How often have we in HR stated in our visions, missions, strategies and policies that ‘our people are our greatest asset’ and /or that we aim to be an ‘employer of choice’? But what does this mean in practice – when our employees have to cope with life’s misfortunes and emergencies?
These days many employers spend time developing family friendly policies, flexible benefits, and health…
After the rollercoaster journey of receiving a cancer diagnosis and treatment, many cancer survivors and their employers believe that after a return to work plan has been agreed and a few reasonable adjustments have been made, life will be pretty much back to normal in a few weeks.
However, this can be a particularly difficult time for those recovering from cancer, often made worse by the feeling that support is no longer…
Peter’s manager was trying to get hold of me urgently. I left a routine meeting to take the call. One of the longer term members of his team had recently become a dad (for the third time) but just a few weeks later (yesterday) he and his wife had learned that a routine blood test had revealed that his wife had leukaemia. The manager asked if it would be ok to give him a period of compassionate leave. Of course it…
One major issue that has been raised with us is recently is how to get men to be more open about health issues and cancer specifically so that HR professionals and line managers can provide them with the support that they need.
This problem is not specific to cancer or to the UK. Research seems to indicate that there are two main reasons why men don’t ask for support, which would apply both to men with cancer and men…
This is a question to which there is no quick fix as it’s really about changing organisational attitudes and behaviour. Support from the top makes a big difference, and too often it is the case that this only really happens when those people have been affected personally. I think there are three major areas where HR can contribute a great deal to effecting change:
1. Making the case to the top team, appealing to…
