Sandy Begbie: Helping carers makes sense for business

'Creating an accessible forum has been a lifeline for many of our carers,' says Standard Life chief people officer Sandy Begbie. Picture: Contributed

Dealing with the stress and emotional strain of caring for a loved one is a testing enough experience on its own, but add to that the challenge of balancing this with work, as so many people do, and the situation can quickly develop in to one that many struggle to contend with.

With an ageing population, changes in social care and the current economic climate, it is vital that employers recognise the daily challenges an ever-increasing number of their people face in balancing work and caring. It’s up to employers to put in place emotional and logistical support structures that help ensure carers are better able to pull off the necessary balancing act and remain in the workforce.

The sheer variety of illnesses, disabilities, family circumstances and whether caring responsibilities are short or long term mean flexibility is important. At Standard Life we recognise that our people have individual needs, and have put in place a flexible package of support.

Our carers’ policy sets out all of the available options, with real-life examples of how these could be used, including taking up to five days paid carer’s leave, longer periods of unpaid leave, buying additional holidays, or arranging working hours to a flexible pattern that balances the business and carer’s needs. And training is provided both for managers in how to support working carers, and for carers in how to help deal with the challenges they face.

When we decided a number of years ago to put more support in place for working carers, it was because we recognised the benefit of retaining talent in our business. An estimated one in five carers will choose to give up work because they are unable to balance their responsibilities of caring and work.

The two key initiatives which have really made the difference at Standard Life are our carer’s leave programme, and our employee-led Carers Network. Creating an accessible forum where people can come together, share experiences, practical advice, and have access to education, has been a lifeline for many of our carers.

But it’s also helped our business understand the variety of challenges our people face, and we’ve tailored our support accordingly. Championed by an executive sponsor who has first-hand experience of the impact caring responsibilities have, both of these programmes have transformed the support our carers now receive.

200 Voices: find out more about the people who have shaped Scotland

It’s often only by taking action that the real scale of the problem presents itself. When we introduced our carers’ leave programme in 2014, offering five days paid carer’s leave to all employees, nobody was quite sure what uptake there would be. For one thing we had no way knowing exactly how many employees were carers, or were comfortable revealing they were. Since then, almost 8 per cent of the total UK workforce at Standard Life has taken advantage of carer’s leave, amounting to over 1,600 days.

But this isn’t about numbers; it’s about people. The couple with a disabled child who needs round-the-clock-care, the woman who has to regularly travel to a different part of the country to look after an elderly parent with Alzheimer’s. Different situations present different sets of challenges, but being able to take time off to take care of the loved ones who rely on them, without having to use holidays and impacting their wellbeing as a result, or having to constantly ask for that time from a hopefully understanding manager, is a theme that transcends many of these situations.

And the emotional support of being able to connect with others in similar situations is invaluable to so many. Our carers have told us that without the emotional and logistical support we have introduced and the top-level sponsorship for caring, they don’t know what they would have done. We believe we’ve retained talent as a result.

It is this partnership that is perhaps the single best thing employers can do for carers. Of course every work setting is different, but if we can continue to make strides in better understanding the needs of carers, and support where we can, then we better arm our people for the challenges they face.

The partnerships we have established with carers’ charities have also helped ensure we are offering the best possible support to carers. Charities like VOCAL, who we work with to deliver training, or Carer Positive, who support employers in how to best support carers.

By sharing ideas and learning from the experience of others, it allows us to put in place the practical measures needed, to provide the support we should. Even in today’s world of rapid technological advancement and increasingly automatic systems, the single biggest asset a company has is its people. Therefore it makes business as well as human sense to ensure that those people are equipped as best as possible to succeed, whatever their situation.

Employers can’t take away the emotional stress of being a carer, but we can perhaps make it ever so slightly easier to handle.

• Sandy Begbie is chief people officer at Standard Life

Click here to ‘Like’ The Scotsman Business on Facebook