Conference Agenda

Session
Workshop 6c: Compassionate Workplaces in Europe: sharing experiences and resources
Time:
Friday, 25/Oct/2024:
9:00am - 10:30am

 Location: Le Cap - Room "Arche/Refuge"

Language: English

Presentations

Compassionate Workplaces in Europe: sharing experiences and resources

Steven Vanderstichelen1,2, Rebecca Patterson3, Joachim Cohen1,2, Deborah De Moortel1,4, Klaus Wegleitner5,6, Mark Hazelwood3

1Compassionate Communities Centre of Expertise (COCO), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium; 2End-of-Life Care Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel & Ghent University, Belgium; 3Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care; 4Brussels Institute for Social and Population Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium; 5Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Aging and Care (CIRAC), University of Graz, Vienna, Austria; 6SORGENETZ - Association for the promotion of societal care culture, Vienna, Austria

Target Audience

This workshop is for people who are interested or involved in creating more compassionate workplaces relating to death, dying, loss and care.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

  • have explored different potential approaches to making workplaces more compassionate communities in relation to death, dying, loss and care;
  • have thought about the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches;
  • be more aware of some of the real-world challenges intrinsic to encouraging more compassionate workplaces;
  • have shared and learned about existing relevant workplace resources to support employees faced with serious illness, death and bereavement.

Structure of the Workshop

Most people will experience bereavement, ill health or caring responsibilities at some point during their professional life. Such experiences affect people’s health and wellbeing, but also the work environment in terms of productivity and safety. Different aspects of workplace organisation can influence the job demands and resources of jobs and work environments such that employees can feel unsupported when coping with EoL experiences. Workplaces can play an important role in providing flexibility, information, understanding and social support to employees going through difficult times.

The workshop draws on one research-based and one practice-based case study across five European countries where projects are underway to encourage more compassionate workplaces: the EU-CoWork project and the Scottish Bereavement-Friendly Workplaces Toolkit and Bereavement Charter Mark.

  1. EU-CoWork is co-creatively developing tailored Compassionate Workplace Programs in 12 workplaces across 4 European countries (BE, SE, AT and GR), employing developmental evaluation and an international mixed methods process and impact evaluation.
  2. In Scotland, work is underway to encourage employers to create more ‘bereavement-friendly’ workplaces through use of the Bereavement Charter Mark for Employers and the Scottish Bereavement-Friendly workplaces toolkit.

Brief presentations on each project will outline their aims, approaches, challenges and learnings. Small group discussions will give delegates the opportunity to share their own experiences in this area; view and discuss some of the resources used in the case study areas; and think about whether elements from these projects might be of use in their own context. There will also be opportunities for questions to speakers and plenary discussion of key issues.