved ones in different states, building Benefitfocus’ confidence in Cariloop’s ability to maintain above-and-beyond concierge support for its employees as it transitioned to a remote workforce. 

“Our focus is to holistically improve the lives of our associates, and Cariloop is an integral part of this mission. While not a traditional mental health benefit, we see how much Cariloop is supporting the mental health of our workforce,” said Abby Brolley, Benefits Navigator Program Manager at Benefitfocus. 

“The Care Coaches are quick to check in with the individual associates and ask how they are doing personally, in addition to supporting many mental health and additional needs of our associates’ loved ones and family members. They truly support the whole person, not just the specific need or case - and that is invaluable.”

For those looking for a caregiver support benefit, Benefitfocus recommends finding a provider who will be a true collaborative partner with an employer, one who will hear the specific needs and evolve the capabilities or offering to meet them. If you are interested in learning more about Cariloop’s caregiver support benefit and the impact it can have on your employees, we’d love to chat.