HR professionals play an essential role in creating supportive employee wellbeing policies, especially when it comes to providing support for employees who have experienced baby loss.
The UKs leading baby loss charity, Sands, has developed comprehensive Bereavement in the Workplace training to help managers to understand best practices and feed into HR and People Wellbeing policies.
It’s not always easy to know what to say or how to support an employee after loss. However, with adequate training and support, workplaces can flourish into supportive environments which are centred around strong employee wellbeing policies and in turn help to improve employee retention. The training is designed to provide HR professionals with the tools and guidance they need to create and support a compassionate, supportive work environment.
Workplace support for those who have lost a baby can have a hugely positive effect on them. It helps to increase productivity, positively impacts mental and physical health, and most importantly, allows bereaved parents a safe space to grieve.
Baby loss in the workplace
In the UK, 13 families a day lose their baby before, during, or shortly after birth. And an estimated 1 in 4 pregnancies ends in miscarriage.
A survey of bereaved families carried out by Sands in 2018 showed that parents do not feel supported in the workplace, which had an impact on their wellbeing with only 21% of people reporting that their employer offered or provided internal or external bereavement support.
“I was dismissed from my job for taking more than seven days off sick following the loss of my baby. My manager visited me in the hospital, but only to give me attendance paperwork,” said a bereaved parent in the survey.
“People found it difficult to talk to me about it, so I closed up about it too. Many people ‘moved on’ quickly, particularly at work. E.g., excitedly telling me about their baby news. Another colleague completely floored me by whipping out her scan pictures in my face to announce her baby news,” another added.
Finding the right words to say can be daunting. Sands’ Bereavement in the Workplace training is there to make sure that people are equipped to have those conversations and ensure that people are feeling supported when they return to work.
Bespoke training for workplaces to understand baby loss
Sands’ bespoke workplace training and toolkits helps employees and staff members to come together and build compassionate, support-centred work environments that are central to employee wellbeing.
The charity delivers training and specialist guidance to help employers navigate employment laws and obligations, understand and implement best practice and to help employers and staff members to get it right. Businesses are supported by Sands throughout the process.
“This is part of your employee life cycle strategy, engagement strategy, performance strategies; this is part of every single core aspect of making sure that your people can do the best they can at work. If you help people properly, you will get tenfold back the productivity,” said Greg Tallent, a bereaved father and Head of Training.
Businesses are offered a tailored blend of live webinars, online learning modules, and digital toolkits to deliver training which is relevant to individual businesses and their workplace culture.
Those who receive training also have access to Sands’ support services and accredited helpline, which is a free confidential and non-judgemental emotional support and information service for all staff.
The charity also offers consultancy services which are tailored to suit the needs of individual organisations and businesses.
Following a grant from the Department of Health and Social Care, Sands offers free training to small businesses and discounted training to medium businesses.
For more information and to sign up for Bereavement in the Workplace training, click here.
