Lawyers and other legal sector professionals face some of the highest burnout rates due to heavy workloads, long hours, tight deadlines, and hefty travel schedules. Lawyers work 53 hours per week on average. This leaves little time for self-care and tending to family responsibilities.
But if the demands of the job can’t change, then how can employers within the legal sector support their employees and promote a better work-life balance? We have a few ideas…
Overcoming the Caregiving Crisis
Your employees bill high hourly rates for their services and clients expect top-quality work. Distractions and stress due to family caregiving are undoubtedly hurting your bottom line and organizational reputation.
Additionally, family caregiving is a challenge that has a big impact on your organization’s DEI efforts. Women are more likely than men to take on caregiving roles. In fact, at least 61% of caregivers of adults are women. They are also likely 3x as likely to quit or retire early due to caregiving responsibilities. Thus, supporting your female employees through caregiving challenges can help attract and retain diverse talent, allowing your firm to thrive.
Making an Impact
Caregiving support has emerged as an “impact maker,” promising to address challenges related to stress, turnover, mental health issues, DEI, healthcare costs, and burnout.
But how big of an impact do these types of benefits actually have?
Here’s the impact that Dari by Homethrive can have:
- 80% reduction in turnover and intent to resign
- 16.4 work hours saved per employee, per month
- 100% of employees feel more supported by their employer
- 98% of employees report feeling the same or reduced levels of stress
Caregiving Support as a Solution
As employers, we all want to reduce turnover, diversify our workplaces, make them more inclusive, and support our teams outside the walls of our offices.
Offering a family caregiving benefit allows employees to take time off from work to care for a family member. Partners and lawyers, plus associates, paralegals, clerks, and other staff should ideally have access to a family caregiving benefit.
Providing a supportive family caregiving benefit can help:
- Reduce turnover, saving thousands of dollars on associated costs
- Increase productivity, generating greater outcomes for your clients
- Improve employee well-being, helping you to position your firm as an employer of choice
Without the support provided through a caregiving support benefit, those employed in the legal sector are much more likely to feel overwhelmed, experience burnout, or ultimately leave the profession or workforce altogether.
Hear from one of our clients:
Intrigued? To learn more about providing (much needed) family caregiving support to your employees, check out more resources on our website. To receive insights delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our weekly newsletter!