Hannah Usher, Harriet Brown and Amanda Lunan, PwC – 30/03/2021
Between the time of the first lockdown to now SPACE, our parents and carers network at PwC, has seen a 150% increase in membership numbers; many of these are carers who were looking for extra support. From people who’ve already been in a caring situation, and who were now juggling with the extra restrictions, to people who had family or friends become ill during lockdown – many people have been facing new challenges since the beginning of 2020.
One of our carers told us:
My mother has auto-immune issues that have meant she has had to shield since the start of the first lockdown. Practical steps of collecting prescriptions, grocery shopping and activities to entertain her whilst she couldn’t go anywhere became a full time caring commitment. The worry of keeping her safe both physically and mentally was very important during such challenging times.
What support has PwC provided?
PwC as an organisation have committed to supporting our people as they grapple with the new challenges of current life. A host of additional support mechanisms have been put in place to help people navigate their new reality. Mindful of the anxiety created by often conflicting sources of advice, we developed a COVID-19 microsite to provide one source of validated information and guidance to help people keep up to date with the latest changes. To capture people’s time when they were unable to work due to caring commitments, we created a ‘Time Off For Dependants’ policy to evaluate how COVID-19 was impacting our people, so we could best support them. Our inclusion and wellbeing teams have been hard at work to ensure that help and support is available to everyone either through our Employee Assistance Programme or via services such as Back Up and Emergency care. One of our carers commented:
PwC has been great and confirmed that it is not a problem if I need to take time off to spend with my father. It’s comforting to know that we also have the helpline number to contact if we need to talk to someone.
In addition, SPACE has been working hard to provide a forum for people to come together and collectively share their hints, tips and experience on all manner of life changes. We’ve run a number of virtual events to help our people talk about their experiences and raise awareness, and we’ve recently launched a ‘listening team’ of volunteers who are willing and able to provide peer support and a friendly ear to anyone who needs a coffee and a chat.
Our leaders have also stepped up to the challenge. One of our carers said:
The local support that I had from my team around me was phenomenal, they were aware of the situation and checked in to ensure that all was okay. That authentic leadership, with our values at the heart, was particularly inspiring for me.
What’s next?
With the advent of warmer weather and lifting restrictions we in SPACE are turning our sights to the 12 months ahead. Whilst the majority of our people want to return to the office in the coming months, we’re aware of the greater networking capabilities that virtual working has afforded us. We’re looking at running some in-person events, so we can once again sit around the table together – but also keeping a lot of things virtual so we can continue to include everyone regardless of location or situation.
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