Workforce needs are shifting with demands for more equal pay, parental leave and adult family care. However government regulations, and the resulting HR policies, don’t always align with what people want or need.
This was the topic of a panel at the Women in Work Summit 2024 – Parental/Carer Leave and Flexible Working: Moving from Policy to Effective Implementation at Scale. Stephanie Leung, CEO of KareHero; Lucy Lewis, Partner at Lewis Silkin; and Amanda Arrowswmith, People & Transformation Director at the CIPD, discussed how effective government policies have been, and what they really mean, in practice, for HR leaders and employees.
With one in five UK employees – more than 7 million people – now juggling jobs and caregiving duties, companies need to do more than draft policies; they must ensure practical support is at the core of their culture in order to ease the burden and retain talent.
Why? Because it’s better for society, for business, and for all genders. Here, we share the panel’s thoughts and advice on how to achieve meaningful action.
Government failure and the role of businesses
Lucy posed the challenge that the government hasn’t done enough to create policies that work, citing parental leave as an example. “We have been promised and promised that shared parental leave would be reviewed, but no actionable steps have been taken,” she said. This inaction, Lucy argued, has placed an undue burden on businesses to fill the gap, forcing them to develop their own policies and to take steps to support employees in areas where the government has failed.
Stephanie echoed this sentiment for adult care (support for the 1 in 5 caring for their adult children, sick partners or parents in the UK workforce), describing how her own experience as a family caregiver led her to found KareHero, a company designed to support workers dealing with adult care crises.
"In the UK, 10.6 million people are family caregivers, the majority of whom are looking after an adult, while managing full-time jobs. The system is broken," she said, stressing that companies are increasingly having to step in when government policies fall short.
The importance of flexibility
Flexible working is just one way businesses can support those juggling a job and caregiving responsibilities. “I’ve been a caregiver since I was 14,” Stephanie explained, “and I had to quit my job twice because of care crises.” She believes flexible working can be crucial for employees managing dual roles. “You need those two hours off to take your loved one to a hospital. People are spending weekends sorting things out and coming back exhausted, which leads to absenteeism.”
Lucy expanded on this point, noting that flexible working is often more complicated than it appears. While recent government proposals aim to expedite flexible working requests and introduce a "yes first" approach, challenges remain, particularly around pay and the willingness of employers to embrace these policies.
“For a lot of people, it isn’t about saying, ‘I’d like every Friday off,’” Lucy added. “Hospital appointments and caregiving responsibilities don’t work like that. The flexibility needs to be more nuanced.”
Beyond policy: embedding culture change
Introducing policies such as equal parental leave or flexible working is just the beginning. To instigate real change, companies need to embed these policies into their organisational culture. Lucy explained how the introduction of Lewis Silkin’s equal parental leave policy sparked a broader conversation about leave for other caregivers. “It started a more open dialogue within our business, with all our networks – gender groups, disability groups – about the leave requirements people have,” Lucy says.
Amanda agreed, noting that companies must ensure their policies are more than just words on paper. “One of the biggest problems we see is that many adult carers don’t talk about it. They feel a great deal of shame,” she said, highlighting the need for managers to be trained to recognise the signs and in how to create an open, supportive environment. Amanda believes providing training for people managers is key for destigmatising caregiving and providing practical support.
The business case for carer support
Both Stephanie and Lucy stressed that supporting carers and offering flexible working isn’t just about doing the right thing – it’s also good for business. “There’s a talent war out there,” Lucy remarked. “Retaining people is cheaper than recruiting, and everyone works better when wellbeing is addressed.” Stephanie added an anecdote from her work in this area, recalling a conversation with a member of staff at a large government organisation who described how employees managing care responsibilities also possessed invaluable skills. “These people are managing life and death every day. They’re incredible multitaskers, empathetic listeners, great at crisis management, and calm under pressure. These are assets to the business,” she said, urging businesses to reframe how they view employees with caregiving duties.
The panellists also pointed out the financial burden of caregiving, particularly for women. “By the time you’re 50, there’s a 50% chance you’ll become a carer for an adult,” Stephanie explained. “Many carers quit their jobs due to burnout, with 6,000 people leaving the workforce every year, never to return. Women, in particular, face financial devastation.”
Data-driven implementation
In order for policies like carer’s leave and flexible working to succeed, businesses need data to back up their decisions. When one of Stephanie’s clients introduced two weeks of paid carer’s leave, they initially worried about potential abuse of the system. However, the data showed that employees used an average of just three days per year. “Having the data to support that was a game-changer,” Lucy said. The real-world figures helped dispel fears and fostered greater trust between the company and its employees.
Stephanie added that understanding employee needs through direct engagement can reveal surprising results. “We asked employees what they wanted, and we were surprised by the answer,” she said, recounting how KareHero expected a need for hospital care support but instead found a demand for legal assistance in setting up powers of attorney.
Collaboration, not top-down solutions
One thing all of the panellists agreed on is the importance of collaboration between employers and employees. “It has to be a collaboration,” Lucy emphasised. “It’s easy to think we’ll just introduce two weeks of carer’s leave and that’s the solution. But without asking employees what they actually need, it’s difficult to create something that works.”
Stephanie agreed, pointing out that a top-down approach often misses the mark. “We asked employees what they wanted in terms of support, and we were surprised to hear that they needed guidance on things like how to reduce violence in the home when caring for a family member with dementia,” emphasising the need to tailor solutions to the real-world challenges employees face.
Moving from policy to practice is not only about implementing leave or flexibility policies – it’s about embedding them into the very culture of the organisation. Flexibility, empathy, and practical support are key to ensuring these policies make a tangible difference in employees’ lives.
As Stephanie puts it, “These are your assets. The people managing caregiving responsibilities are some of your most resilient and skilled employees. Supporting them is not just the right thing to do – it’s a smart business move.”
In the current climate, where caregiving responsibilities are on the rise and government support is lagging, it is up to businesses to lead the way in providing practical, meaningful support. And as this panel showed, the benefits extend far beyond the individuals – they enrich the entire organisation, which in turn helps to grow productivity.
