Culture | How to nurture a grief-friendly workplace

By Jo Enright, Senior Business Development Manager at Generali UK Employee Benefits

One in 29 children and young people have experienced the death of a parent or sibling. That’s roughly one per classroom. This obviously has a profound impact on their lives; not only as children, but throughout adulthood. And it undoubtedly impacts the workplace too, in terms of long-term sickness, reduction in performance and loss of experienced employees. Nurturing a grief-friendly organisation therefore makes perfect sense. So, where do you start?

Having flexible, supportive policies in place tends to represent the go-to for most employers. But that’s arguably only a baseline; a hygiene factor. To really make a difference to people and business, formal policies need to be accompanied by compassionate communication from line managers and peers, plus ready access to specialist support where needed.

Access to specialist support

It's for this reason that Generali UK partnered with the children and young people’s bereavement charity Winston’s Wish. The goal is to help raise awareness of the charity, given the great work it does and the amount of support and expertise it is able to share. Together, Generali UK and Winston’s Wish bring best practice ideas to business, plus grief and bereavement support to the employees – and their children – of Generali UK’s Group Life and Group Income Protection policyholders.