Carers
Carers are becoming increasingly important in the modern workplace. A carer is defined as someone who looks after a disabled or chronically sick person in their family. There is evidence from employers that giving support and flexibility to existing employees who have caring responsibilities is not only the right thing to do, it brings tangible business benefits as well.
In April 2007, new laws came into effect in the UK that give carers the right to request flexible working arrangements from their employer, enabling easier management of work and home responsibilities. A healthy work/life balance is important for any employee and can go a long way to helping reduce stress, the biggest cause of long-term absence among non-manual staff, and second biggest cause among manual staff[i] . It makes business sense for an employer to try and reduce the rate of sickness absence through stress.
Retaining your expertise
The UK population is ageing. In particular, the working population is getting older. In 2010, there will be 20% more workers aged 55 and over than there were in 2000. There are also fewer young people in the labour market. Along with caring for children, more and more people have caring responsibilities for aged parents. The UK workforce is changing, and businesses that change with it will be more competitive.
- In July 2007, more than three million people — one in seven in the workforce — are balancing caring responsibilities and paid employment.
- Around 6,000 people take on a caring responsibility every day[ii]. The population of carers in the workforce is constantly changing.
- Three in five people will care for someone at some point in their lives.
- One in five carers have given up work to care full time.
- Many of these are aged between 45-64 years old – people with experience at the peak of their careers.
Any employee can be a carer
Employees are quite likely to enter the workforce before they have taken on caring responsibilities. Every year, 10,000 people have a stroke, 36,000 people are seriously injured in a road accident and 27,000 children are born or diagnosed with a serious disability or rare syndrome. This means that any of a business’s employees could have caring responsibilities at some point in their life.
The business case
The best way to retain the expertise and experience of your staff is to have a policy that offers flexible working and emergency leave to those who need it. This lowers absence and turnover rates. This in turn can lead to lower recruitment and training costs, higher staff morale, greater productivity and a reputation that will attract more candidates to your organisation.
Flexible working makes good business sense. Workers who have the option to work flexibly achieve an estimated 21% increase in productivity, which has a clear impact on the bottom line.
Further information
Carers UK have published a free resource pack for employers. The pack is endorsed by DTI, British Gas, ACAS, the British Chambers of Commerce and Action for Carers and Employment (ACE).
It is available to download for free at http://www.carersuk.org/Employersforcarers/EmployersPack/Downloads .
Sources
- [i]'Attending to Absence: Absence and labour turnover survey 2007’, CBI, May 2007 .
- [ii] http://www.carersuk.org/Information
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