The National Council for Palliative Care (NCPC) has introduced a programme which trains employers to deal with bereavement in an accommodating and sensitive way. After the UK-based umbrella organisation conducted a survey which found that 32% of people who had suffered a loss in the past five years felt unsupported by their employer, it decided to find a way to help educate companies on this delicate matter. Its programme, titled “The Compassionate Employer”, aims to “provide practical resources developed by experts to help an organisation and their employees respond effectively to a bereaved person in the workplace.”
Although society at large may be uncomfortable talking about bereavement so openly, the reality is that most companies will, at some point, have an employee who experiences a death. By not being supportive at such a key time, employers risk losing their talent to more empathetic and understanding companies. The NCPC’s investigation uncovered that over 53% of those surveyed would consider leaving their job if their employer failed to be supportive after the death of someone close to them. Companies should, in spite of this statistic, want to deal with bereavement in a way that puts the employee first, not due to their own interests (i.e. retaining talent), but because this is what is necessary to establish a working environment where people are satisfied and feel valued and cared about.
Glenis Freeman, who works for the National Council for Palliative Care, says: “Many employers allow compassionate leave for a funeral, but fail to spot that the effects of bereavement can last for months or years. Staff may be under-performing for a long time after losing a loved one, with colleagues and managers aware something is wrong but unable to say the right thing.”
When companies fail to offer the necessary support, it is to their own detriment. Often bereavement remains an ongoing issue, long after the funeral is over. Naturally, this affects how people work, and due to the upset or stress, the quality of their work may be compromised. The Family Centre, a Canadian organisation, claims that 75% of the people they surveyed claimed that their bereavement reduced their ability to concentrate even after their compassionate leave was over. Some of the issues people can face include more than just the inability to concentrate, but also memory lapses, social withdrawal, a lack of motivation, anxiety and confusion. They may also supervise less effectively and make poor decisions.
In the UK, every worker is entitled to a “reasonable” amount of unpaid leave for the death of a dependant. This usually covers leave for the funeral and any time needed to make funeral arrangements. What is classed as a “reasonable” period of time is something that is agreed between the employer and employee. By not allowing the amount of leave that is truly necessary, companies suffer too.
On the need for continued support, Freeman states: “Managers… need to know that people may seem to have got over a loss, but be hurting again months later. The right response can help people get back to doing their best work again more quickly, help keep staff and stop underperformance affecting a whole team.”
No matter how supportive a company is, unpaid leave could drive people to return to work before they are ready due to reasons relating to money. In cases like these, companies are restricted in their ability to help workers. The Change Bereavement Leave campaign found.
This may not be what company chiefs want to hear, especially since the knock-on effect could be additional expenses in the short term. However, even the most financially focused executives should not ignore the costs of losing (and having to re-recruit) good staff, as well as other consequences, such as damage to the company brand if they are perceived as putting pound signs before people.
