CARERS SCOTLAND
Preparing your organisation for 2021 and beyond: Supporting carers in your workplace 2020 has been an unprecedented time for employers, with the sudden emergence of the Coronavirus pandemic creating a very challenging year for Scottish businesses. With a vaccine being rolled out across the country, employers and staff members alike are now keen to establish what the future of working life will look like in Scotland. At this time, employers may also have become increasingly aware of the growing number of people in work while caring for someone who may be older, frail, ill or disabled. 2020 saw a massive increase in carers with in the number of people caring for friends, family or loved ones rising by almost 400,000 to a current estimated total of 1.1 million. Having staff members on your team with caring responsibilities is already more common than many employers realise and this issue is only going to increase as we move into the future. Managing these roles has always been challenging, and the pandemic certainly highlighted this for many people. Working carers have had the additional concern of caring for people who may be vulnerable, or shielding. Many care services have been withdrawn causing their caring demands to intensify, while the social aspects of their life away from caring have diminished, contributing to feelings of isolation. However, the sudden necessity to adapt to different working models has also brought about new opportunities. For a long time we have recognised flexible styles of working as something that can be hugely beneficial for all staff members, but particularly those juggling caring responsibilities with work. The right to request flexible working has been
strengthened in statutory terms in recent years and therefore has become more common, however prior to 2020, many employers still had reservations about the practical challenges of utilising flexible and home working. The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown restrictions saw a sudden and drastic change in this, with many organisations forced to act quickly to enable remote and flexible working in order to continue operations.
HES is delighted to be recognised as a Carer Positive employer. We are committed to supporting working carers within HES and we will continue to develop our wellbeing support and services to carers within our organisation. Angie Hamilton, Head of Wellbeing at Historic Environment Scotland
16
Lessons learned from 2020 The speed of the move to home working has been impressive, with staff members adapting quickly and gaining new skills to allow teams to collaborate remotely and meet work commitments in new ways. Furthermore, it has confirmed to employers that flexible working can be entirely viable and many employees have reported that this increased flexibility has enabled them to organise their working hours more effectively and productively. Embracing online communication platforms has perhaps been the revelation of 2020, bringing new opportunities to maintain and even widen existing networks. Attending meetings has become easier without the need to travel and new ways of connecting with staff has provided health and wellbeing support through innovative online outreach models. Despite these achievements, it is important to acknowledge that the adaption to remote working has not been without challenges and in many organisations it has not been possible for front-line staff, factory