The combination of informal care, paid work and personal life can result in poorer well-being and health problems. Yet, support in maintaining a healthy work–life balance is not a given for working caregivers. That is why it is important for employers and employees to engage in an open dialogue, Eline Vos concludes in her doctoral research. The ‘Participatory Approach’ which Vos studied focuses on fostering a conversation about informal care at the workplace and has shown to result in more perceived support from their supervisors. In the long term, this may help to improve work-life balance and prevent working caregivers from becoming overburdened. Vos will defend her PhD thesis today at VU University Amsterdam.
In the Netherlands, one in four employees, or about 1.8 million people, combine paid work with informal care tasks. According to RIVM’s latest Public Health Foresight Study (PHF), this number is expected to grow amongst others due to population ageing and the rising retirement age. The number of people over the age of 75 who require informal care is expected to more than double between 2022 and 2050, reaching 650,000.
An approach to support working informal caregivers in their balance
For her doctoral research, Vos explored the needs of working informal caregivers and how they can best be supported. She developed the Participatory Approach for working caregivers and an accompanying toolkit. This approach can help employees tackle and prevent challenges in their work-life balance together with their supervisor. Involving a process facilitator is another important part of the approach.
Key role of the process facilitator
The process facilitator can be, for example, a company social worker, who helps to guide constructive conversation and jointly (i.e. the working caregiver together with their supervisor) find solutions. This is important, as working caregivers sometimes find it difficult to talk about their caregiving role at work: they do not want to burden their employer or view it as a private matter. At the same time, supervisors are not always aware that employees provide informal care or know how they can best support them. They also need concrete tools to help them start the conversation and offer suitable support.
More support from supervisors
For Vos’ research, the Participatory Approach was implemented in four organisations. Both caregivers and supervisors reported that this approach enabled a structured conversation and offered step-by-step support in solving challenges. The approach did not lead to an immediate improvement in work-life balance. This may be because some of the caregivers in the organisations used the approach as a preventive measure and were not yet experiencing significant problems. However, caregivers who received the Participatory Approach did experience more social support from their supervisor, compared to those who did not receive the Participatory Approach. They reported that caregiving had become easier to discuss, that supervisors showed greater understanding and helped think through possible solutions.
Recommendations for employers
Based on her doctoral research, Vos recommends employers to implement the Participatory Approach. However, to make optimal use of this approach, it is important that employers ensure an open culture in which conversations about informal care and work-life balance are normalised. At the same time, further research is necessary to better understand how this approach works for different types of informal carers and whether increasing social support will contribute to a better work-life balance in the long term. Additionally, a follow-up study by RIVM will explore how different stakeholders, including government, employers, municipalities and informal care organisations, could work together to provide better support for working caregivers.