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UPFRONT
COMPASSIONATE CARE LEAVE POLICIES
PROVIDE “CARE FOR THE CAREGIVERS”
As the population ages and more Canadians find themselves caring
for dying family members, many Canadian workplaces are
helping to “care for the caregivers” by implementing compassionate
care leave policies that provide comfort to employees, while boosting
engagement and retention at work.
A recent survey by the Human Resources Professionals
Association (HRPA), in partnership with the Canadian Hospice
Palliative Care Association (CHPCA), found 59 per cent of 692
organizations polled had formal compassionate care leave policies
that recognize and accommodate employees’ family and
dependent care responsibilities for providing end-of-life care to
loved ones.
As one respondent said, “Being there for your employees when
they need it the most speaks volumes about your culture.”
BUSINESS BENEFITS
Providing compassionate care benefits is also good business practice,
according to the survey. A majority found there were clear
business benefits to providing these policies, including increased
employee engagement (61 per cent) and retention (56 per cent).
And almost half (49 per cent) said having a policy makes it easier
for employees to return to work and reintegrate in the work team
after caring for a loved one.
“These numbers speak to the fact that not only do compassionate
care policies help employees through very difficult times,
they also make good business sense,” said Bill Greenhalgh, CEO
of HRPA. “Providing accommodations for employees caring
for family members at end of life is one of the ways to reduce
caregiver stress and avoid burnout. Workers who are supported
through situations like this are more loyal and are more likely to
stay with the company.”
“With the aging baby boomer population, compassionate care
benefits are quickly becoming an essential aspect of organizational
policy,” said Sharon Baxter, CHPCA executive director.
“Employees need the reassurance that they will be secure should
they need to take a temporary leave to care for and support a
gravely ill family member.”
For full survey details, please visit: www.hrpa.ca/Documents/
360/Compassionate_Care_Policy.pdf.
The compassionate care leave survey polled 692 HRPA members
between June and July 2014.
BETTER MANAGERS OR FEWER PROBLEMS?
Keeping a cool head in a crisis is a hallmark of a good leader, but
the number of fires executives are putting out daily and weekly
may be trending down, a recent Accountemps survey shows.
Today, a third of chief financial officers (CFOs) interviewed said
they contend with at least one unexpected crisis a week. This
compares to 81 per cent of executives who said they dealt with
at least one unforeseen crisis a week in a similar survey conducted
10 years ago.
The most recent survey was developed by Accountemps, and
was conducted by an independent research firm and the local results
are based on interviews with 270 CFOs from a stratified
random sample of Canadian companies.
“At any given moment, managers could be faced with a variety
of crises at work; in recent years these may have included
data breaches and social media gaffes but they can also be anything
from a top employee quitting to a financial reporting
error,” said Dianne Hunnam-Jones, Canadian district president
of Accountemps. “The best way to ensure an issue doesn’t develop
into a crisis is to be prepared. Creating a detailed crisis
Tom Wang / Shutterstock
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ JANUARY 2015 ❚ 11