Latest / The Diversity Career Podcast with Fexingo: Inclusion, Equity, and Underrepresented Professionals / How a Manufacturer Made Caregiving a Career Asset
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this idea that still lingers in a lot of workplaces — that if you're a caregiver, especially a primary caregiver for a child or an aging parent, your career is going to slow down. Maybe you'll plateau. Maybe you'll take yourself out of the running for the big promotion. Luna: Right. The 'caregiver penalty.' I've seen the research. Mothers especially take a hit on earnings and advancement. Lucas: Exactly. But a midsize manufacturer called Meridian Components — about twelve hundred employees, based outside Grand Rapids, Michigan — decided to flip that assumption. Early last year they launched what they call a 'caregiver track.' It's a formal career pathway designed for employees who are actively caring for a family member. Luna: I love that framing. Not a 'leave of absence' track, not a 'mommy track.' A career track. Lucas: Right. And the person behind it is their Chief People Officer, Diana Reyes. She came to Meridian from a larger automotive supplier and she noticed that when employees disclosed caregiving responsibilities, they often got sidelined for stretch assignments or leadership development programs. So she built an alternative. Luna: What does the track actually look like in practice? Lucas: Three main components. First, flexible scheduling is written into the policy — not just informal manager discretion. So someone who needs to leave at three to pick up a child or take a parent to an appointment can do that, and their core hours are adjusted without penalty. Luna: That's still rare in manufacturing, where shifts and production lines are so rigid. Lucas: It is rare. But Meridian operates on a team-based model in most of its assembly areas, so cross-training made it feasible. The second component: employees on the caregiver track earn leadership development credits. They attend quarterly workshops, they get assigned a mentor from senior leadership, and they're expected to complete a small project that improves a process in their department. Luna: So the caregiving itself isn't the development activity, but the track gives them structured development they might otherwise miss out on. Lucas: Exactly. The third piece is the one Diana Reyes says she's proudest of: a dedicated monthly check-in with their manager that's explicitly about career growth, not just task completion. It's separate from the regular performance review. The manager is trained to ask: 'What skills are you building as a caregiver that you can apply here?' Luna: I want to sit in on one of those conversations. Because I think a lot of managers would struggle to see caregiving as skill-building. Lucas: That's why Diana ran training for all forty-seven managers in the pilot. She partnered with a local nonprofit called Caregiver Bridge that helps employers recognize the transferable skills — project management, budgeting, crisis negotiation, systems navigation. The same skills you'd use running a complex supply chain. Luna: And the results? Has the track actually moved people forward? Lucas: In the first year, about ninety employees enrolled. That's roughly seven and a half percent of the workforce. Retention among those employees was fifteen percentage points higher than the company average — and forty percent of participants received either a promotion or a lateral move into a higher-responsibility role. Luna: Forty percent? That's not a plateau. That's outperforming. Lucas: Exactly. And it changed the conversation internally. One assembly line lead named Teresa Martinez, who cares for her mother with Alzheimer's, told Diana that before the track she assumed she'd never be considered for supervisor. She enrolled, completed a project redesigning the inventory kanban system in her area, and got promoted to shift lead in October. Luna: That's the kind of story that makes policy real. But I do wonder — can this scale to a larger, more traditional company? Meridian is midsize, family-owned, relatively nimble. Lucas: That's a fair challenge. Diana acknowledges the pilot was easier because the company's leadership was bought in from the start. But she points out that the core principles don't require a small company — flexible scheduling with core hours, leadership credits separate from billable hours or production quotas, and trained managers. Those can be implemented in a division or a business unit. Luna: And the cost? I imagine some CFOs would push back on the mentorship time and the training. Lucas: Meridian's CFO actually became an advocate after seeing the retention data. Replacing a skilled manufacturing employee costs roughly one and a half times their annual salary. If you retain even ten people who would have left, the training and mentorship hours pay for themselves. Diana estimated the pilot cost about eighty thousand dollars — mostly manager training time and the nonprofit partnership. The first-year retention savings were over half a million. Luna: That's a compelling ROI. And it's not just financial — it's cultural. You're signaling that caregiving doesn't disqualify you from ambition. Lucas: Right. And some of that cultural shift mirrors what we've seen in parts of Europe. In Sweden, for example, parental leave policies have long been designed so that both parents can take leave without career damage. But what Meridian did is interesting because they're broadening the definition beyond parenting — to anyone providing care. Luna: That's important because the aging demographic means more employees will be caring for parents or partners in the coming decade. The AARP projects that by 2030, one in four workers will be an unpaid caregiver. Lucas: And that's exactly the kind of long-term shift that makes a program like this forward-looking. Diana told me she's already hearing from two other manufacturers in the region who are interested in adapting the model. Luna: Before we go deeper, I want to say something about this podcast itself. We're able to dig into stories like this because we don't run ads. No sponsors, no commercial breaks. And that's intentional — we want every minute to be about the content. Lucas: Yeah, and if that model resonates with you, if you've gotten value from episodes like this one, you can support it at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a simple way to keep the show ad-free and focused. Luna: And we really appreciate that. Now, Lucas, I want to push on one thing: Can this kind of track work in a professional services firm where the currency is billable hours? Lucas: That's the hardest test case. But some firms are experimenting with 'credit for non-billable contributions' — including caregiving-related mentorship or internal projects. A few large law firms have started allowing attorneys to count up to a hundred hours of diversity and inclusion work toward their annual targets. Extending that to caregiver track activities isn't a huge leap. Luna: So the principle is the same — formally recognize the work that builds leadership and institutional knowledge, even if it doesn't generate a bill. Lucas: Exactly. And the interesting thing about Meridian's model is that it's not a separate, lesser track. It's designed to feed into the same promotion pipeline. Participants are evaluated on the same criteria — they just get structured support to meet those criteria while managing care. Luna: I think that's the key design choice. So many accommodations end up being 'we'll go easy on you' — which is well-intentioned but actually reinforces the idea that the person can't compete. Meridian says, 'We'll give you the tools to compete on the same terms.' Lucas: And that's the difference between a caregiving accommodation and a caregiving career asset. Diana's phrase, not mine. She says the goal is to make caregiving 'a line on your resume that signals grit, not a gap.' Luna: That's a powerful reframe. I think a lot of professionals who are caregivers will hear that and feel seen. Lucas: One more data point: Meridian is now tracking how many of their senior leaders have been caregivers at some point. They want to build a pipeline where leadership actually reflects the experience of the workforce. Because right now, that's a huge blind spot in most companies. Luna: And the next step? Is Meridian expanding the track beyond the pilot? Lucas: They are. Starting this quarter, it's rolled out to all twelve hundred employees, not just the initial pilot group. Diana is also building a peer-support network within each plant — caregivers mentoring other caregivers. She calls it 'care circles.' Luna: I love that. It's almost like an employee resource group for caregivers, but focused on career advancement, not just support. Lucas: Exactly. And the company is funding it. They've allocated a small budget for the care circles to meet monthly, bring in speakers, and even cover backup care costs for members who need to attend a meeting during a care emergency. Luna: That's the kind of infrastructure that makes a policy stick. It's not just a document in an HR portal. It's a living program. Lucas: And it sets a new baseline. Five years ago, the conversation was about 'work-life balance' and 'flexibility.' Now it's about 'career design that includes caregiving.' That's a meaningful shift. Luna: I think the next frontier is making sure men feel equally empowered to use these tracks. Caregiving still has a gender skew in terms who takes the lead. Lucas: Diana told me that about thirty percent of the pilot participants were men. That's higher than she expected, and she's running focus groups to understand what drove that — and what might increase it. Early feedback suggests the 'career track' framing, rather than a 'family leave' framing, made it feel more universal. Luna: That's a smart insight. Language matters. So what's your takeaway for someone listening who wants to advocate for something like this at their own company? Lucas: Start with data. Don't lead with the ask. Lead with the problem: show how many employees are caregivers, what the turnover cost is, and then propose a small pilot with measurable outcomes. Meridian started with ninety people in one plant. You don't need company-wide buy-in on day one. Luna: And find a champion in finance. That ROI argument really sealed it. Lucas: Absolutely. And partner with a local nonprofit if you can. The credibility of an outside organization helped Meridian's managers take the training seriously. It wasn't just HR telling them caregiving builds skills — it was an expert third party. Luna: I think that's a solid blueprint. Lucas, this was a really concrete episode. Thanks. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. And to our listeners — if you've got a caregiving story from your own career, we'd love to hear it. Reach out to us through the Fexingo network. We might feature it in a future episode. Luna: Until next time.