Why are some of your employees often absent and difficult to manage?

What Your Dashboards Don't Show

Traditional HR metrics measure reported absenteeism. They do not measure presenteeism—when an employee is physically present but their concentration is severely impaired. The cost of presenteeism is estimated at €2,740 per affected employee per year (source: Malakoff Humanis 2024).

The hidden cause behind the numbers

Psychosocial risks are identified as the leading cause of long-term sick leave. What surveys don’t always reveal: an increasing proportion of these risks stems not from the work itself, but from external pressures that employees do not articulate.
This pressure is known as “caregiving.”
In France, 9.3 million people report providing regular care to a family member with a disability or loss of independence (source: DREES, 2023). Among them, 61% are employed—that is, approximately 4.5 million working caregivers (source: France Travail, 2024). One in five employees in your company is, either currently or within the next 12 months, in this situation.

What employee assistance actually does for an employee

Visible absenteeism

An employee who is a caregiver spends an average of 9.8 hours per week caring for a loved one—10.6 hours for women and 9 hours for men (source: Occurrence / La Mutuelle Générale Barometer, 2023). This is the equivalent of one and a half extra days of work each week, outside of regular office hours.
When this burden becomes incompatible with a full-time job, employees make a choice: 39% of caregivers report a negative impact on their work—adjustments to their schedule (17%), reduced working hours (12%), or leaving their job (10%) (source: Ipsos-Macif survey, 2020).

Presenteeism — the tip of the iceberg

57% of employees who are caregivers say they are struggling. But 75% of them do not tell their managers about their situation, for fear of being stigmatized or held back in their careers (source: France Travail, 2024).
The result: they come to work, but their mental focus is partially elsewhere. They take calls from their desks to manage medical appointments.
They leave early on Fridays and arrive late on Mondays. They can’t cope, until they reach a breaking point.

Silent turnover

One-third of employees who are caregivers report working longer hours to compensate for a decline in productivity they themselves feel (source: OCIRP, 2023). Fewer than 2% have their work schedules adjusted or are granted special leave. When the strain becomes unbearable, some leave the company—without ever mentioning their caregiving responsibilities as a reason during their exit interview.

5 subtle signs to watch for in your HR data

A checklist that can be implemented immediately, without any new tools:

1. Increase in sick leave lasting 1 to 3 days among people aged 35–55
2. Requests for schedule adjustments without a specific reason
3. Decline in performance detected during the annual review, with no work-related cause
4. Unexplained turnover among experienced employees
5. A usually dedicated manager gradually losing interest

Why this trend is set to worsen

An Inevitable Demographic Trend

By 2030, one in four employees will be a caregiver (source: France Travail, 2024). The French population aged 75 and older will rise from 6.5 million today to 8.5 million in 2030 (source: INSEE). Companies that have not established a support system by then will be reacting rather than taking preventive action.

A strengthening legal framework

Mandatory negotiations on QWTC (Quality of Life and Working Conditions) are gradually incorporating caregiving into the scope of psychosocial risks to be documented. Several industry sectors have begun to include specific provisions in their sector-wide agreements.

What Autonomia Changes for Your Employees Who Are Caregivers

Identifying caregiving situations within your company is the first step. Addressing them thoroughly is another. Autonomia offers a turnkey solution: a dedicated advisor—a social worker, social and family economics counselor, or nurse coordinator—contacts every employee who is a caregiver and requests assistance within 48 hours, in complete confidentiality. A 7-dimensional assessment, a personalized action plan, coordination of home care providers, and activation of financial assistance (APA, ARDH, MaPrimeAdapt’, CESU). On average, 16 days of sick leave are avoided per supported caregiver, and an aggregated, anonymized CSR report is provided to document the impact to the executive committee.