By Maggie Jackson in the Boston Globe (second in a series):

As the number of children and elderly people with special healthcare needs continues to rise, employers like Prudential Financial Inc. are providing more assistance to workers who are balancing jobs and family responsibilities.

Prudential has had an “affinity” group since 1998 for employees with disabilities and those caring for people with special needs. The group has 100 members. But because the company is expanding further into the special needs consumer marketplace and more employees themselves are affected, it has significantly bolstered supports for employees in this area in recent years.

… “Special needs situations and adult care issues — these are issues that our employees are increasingly dealing with,” says Maureen Corcoran, vice president of diversity. “If we closed our eyes to that and didn’t provide assistance to employees, we’d be hurting our employees and hurting ourselves as well,” she said.

Lost talent is one risk for inflexible companies. In nearly a quarter of families caring for children with special needs, one or both parents wind up reducing their work hours or quitting their jobs, according to government surveys.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 1:31 am and is filed under chronic illness, employment/jobs, families, News_2_Use, NOT2BEMISSED. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.