As an employer, how do you support your employees who are going through a divorce or separation?

Lots of employers (including household names such as Asda, Tesco and Unilever) are working with Positive Parenting Alliance (PPA) to ensure that they have more family-friendly employee policies in place for employees going through divorce or separation. This includes having provisions in place to sign post employees to available support, recognising separation and divorce as a “life event” and facilitating flexible working for separating or divorcing parents with childcare responsibilities.  

PPA is a group of organisations whose focus is on creating a better culture and system for children when their parents divorce or separate. The founder of PPA, James Hayhurst has hopes that, with employers playing a key part, the PPA could help change the culture and consequences of separation and divorce in the UK. He believes that currently very few employers recognise or support employees going through divorce or separation which leads to a decline on an employee’s mental health and wellbeing.

A survey carried out by PPA of over 200 employees found that four in 10 employees felt they had to take time off work because of their separation and three quarters felt that they had become less efficient at work while trying to manage the stress of their relationship breakdown.

Even if you are not signed up to PPA, you can offer support to your employees going through divorce or separation by:

• Being there for them and letting them know that it is ok to talk about their situation. Do you have an EAP in place that you can share with the employee?
• Being flexible – does the employee need to rearrange their working hours to take calls with their lawyer or even attend court? If children are involved, can the employee work from home more or change their hours to fit with childcare responsibilities?
• Appreciating that all humans are different and some employees may deal with the divorce or separation differently to others. Some employees may need time off from work to cope with the situation whereas others may wish to keep busy to distract themselves from the situation.

The PPA is backed by Sir Andrew McFarlane (president of the Family Court Division). He has said “The immediate emotional impact of relationship breakdown is all-consuming. It hits a parent at work just as at any other time. The Positive Parenting Alliance calls for employers to recognise this impact, and to do what they can to support their employee. [It] offers a “win/win” outcome – good for employers and employees alike. Wise and insightful employers will, I hope, not need to think twice before responding positive to this call”.