SupportPay, a fintech platform designed to help co-parents manage expenses and scheduling, is expanding into caregiving, the company announced on July 26.
SupportPay started marketing its services as an employee benefits solution last year, according to founder and CEO Sheri Atwood. She told HR Brew that the tool is intended to “streamline and automate” processes that take away from employees’ working hours—for divorced parents, that might include coordinating schedules, tracking child expenses, or managing alimony.
After picking up on similar needs among caregivers, SupportPay decided to retool its platform for those customers. The decision comes as more companies are marketing benefits for caregivers, recognizing that a growing segment of the workforce provides care for loved ones.
How SupportPay demonstrates ROI to employers. In a recent survey, SupportPay found that 28% of US adults are financial caregivers, whether for children or another family member. One in five shares caregiving responsibilities with other family members or friends outside their immediate household.
The caregiving platform will work similarly to the app designed for co-parents, Atwood told us. In addition to tracking expenses and payments, caregivers can use the platform to communicate with family members, manage schedules, and resolve financial disagreements via a dispute management process.
When employees have to take time out of their day to devote to these responsibilities, “it directly impacts their coworkers, their managers, and ultimately the employer’s bottom line, because they lose focus,” Atwood said. By investing in the platform, employers can win back some of that lost productivity, SupportPay argues.
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SupportPay charges between $1 and $3 per employee each month for its co-parenting benefits solution, and offers 12-month deals to employers, aiming for a minimum 5% utilization rate among employees. Currently the company has five enterprise customers using the co-parenting solution, including Hearst Corporation, with 14 additional organizations in the pipeline, Atwood said.
Recognizing caregiver needs. Some 500 customers have been testing a beta version of SupportPay’s caregiving solution, which is expected to launch this fall. Atwood said SupportPay will market the tool to employers with 5,000 or more employees, and those that have “bought into the idea of offering caregiving benefits.”
While more employers are starting to respond to child care needs among their workforce, the role of caregivers providing elder care is on HR leaders’ radar as well. Caregivers are at risk of attrition: A 2021 report by the Roslynn Carter Institute for Caregivers found “nearly two in 10 employed family caregivers had to quit their job and more than four in 10 said they had to go part-time because of caring for a loved one.”
Employers are offering a number of digital tools—including Family First, Papa, and Wellthy—as employee benefits to address the needs of caregivers, from legal support to connecting aging parents with companions to navigating Medicare. SupportPay aims to differentiate itself from competitors by directly addressing the challenges multiple caregivers or family members face, as well as offering “immediate tangible value in handling day-to-day caregiving responsibilities,” according to a follow-up email from the company.