What challenges do micro-businesses and organizations face when their employees combine work with home care? What can employers do and who else can get involved to make the environment more conducive for caring employees? We talk to Rositsa Dzhambazova, Director of Business Incubator - Gotse Delchev, about policies to support care. Listen to the episode here-
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2ouT3Uj8qgRtErIdjRN8fj?si=B-YI8R2rRpeiL8cClu5YNA
Transcript of the epizode
Hello! You are in the Shared Care podcast, in which we talk about the need for equal sharing of care responsibilities. The podcast is part of the CARE di ZO project , which aims to create family-friendly policies to be implemented in small businesses and organizations, encourage men to participate in caregiving and clarify the value of care throughout society. Partners from Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Lithuania have already conducted research, workshops for co-creation of policies, training programs and the development of digital tools, such as educational games, podcasts and others, that promote equality in care and the economy.
Caregiving often remains invisible until it turns out that it has a direct impact on work. More and more people combine their professional commitments with caring for children, elderly parents or other loved ones who need support. This also raises new questions for employers themselves. How to create a work environment in which people can both be good professionals and take on their care responsibilities. In today's episode of the podcast "Shared Care" we are with Rositsa Dzhambazova, director of the Business Incubator - Gotsa Delchev. This is a non-governmental organization that supports small, start-up businesses and other organizations.
With it, we will look at the topic of care from the perspective of companies and organizations. We will talk about how the work environment is changing, what the challenges are for employers, and what opportunities a better understanding and sharing of care creates.
- Good day!
Many people combine their work with caring for a child, an elderly parent, a disabled relative, or another family member who needs support. But this takes a toll on both the employees themselves and their employers. What are the challenges for small businesses and non-governmental organizations when their employees combine work with caring for a loved one?
- Small companies and small organizations are the most common in our country and it is much more difficult to make a systematic policy with them, because the diversity is also very large. It seems to be easier for organizations and for such companies that have a more creative component in their work, because then they can work remotely, it can be easier for them to have a flexible schedule and it is easier, with the understanding of the employer, they can balance professional life with care responsibilities, for children or for parents.
It seems easier to predict when short-term care is needed, especially when a child is ill. It is much more complicated and much more challenging when the illness is long-term, when constant care is required for both a child and elderly parents or relatives. The challenge seems to be first for employers to realize that if they search purposefully, they can find opportunities, they can find a way to use the professional skills of their employees, they can encourage them to provide quality care and they can also look for additional support, additional opportunities that various local or national programs offer. The issue is much more complicated when actual physical presence is required. For example, with sales consultants or those who are small companies and presence is required for a production process, it becomes extremely complicated there, especially with long-term absences. And planning and consideration are now needed on how to retain the important employee and how to combine additional opportunities and additional conditions with replacement by someone from within the company or organization or seeking additional external help.
- What problems might companies and organizations experience when their employees have to care for their loved ones at home, for example?
- The biggest problem can be when employees have to leave in order to take long-term care of children and loved ones. And then the experience, training, skills are lost to the company, but there can also be financial losses when the employee is absent, when often in critical situations he is missing and this has an impact on the small company. Not only financially, but also loss of customers, the lack of an employee during the announced working hours.
But if carefully considered, ways can be sought to retain the valuable employee and find a balance, to find how the employer can support him so that valuable employees are not lost.
- Why should organizations be more considerate of employees, of care? What will they gain in such a situation, or do they lose more?
- At least the European directives provide an opportunity for professional realization for people who have such problems in their family. From the employer's point of view, due to the general problems, lack of personnel, very high turnover, rapid change of workplace. If a person who has such obligations in his family is qualified, performs his professional duties well, has the relevant knowledge and skills, has gained experience, he is valuable to the company and with the appropriate policy, with the appropriate approaches, such a person can be retained by providing different opportunities. A more flexible schedule, more encouragement for the team, if they work in a team, to show understanding, to have opportunities for redistribution of functions when necessary. If the organization is result-oriented, such a balance could be found, the employee could be retained, and he would also show greater responsibility, because in these times of crisis, when financial resources are not enough, he would appreciate the extended hand and the flexible approach of the employer.
- Do you have such policies in your organization? Could you share how they actually work?
- We offer flexible working hours. The employee can choose the hours they want to be in the office. For tasks that do not require physical presence, they can work remotely so that they can provide care for their loved ones and get their work done. They can work at hours that are convenient for them. It does not have to be from 9 to 5. They can use the support of the team for tasks that are more complex and that require physical presence, and colleagues can take over their duties when necessary. There is a policy of extreme tolerance and understanding that this is part of everyday life. To be absent for a short period of time, to request vacation days that are at different times of the year, to be able to apply absolutely flexible approaches to working hours, and working remotely, and redistribution of functions.
- Is it important for small businesses or organizations to be able to plan for such risks, such crises with employees who are forced to provide care at home, early on?
- Yes, this is part of business planning, especially for start-ups, when thinking about possible risks and how they can be avoided. For those people who have specific skills and need to take long-term care of loved ones, children in the family, the opportunity is to be self-employed, create their own business and work flexibly from home, so that they can have professional fulfillment and provide quality care for their loved ones.
For small companies, they can plan from the very beginning what exact functions, what exact skills they need, and look for that type of people, planning a flexible schedule from the very beginning, and some of it being possible to work remotely.
And for those companies that have already started, where it turns out that they have quality employees, but they have to be absent from the office for a longer period of time, various options can be considered. For example, additional qualification and retraining, so that these employees can perform the necessary activities for the company remotely. For example, accounting, which until recently was given to an external company, or entering items into computer systems, or some document monitoring. This could be done by this loyal and conscientious employee and be remote from his home, by providing the necessary equipment, or it could be a smart redistribution of functions in the team, so that the physical presence in the office is taken over by another employee, while the one who takes care of the care has a more flexible schedule, has the opportunity to work remotely, without this affecting the financial or in any way the professional obligations of the people in the team.
- What good practices are there worldwide that you know of and can recommend to small businesses and organizations?
- For me, I think one of the best practices is what Manpower does, which is present all over the world, to provide a part-time qualified employee when their own employee has to be absent for some reason. This is especially the case for short-term absences and to prevent crises, meet deadlines and deliver results.
But in Bulgaria there are also very good opportunities to receive from the so-called social services, to have a social assistant who can take on the care that is needed in the family on a longer-term or only hourly basis, or to provide a home helper who can take on part of the duties, so as to free up time and space for professional tasks. The activities of these employees have opportunities to provide services and volunteers, through various non-governmental organizations that assist in providing this type of social services, when there is an opportunity for such children to be provided, for example, in Gotse Delchev, there is an opportunity to leave them during the day in the care of specialists, while the parents can take on their professional duties at this time. They could also take advantage of the voucher system for improving their qualifications or for retraining, to enable them to carry out activities that allow remote work and a more flexible schedule.
- This sounds like an entire ecosystem within which work-life balance can be achieved for employees and, consequently, for companies. In this sense, who can help create or implement effective work-life balance policies in small organizations?
- When there is understanding and a purposeful solution to this important problem is sought, different ways can be found.
First, the company's culture and policy should be such that it encourages tolerance and understanding and the provision of the different opportunities that come with flexible schedules, remote work, and sharing and delegating functions, with mutual interchangeability. But the companies themselves, because they are small, because of limited financial resources and because of limited human resources, could consider each other and help each other, so that when one company has a need, an employee from another company can replace the necessary employee, especially in case of short-term absences.
But it is very important to have the right guidance, where to get important and reliable information. These are the various institutions, social care, that could specifically say that employees meet the conditions, help with filing documents, so that they can get hourly external care through a social assistant or through a home helper or other options, for example, for providing transportation, for reaching health services. And with the partnership with the municipality, precisely the people who need these social services the most, and taking the responsible attitude of employers and their employees, as well as including various community events where consultations are provided by specialists, how to act in the family, how to include the whole family, because children are also responsible, spouses are responsible, relatives are also responsible, to get a cancellation from time to time, someone else to take over the care, so that the person who is providing long-term care can take a breath, have the opportunity, they also have access to consultations, access to training, how best to act, what needs to be done, when it is necessary to seek specialized help, in order to prevent this overheating and to prevent greater consequences for both the employees and those they care for.
- In conclusion, let us direct those interested in creating and implementing practical measures to support care workers to our CAREdiZO project . Take advantage of the resources created by the project, a serious game for directors, HR managers, which will be available soon on the project platform care eu. The CAREdiZO community , where we discuss challenges and solutions, trainings are coming soon to help leaders of small businesses and organizations implement practical policies to support care.
Thanks for the participation of Rositsa Dzhambazova.
I look forward to seeing you all on the next episode of the Shared Care podcast.
The podcast was created by the National Network for Business and Development under the CAREdiZO project . Care-led innovation for implementing gender equality in the home, micro-enterprises and civil society micro-organizations, funded by the European Union under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values program.
The CAREdiZO project is implemented within the framework of the CERV programme of the European Commission, as a collaboration between the following organisations: Challedu (Greece), WHEN (Greece), MOTERU INFORMACIJOS CENTRAS (Lithuania), National Business Development Network (Bulgaria), Mediterranean Institute for Gender Studies (Cyprus). The project is funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission-EC. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission are responsible for them. Project code: 101191047 – CAREdiZO – CERV-2024-GE.