Caregivers Are Leaving the Workforce

Caregivers Are Leaving the Workforce: An Expensive Signal Leaders Can’t Ignore

Summary

Caregivers are leaving the workforce because they don’t feel supported and are looking for better work-life balance. Canadian data shows these caregivers are often mid-career, highly invested employees whose quiet exits carry real cultural and financial costs for organizations. This article explores what the data is telling us, why this group is so valuable, and what leaders can do about it.

Is Caregiver Turnover an Expensive Leadership Issue?

86% of caregivers who changed jobs in the last two years did so to access better work-life balance.

That number is striking – and it points to an invisible challenge occurring across organizations.

I was inspired by Liv Mendelsohn from the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence and her comments on caregiving at work. She named an important reality: many caregivers stay silent at work, even when support policies exist.

I’ve been thinking about this through an #ROI lens, particularly as I’m in the middle of writing a book on the high cost of turnover in Canadian healthcare.

What’s the Data Telling Us?

Here’s what recent research from Léger / Concilivi tells us:

1 in 3 caregivers avoids talking about their caregiving role at work out of fear of judgment or lost opportunities
Caregivers are less comfortable than parentsaccessing existing workplace supports.
Almost 9 out of 10 caregivers who leave roles do so in search of better balance

These findings don’t just point to workload or policy gaps. They point to a culture and leadership issue — one where silence feels safer than visibility.

Who Are Today’s Caregivers?

What makes this especially important from a leadership and ROI perspective is who today’s caregivers are.

Data from Statistics Canada shows that caregiving is most common among adults in their mid-career years, 35-54, and that the majority of caregivers are employed while providing care.

These are not early-career employees testing the workforce, nor late-career employees winding down.

They are educated, experienced professionals who are deeply invested in by their organizations through training, leadership development, and years of accumulated institutional knowledge. In many cases, they are also cultural connectors: the people others rely on, the ones who hold teams together, transfer knowledge informally, and stabilize change.

When caregivers quietly exit the workforce, organizations don’t just lose people. They lose:

years of training and development
institutional memory that isn’t documented anywhere
leadership pipeline and succession continuity
trust and stability within teams

And often, they gain no insight into why the exit happened.

What is The Hidden Value of Caregivers?

Caregiving is often framed as a constraint on performance in the workplace. In reality, it develops capabilities organizations actively need.

Caregivers routinely demonstrate:

decision-making under pressure, often with incomplete information
prioritization and boundary-setting in complex environments
adaptability when plans change unexpectedly
empathy and communication skills that strengthen team dynamics
systems thinking, coordinating multiple moving parts simultaneously

These are not “soft” qualities – they are leadership capabilities – developed through lived experience, often outside of formal roles.

When caregiving is unsupported, unseen or stigmatized, organizations risk losing not just employees, but capability.

Is Losing Caregivers Inevitable?

This is troubling – but it’s not inevitable. There is hope – because it’s solvable.

There are meaningful things leaders can do that don’t require large budgets:

Acknowledge caregiving – beyond parenting – openly
Normalize conversations so people don’t have to self-identify in isolation
Conduct ‘stay-interviews’ to learn what matters – before people decide to leave
Reduce fear by setting clear expectations, signaling psychological safety and openness for conversation
Equip leaders to respond consistently and compassionately – empower them to make decisions about flexibility
Make it explicit that caregiving does not equal lower commitment – see the challenge, value the person and be willing to stay in conversation

As Canada’s population ages, caregivers will increasingly show up across every level of the organization.

Caregivers are important contributors – and losing these experienced professionals has a real impact on culture and on the bottom line.

Retaining them isn’t just good leadership – it’s a competitive advantage.

If this is a challenge you’re navigating, Raesoleil supports leaders and organizations with training focused on burnout, resilient leadership, retention strategies, and evaluation / ROI.

Sources:
Léger survey conducted for Concilivi (2026) https://www.concilivi.com/fr/statistiques-cft/2026-sondage-employes-ppa
Statistics Canada — “Sandwiched” between unpaid care for children and care-dependent adults (April 2024) “Sandwiched” between unpaid care for children and care-dependent adults: A gender-based study, April 2, 2024