National Inclusion Week is an awareness raising campaign which is dedicated to celebrating inclusion and serves as a call to action to create more inclusive workplaces for all. It is taking place from 23 – 29 September.

Drawing on this year’s theme of ‘Impact Matters’, this blog focuses on the impact of caring in the workplace, thinking about what impact inclusive policies and provisions can have on an employee who finds themselves in an unpaid caring role.

Inclusivity within the workplace is a term that ensures an environment where employees feel valued, appreciated and acknowledged. An organisation shows inclusivity by recognising how employees’ differences contribute to a positive culture and business outcomes. In this case, an employee’s unpaid caring role, meaning they inevitably find themselves juggling work alongside caring for a loved one.

Carers are individuals, of any age, who provide unpaid care and support to a family member, friend or neighbour who is disabled, ill, or who needs extra help as they grow older. Carers are protected by certain laws such as the Carer’s Leave Act (2023), Time off for family and dependents and the Equality Act 2010; however, these protections are generally not sought-after and utilised due to a lack of awareness and identification of employees who are carers.

At Employers for Carers (EfC) we often get asked by organisations ‘why should we support carers?’, for which there are numerous reasons why, and which will be touched upon in this blog.

Before jumping into the reasons why, it is important to first understand the needs of carers to support them in the right way. Organisations need to ask who their carers are, what kind of responsibilities do they have as a carer and how their caring role impacts their work life.

Some of the ways to help organisations identify carers and understand their needs include partaking in awareness raising activities such as Carers Week or Carers Rights Day, using an employee survey to encourage carers to identify themselves or having a senior employee share their experience of being a carer – the list goes on.

Once organisations grasp a better understanding of the carers in their workplace, they can begin to shape the types of support that are important to them.

So, back to the question in hand, why support carers in the workplace on an organisational level?

There is evidence to show that the impact of staff turnover, absence and stress because of juggling work and caring could be costing UK businesses over £3.5 billion every year, illustrating that there are significant savings to be made by better supporting carers to manage work alongside caring

Incorporating flexible working for employees could have a huge positive impact on an organisation. Research by Centrica has estimated that cumulatively, UK companies could save up to £4.8 billion a year in unplanned absences and a further £3.4 billion in improved employee retention by adopting flexible working[1]. This is why it is important to include carers and caring responsibilities in business and strategic plans and ensure that carers are explicitly mentioned in policies to make support for them transparent.

If we pivot our focus to support at managerial level, this is often where consistent support may fall by the wayside. It is widely known that consistency across all line managers is notably hard to achieve but arguably the most important factor.

Manager training, whether that be through e-learning resources or webinars, provides an opportunity for managers to learn about who carers are and the signs they can look out for if they think an employee might be a carer, such as taking time off at the last minute or returning from annual leave unrested.

Communications with managers about internal policies and the different forms of support carers can access is imperative to empower managers with the ability to signpost an employee coming to them to disclose a new or ongoing caring responsibility to workplace support.

One thing to keep in mind when supporting carers is how unique each and every situation is. No carer story is the same and therefore the adjustments required within the workplace will differ from case to case.

Carers may come into an organisation already caring, they may have to respond to an emergency during the workday that triggers a longer-term caring responsibility, they may come in and out of a caring role or have multiple caring roles at once to fulfil. It is important for organisations to think about these different types of scenarios and the means of support that could benefit them.

Carer passports or wellbeing adjustment passports are examples of tangible tools that can assist organisations in recognising the unique caring circumstances of an individual and their support needs. They are a live document that encompasses information about the employee’s caring role and what adjustments and support they may require. This live document can be revisited at any point and passed onto new line managers to avoid carers repeating describing their situation.

Businesses should not only think about what they have in place at each organisational level to create an inclusive workplace, but also consider measuring the impact of their inclusivity, to ensure the continuous development of policies and practices.

Firstly, as an organisation, you may want to capture data to measure the business benefits of having carer support in place. Common basic measures that our EfC member organisations have sought to capture include staff absence rates, staff retention and staff engagement. Monitoring and measuring such data over time can provide your organisation with evidence of reduced staff absences or early exit from the workplace, and increased staff retention and staff engagement due to implementing and sustaining carer support.

Capturing data on individual employees is another way of showing impact and could include monitoring the uptake of carer’s leave or carer passports, as well as receiving feedback from carers to see how this works for them in practice and whether any developments are needed. It could also include using your organisation’s HR management software via a self-declaration to register information about who is a carer and their caring situation.

After the data that has been captured, evaluated and reported on, it is time to take action. The measured impact offers a springboard to help organisations decide whether there are any necessary changes to be made to policies or practices – and, if so, identify the process for actioning and monitoring change to ensure increased inclusivity of carers. Following up on key findings from measurement and evaluation of carer support is important not only to inform an organisation’s future work in this area but also to communicate to employees the purpose and progress of this work, so that they feel acknowledged and heard.

Inclusion of caring at every level within an organisation not only makes business sense, but also ensures you are future proofing for the many employees who will become carers during their employment journey at your organisation.

Kathryn Woolston-Thomas, Senior Content and Development Officer, Carers UK

Managed and supported by the specialist knowledge of Carers UK, Employers for Carers, has evolved from a pioneering group of employers committed to working carers. Our key purpose is to ensure that employers have the support to retain and manage employees with caring responsibilities.

Launched in 2009 as an employers’ membership forum, EfC now has over 230 member organisations across the public, private and voluntary sectors. The total number of employees covered by member organisations is now above the 2.9 million mark.

Carer Confident, EfC’s employer benchmarking scheme assists employers to build a supportive and inclusive workplace for staff who are, or will become, carers and to make the most of the talents that carers can bring to the workplace.

If you have any questions about our EfC membership, please contact [email protected]

[1] https://www.carersuk.org/media/rdlkvnha/crd23-report-eng-final.pdf