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Backup care is employer-sponsored support that helps employees find and pay for care when their usual arrangement falls through. Up to 73% of employees are also titled as caregivers for their children or elderly relatives.
That can mean child care during a school closure (teacher planning days), gaps in support for activities of daily living for an aging parent, or in-home support when a regular caregiver is unavailable. The goal is simple: help employees stay productive at work when life becomes unpredictable or disruptive with a limited but appropriate amount of gap care hours per year. Employers benefit from smooth, supported home operations and seamless worklife integration.
At Helpr, backup care is part of a broader care-benefits approach that can include subsidized care from trusted family and friends, vetted providers, care centers, reimbursement workflows, and personalized support. Helpr’s unique approach is the only benefit on the market that can deliver a 4x or higher ROI for everyday families and front line workers.
Care disruptions create real business costs. When employees do not have a reliable fallback, they miss work, log off early, reschedule meetings, or work while distracted. This puts pressure on coworkers and management and can increase risk on the job.
Backup care helps employers:
Gap care benefits are a way to improve productivity and employee well-being. With our model cost of care hour by hour model, each booking effectively saves a day of work and bookings can be as short as 1-2 hours to save a full 8 hour day.
A backup care program typically gives employees access to one or more of the following:
Employees can book care in the home when a regular caregiver is unavailable..
Some programs let employees use people they already know, like relatives, neighbors, or other familiar caregivers. Helpr’s patented My Choice offering supports this model through app-based booking and payment workflows.
Employees may be able to use approved child or adult care centers, or submit receipts for reimbursement depending on the program structure.
For more complex situations, employees may work with a Care Finder who helps source, vet, and coordinate longer-term or tailored care options. This program can even help resource families with cost savings from government subsidies or insurance.
Backup care is not just for parents of young children. It can support:
Helpr’s service pages describe support for both child and adult care, including tailored and ongoing arrangements.
Backup care helps companies move from generic family-friendly messaging to practical support employees can actually use.
The strongest programs are flexible enough to work for:
Helpr is an equitable access across worldwide populations and across all employee types.
Traditional childcare benefits often focus on one type of support, such as discounts, reimbursement, or a narrow provider network.
Backup care at Helpr is different because it is designed to support families in their own communities. Our patented subsidy approach helps employers leverage a family’s own care network to upload to the platform (families have on average 2+ people or care options to rely on). Traditional big box care centers are supplemented by local family run options. Marketplace sitters are replaced by trusted Friends, Family, and Neighbors. Hour for hour, the cost to offer care to hourly or lower earning workforces like Helpr does is unmatched.