Embracing your working carers

Embracing your working carers

July 02, 2024

Over 250,000 people in the paid workforce are also in a caring role in the home. That is 1 in 9 who cope with the juggle-struggle of care and career. As employers, it is vital that we pay heed to this societal issue that knows no age, gender, class or race.

Caring is something that will come to us all in the form of giving or receiving care. In 2022, there were 131,764 children with a disability in Ireland. For many parents, the challenge of trying to meet their child's care needs while working outside the home can be hugely difficult. Our population is also aging, with the number of people aged 65 years and over estimated to have risen by over 40% between 2013 and 2023 (from 569,000 to 806,000). This is expected to double again to 1.6 million by 2051 and will have a huge impact in terms of the number of older people requiring support from family members to continue living in their own homes over the coming years.

With an unemployment rate of just 4.3% reported in March, it is very much a jobseekers' market and therefore imperative that employers look to futureproof their workplaces, support existing staff who have caring responsibilities and ensure they do not lose valuable employees. While the increased focus on equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace in recent years has been hugely encouraging, caring is an issue that sometimes falls through the cracks, despite spanning all EDI pillars and being very much deserving of its own identity.

Caring Employers

Caring Employers, launched in 2019 by Family Carers Ireland (FCI), sees organisations partnering with the charity in a pledge to support those juggling paid work and care - ensuring they feel supported and empowered in the workplace. Today, the programme has 11 organisations who operate their own personalised activity programmes such as people manager workshops, one-to-one carer clinics and practical webinars on topics like positive communication in the family unit. FCI also launched their Care TALK series last year, which invites all family carers from the Caring Employers community to tune in to talks delivered by experts in their field.

Sue O'Grady, Marketing Manager with FCI, said: "Our programme is really starting to gain momentum as more companies realise the need for and the importance of supporting the 1 in 9 of their staff who have caring responsibilities at home. Your employees could be caring for an ageing parent with dementia, a partner who has received a diagnosis of a long-term illness or a child who has been born with a disability. Caring comes in all different shapes and sizes, often without any warning, and family carers need their managers to be supportive and empathetic.We can't expect employers to become experts in caring overnight but increasingly, they are stepping up in a genuine way to provide practical supports for employees facing challenges in their personal lives. For managers, it's about knowing where to go for the information, especially in relation to policy. Being approachable breeds transparency between both parties, with the aim of agreeing any accommodations the person may need to ensure they can continue in employment while caring at home. It makes sense for the employee, the manager and the bottom line, avoiding high expenses related to recruitment and the brain-drain."

It's important to also recognise that the smaller the company, the bigger the potential impact should someone have to leave the workforce altogether because the demands of caring and working are simply too much. By their very nature, family carers are excellent multi-taskers and companies should be capitalising on these positive attributes. Carer's Leave is an excellent statutory entitlement for employees, but there are options that should also be explored which may work better for both employer and employee. Examples of this are more flexible hours, shared contracts (family carers who receive Carer's Allowance can work 18.5 hours per week), hybrid options and improved policies.

Ms O'Grady added:

"Irish Life, Caring Employer members since its inception in 2019, have trailblazed the way for best in practice when it comes to employee-centric policies. When the new EU Work Life-Balance Directive was transposed in 2023 giving carers an additional five days of unpaid leave per year, Irish Life not only decided to double it to 10 days, they also decided to continue paying staff during this leave, which is an incredible show of commitment. This is a positive step for carers, as most take an average of nine days annual leave per year for carer-related responsibilities, with the main demand being appointments for their loved ones. We are really proud of the programme and where it is today. Launching this in 2019, we couldn't have dreamed of working with the companies who have signed up so far and we're embracing being able to reach so many family carers, bringing personalised, expert supports right to their desks."

Current Members:

Irish Life, Canada Life, Bank of Ireland, Lidl, An Post, SIRO, SETU (Waterford/Carlow), AIB, Irish Distillers, Irish Rail, the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery

To learn more about Caring Employers, please click here or contact:

Sue O'Grady, Marketing Manager, Family Carers Ireland

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.