Compassionate
Care Leave
Compassionate care is a benefit for
employees needing to take a temporary
leave to care for a gravely ill
family member who has a significant
risk of death within six months. While
both the federal and provincial governments
provide this employment legislation
guaranteeing job-protected compassionate
care leave for workers, many organizations
are going a step further by implementing
top-up compassionate care leave policies
in order to provide comfort to employees
while boosting engagement and retention
at work.
With Canada’s aging population, employees
are in greater need than ever
before to take leave and care for loved ones
at end of life,; yet, at the same time, maintain
peace of mind knowing their jobs will
be there when they return. This increasing
need for flexibility is part of an ongoing
conversation about how companies should
approach and offer compassionate care
leave.
“Organizations are nothing without
their people, and employees shouldn’t have
to choose between their job and caring
for a critically ill loved one,” said Tracy
Lapointe, vice president of human resources
at GSK Canada, one of the first
organizations in Canada to introduce a
compassionate care benefit in 2002.
COMPASSIONATE CARE
SURVEY
To find out more about the compassionate
care landscape in Canada, the Human
Resources Professionals Association
(HRPA) and the Canadian Hospice
Palliative Care Association (CHPCA)
wanted to capture some of the different attitudes
and policies of HR leaders. After
speaking with 692 HRPA members between
June and July 2014, opinions and
trends emerged.
For example, larger companies are more
likely (82 per cent of organizations with
5,000-plus employees) to offer compassionate
care leave than smaller companies
(46 per cent of organizations between
50-199 employees). Also, unionized organizations
are more likely to have a formal
compassionate care policy than a nonunionized
environment.
And besides the moral need to provide
these benefits to employees, HR and businesses
are seeing other positive results as
well, in the form of more engaged employees
who better reintegrate after an absence
and are more likely to stay with their organization
long-term.
What develops is an organizational
landscape where compassionate care
makes sense not only on a personal level,
but also on a business level.
WHAT’S YOUR POLICY?
Employee benefits have evolved over the
past several decades. Recognizing the
changing demographics of the workplace,
the amount of leave and health services
available to employees have changed,
and these are now more prevalent benefits
than they once were.
GSK’s compassionate care benefit
provides up to 13 weeks of leave over a
two-year period, and for eligible employees
with at least three years of service, they
receive 13 weeks pay at full salary.
“When GSK introduced the compassionate
care benefit 12 years ago, it was
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GIVING CARE TO CAREGIVERS
By Jill Harris, Joel Kranc and Duff McCutcheon
32 ❚ FEBRUARY 2015 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL