Three practical ways to support the mental health of employee caregivers

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Flexible working policies, open communication, and real listening are all keys to creating a supportive workplace for those with caregiving responsibilities.

When discussing mental health in the workplace, caregivers cannot be overlooked. Juggling between caregiving and work responsibilities, these caregivers can easily forget to take care of themselves, leading to a huge strain on their own mental and physical health.

Poor mental health of these caregivers can, in turn, impact businesses significantly due to disengagement at work, low productivity, absenteeism, and even attrition. Therefore, employers should play a bigger role in caring for and supporting them.

In light of that, City Mental Health Alliance Hong Kong has developed a toolkit and provided practical tips for employers to support employee caregivers in balancing work and life.

1. Curating flexible working policies and applying consistently

The needs of dependents can be unpredictable. Remote and flexible working policies can allow carers to be more physically available for their dependents while juggling work and home responsibilities. They can also enable them to take care of urgent caring duties as and when required.

Family leave or unpaid leave ensures employees know they can take the time they need to be away for a more significant period, for example to accompany their dependents to regular medical appointments or more intensive medical treatments or procedures.

Maintaining consistency is also crucial. Apply caregiving policies consistently across the company and ensure that policies are not considered optional by certain teams or line managers.

2. Listening to employees’ needs and communicating openly

Seek feedback from caregiving employees on the company’s existing support services and resources for carers. Collect data before designing policies and procedures that impact caregiving employees, including the employee demographic, who they are caring for, what their caregiving responsibilities are, and more.

Openly listen to understand their individual needs and work together to develop or refine your company’s support offering.

Caregivers may have different priorities or considerations regarding their career development. Have open conversations around the caregiving employee’s career progression and work with them to ensure they have continual support to achieve their long-term career objectives and goals.

Encourage senior leaders to share their own caregiving experiences and how they have juggled their care responsibilities with work or to voice their support for the role of caregivers through the policies provided. This can empower other team members to be more open about their struggles and foster a more inclusive and supportive workplace.

3. Providing support in different ways

Create an employee resource group for caregivers so that they can access an additional informal platform to share, provide support, and exchange tips and resources.

Consider providing in-house psychological support to enable employees who may be struggling to find time to attend counselling outside of their working and caregiving hours to more easily access mental health support.