Below are some short case studies – further examples from EfC member organisations are invited – to help bring to life the art of the possible! We hope this will inspire other members to think about how they can use carer related data to improve business performance and employee experience.

‘Supporting carers in the workplace’ (Centrica and Carers UK, 2019)

Without support, employees who are balancing caring with working can struggle to perform well in the workplace or – even worse – drop out of the workforce altogether, resulting in the loss of experienced and skilled staff. We know this disproportionately impacts females and those who are aged 45 and over. We also appreciate that nobody plans to be a carer, and your life can be changed overnight.

Adopting carer-friendly policies and practices can help address this, keeping valuable skills and expertise in the workforce and increasing productivity. So supporting employees with caring responsibilities isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s also something that makes good business sense, and helps companies meet the productivity challenge outlined in the government’s Industrial Strategy.

To help prove the business case for carer-friendly workplaces, we’ve recently calculated the financial saving made by supporting our people with a flexible carer policy and peer support:

• Estimated saving of £1.8 million a year by avoiding unplanned absences and presenteeism (working while unwell or not fully performing) due to caring responsibilities.
• Further cumulative savings of £1.3 million through increased retention by supporting colleagues to stay in work while they care for loved ones.

A study* of over 200 British businesses highlighted some of the benefits experienced by employers who supported carers in the workplace:

• 92% saw better staff retention
• 88% experienced lower absence
• 69% observed higher productivity
• 61% witnessed improved recruitment

*Employers for Carers/Carers UK/HM Government (2013) ‘Supporting Working Carers: The Benefits to Families, Business and the Economy’

‘How to know you are truly supporting carers in the workplace’ (Notting Hill Genesis, 2024)

“We introduced our first Carers Staff Network in February 2020, where the first session saw 5 colleagues attend and join the network. With initiatives such as an “Am I a carer?” session and “My Life as a Carer” campaign, the network now sits at 152 active members.

“In 2021 Notting Hill Genesis began collecting data on the number of employees with caring responsibilities via their annual staff satisfaction survey, which showed that further education was required on the difference between a parent and a carer. To support this, Natalie Quilter introduced a Self Education Library on Caring and Caring responsibilities providing a list of books, websites, films and other resources. Workshops were also run by internal colleagues and external colleagues on what it means to be a carer and Notting Hill Genesis introduced an e-learning module on “Supporting Carers in the workplace”.

“Amendments were made to the annual staff satisfaction survey including adding the definition of a carer as set by the NHS, and in 2023 they had 337 colleagues identify themselves as carers.  This was broken down further into 3 categories “Carer for adults”, “Carer for children” and “Carer for adults and children” – this is to determine the satisfaction of carers and if there is a specific cohort within this group that need further support. Overall satisfaction for Notting Hill Genesis in 2023 was 86%, and amongst these groups it came out at Carer for adults – 93%, Carer for children – 86% and Carer for adults and children – 77%. This was positive to see carers in the business are generally satisfied if not more so than other colleagues in the business, but with carers for adults and children being lower than the average – this has given us a clear area to focus on.

“It is also important to understand who is coming in to the business and what types of candidates we are attracting. Since the beginning of 2023 we have added caring responsibilities to our Application Tracking System. We have seen this gradually increase, and currently sit at an 8% declaration rate. We are focusing on ensuring we are externally promoting ourselves as a carer friendly organisation, sharing the work of our carers network we hope to see this number increase in line with the percentage of working carers in England.

“Through the Carers Network, focus groups are ran to collect qualitative data on their experience of being a carer at Notting Hill Genesis. Most strikingly, is the number of people that have stayed in work due to the support available.

“Data which we will be collecting in the future as they have not been in place for 12 months, will be the number of colleagues self certifying themselves as a carer on our HR management system, usage of our carers policy and number of days taken, flexible working requests based on caring responsibilities and completion of the Supporting Carers in the Workplace e-learning course.”

To read the full case study from Notting Hill Genesis, visit the EfC Speaks Blog.

We would welcome other examples from EfC member organisations to add to this document, either from an organisational or individual (carer) perspective, to help illustrate what can be done here. If you would like to contribute, please email efcdigital@carersuk.org.

What is productivity?

Besides the general top line definition of “the total output produced per input”, the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel Development) suggests that: “Productivity can be thought of as how effectively organisations, and the people working in them, produce value from individual and collective contributions” and that “there is an untapped potential to boost productivity by raising the quality of people management across all sectors.” Its recommendations for employers include to:

• Use workforce data to improve diversity and inclusion. This is good business practice, boosts innovation, and enhances the organisation’s ability to serve a diverse customer base.
• Develop the people management capability of all line managers. They play a vital part in boosting employee engagement and well-being, as well as improving diversity and inclusion.
• Develop key policies and practices central to motivating staff. These include both direct and indirect employee voice, conflict management, work-life balance, and training and career development.

Tracking productivity

Tracking productivity – including identifying factors related to work-life balance and caring – can be challenging in practice and every organisation will have their own approach and strategies for capturing data. There is no right or wrong way for this process, therefore it may be whatever suits the shape and culture of your organisation.

• One definition of tracking productivity, for example, is “the process of capturing and analysing day-to-day work activities with the purpose of identifying patterns, barriers and opportunities improvements in the way employees get work done.”
• For instance, for a recent (2022) UK pilot with employers on introducing a 4 day working week, admin data, survey data, interviews and measures of work-life balance were used and data collected including revenue, absenteeism, resignations and new hires.

Metrics contributing to productivity included: communication and collaboration, time management, processes (meetings etc) and health and wellbeing.

Employer measures included: process and workflows, collaboration, focus periods, staff absences, tracking burnout, revenue and upskilling managers.

Employee measures included: health and wellbeing, stress, tracking leave and sickness and time management.