The combination of caregiving, work, and private life can lead to reduced well-being and health problems. Support in maintaining a healthy work-life balance is not self-evident for working caregivers. Therefore, it is important for employees and employers to engage in conversation about this, concludes Eline Vos in her doctoral research. The Participatory Approach that Vos studied focuses on having the right conversation and contributes to more experienced support from the supervisor. This may also help in the long term with a better work-life balance and the prevention of overload. Vos is defending her thesis today at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
In the Netherlands, 1 in 4 workers, about 1.8 million people, combine their work with caregiving tasks. The expectation is that this group will continue to grow due to aging and the raising of the retirement age, as shown in the latest Public Health Future Outlook (VTV) from the RIVM. For instance, the number of people aged 75 and older needing care will more than double from 2022 to 2050 to 650,000.
Approach for a Good Balance
Vos delved into the needs of working caregivers for her doctoral research and how this support can be provided. She developed the so-called Participatory Approach for Working Caregivers, along with an accompanying toolkit. This approach can help employees tackle and prevent issues together with their supervisors. The involvement of a process facilitator is also important in this approach.
Process Facilitator Very Important
A process facilitator can be, for example, a company social worker who helps to conduct a constructive conversation and come to solutions together. This is important because working caregivers sometimes find it difficult to talk about caregiving at work: they do not want to burden their employer and see it as a private matter. At the same time, supervisors are not always aware that their employees are providing care and do not know how to support them. They also need concrete tools to engage in conversation and provide appropriate support.
More Support from Supervisors
The Participatory Approach was implemented in four organizations for Voss research. Both caregivers and supervisors reported that this approach provided structure for a conversation and helped them step by step in solving issues. The approach did not lead to an immediate improvement in the balance between work and private life. This may be because some caregivers in the organizations used the approach preventively and therefore experienced few problems. However, employees reported feeling more social support from their supervisors than those who did not receive the approach. They indicated that caregiving was more often discussable, that there was understanding for their situation, and that their supervisor was thinking along about solutions.
Recommendations for Employers
Based on her doctoral research, Vos recommends that employers implement the Participatory Approach. To optimally utilize this approach, it is important that employers foster an open culture that normalizes and makes conversations about caregiving and work-life balance common and usual. At the same time, further research is needed to better understand how the approach works for different types of caregivers and whether the increased social support contributes to a better work-life balance in the long term. Additionally, follow-up research by the RIVM focuses on how different parties, such as the government, employers, municipalities, and caregiving organizations, can collaborate to better support working caregivers.