The Vanier Institute of the Family strives to be a leader in supporting the well-being of diverse families in Canada. It is only natural that this includes our employees’ families as well. We ensure, as much as possible, that our small team has the ability to maintain and integrate their work lives in the context of their family relationships and other important life domains.

As a small team, we operate on trust. We provide caregiving support on a case-by-case basis, recognizing that each caregiving experience is different and responsibilities change over time. We encourage our team members to share when they are going through challenging times so that we can support them. Having supportive policies also helps in the long-term retention of our staff.

We offer flexible working hours and allow workers to set their own schedules within core hours, as long as they are able to work a full day. We also offer compressed work weeks so that caregivers can work four longer days each week instead of five days with regular hours. In addition, we have created a “paid-time off bank” for bereavement, sick days, and family caregiving time because the minimum government leave entitlements can be inadequate, depending on the situation. We want to be as empathetic as possible by engaging in conversations about giving staff time to attend to family members’ needs. During those times, employees don’t want the additional stress of not being paid while focusing on their own wellness or others’.

Businesses that feel as though they can’t afford to provide caregiving support to their employees need to consider whether they can afford not to. Making people choose between work and family will often result in staff who may leave or begin to search for opportunities elsewhere. Employers will then have to allocate significant resources to hire and train to make up for these lost valuable resources. But beyond that, it’s also the right thing to do.

-Margo Hilbrecht, Executive Director, The Vanier Institute of the Family