We know more people are going to have to become carers for their parents and elderly relatives – more than three million employees are already struggling with juggling work with their caring duties – and this figure is forecasted to double by 2030 with three in five of us expected to take on the role. 90% of working carers are in their 30s and 40s, the 'peak' years of their careers. Employees having to give up work to become full-time carers costs UK employers £1.3 billion a year, according to the Carers Trust.
With the NHS lacking the resources to help families, how will more employees be able to juggle work and caring? Take a typical example of Jan Richards, a senior manager at a logistics company who lost her father last year, leaving her frail but stubborn mother on her own in the family home. The bathroom and toilet are upstairs and she lives 60 miles away from Jan, who is her eldest and nearest child. She doesn’t want to move into a care home, understandably enough. It’s 10.00 am one Tuesday morning and Jan receives an urgent call whilst in a meeting. A neighbour has found her mother at the bottom of the stairs. It looks like she’s broken her leg, and her hip, and gashed her head. The ambulance is on its way and could Jan also come to the hospital immediately as the nearest relative? Nothing is easy – and over the coming days, Jan is faced with staying over at her mum's house and looking after the cat, visiting her mother and trying to figure out what happens next in term of longer-term care, finances, who’s doing what and when. She’s in touch with work but can’t say exactly when she’ll be back.
One case here and there isn’t a problem for an organisation, but estimates suggest 20% of your workforce will have a caring responsibility which, at any time, could escalate into a more serious problem. People involved with day-to-day care are stressed, exhausted, distracted and unable to perform their role at work. I had no clue what to do when my mother had a mental breakdown from the ongoing stress of looking after my father, who had Parkinson’s. Working life and responsibilities have to be shelved or, at best, just a few of plates kept spinning.
We all need advice and guidance and in HR it’s important you know how to help, somewhere to regain a sense of control and direction, when employees or line managers are looking for support.
It’s important to understand the level of risk in the business. Use an anonymous survey to understand the scale of the problem is a good idea ("do you consider yourself a Carer?” – as many people don’t even think of that label – "how many hours a day to you have to provide care? how much stress and disruption is this causing to your personal life and your work life? Do you feel supported by the business? If not why not and what support ideas would you like to see?" etc). Once you have the data, look to quantify this in terms of business impact to make an argument for introducing specific benefits or a route to support.
Get executive management backing for introducing services as part of your employee benefits programme and which can provides a safety net for difficult carer situations. There are a number of resources through tutella.co and carers.co.uk which will help you to understand the potential solutions or to ask advice from. Raise awareness and communicate regularly around the issues (making use of the frequent eldercare national awareness days). Encourage peer support, as it's so important for employee to know they're not the only one and it encourages awareness, understanding and support in the organisation.
Employees hate to admit anything that might be perceived as a kind of weakness – whether they believe their employer will be understanding or not – and the most important role for HR is to demonstrate how caring doesn't need to be a problem, and that being in the workplace is part of the solution.