Home Health & Hospice Week

Prepare staff to deal with death in the workplace.

Just because you work in a health care environment where patient deaths aren’t unusual doesn’t mean your employees won’t need to deal with the unpredictability of grief while at work. Make sure you have policies in place to accommodate and support grieving team members before you need them.

Having a full understanding of your agency’s resources can go a long way in giving grieving employees — or the employee’s family, if the employee passes — the space and time they need.

“Find out if your health insurance plan offers any benefits employees might be able to use. Employees might have family members who need help. Knowing the answer could help employees maneuver through the complexities of the system,” says Sharlyn Lauby, a human resources consultant and author of the blog HR Bartender.

Training is key, as well. Knowing how to check in with employees and making sure there is cultural space for discussion or debrief can be crucial for healing — and, ultimately, restoring productivity to your agency.

“Offer guidance to managers about the appropriate ways to discuss the topic with employees. Managers might be reluctant to address the issue with employees and feel keeping the conversation ‘strictly business’ is the way to go. Let managers know it’s OK to talk with employees and possibly, cut them a little slack when it comes to distractions and work,” Lauby says.

It often falls on management to take the lead in making decisions on how to disperse necessary information. Especially in the home care environment, keeping the rest of your team in the loop can help everyone be sensitive and heal. Employers should be proactive and share as much information as is appropriate to employees.

This does a couple of things: First, it helps to control the rumor mill and second, it demonstrates to the employees that the employer cares enough to share information that concerns them.

“For example, providing information about funeral arrangements and how employees can be involved in offering help and support to the family helps employees with planning,” says Patricia Lotich, founder of Lotich Business Solutions LLC – DBA Thriving Small Business and author of the Thriving Small Business blog.

Make this paramount: The world doesn’t stop turning and there’s no set timeline or process for grieving, so flexibility can be especially important in such a vulnerable time. If you can expand your policy to offer the maximum amount of support as possible — i.e., writing your bereavement policies to include stillbirth as a death — you can maximize your employees’ well-being.

“Everyone processes things differently and employers that can identify these stages and support employees through them benefit all concerned,” Lotich says.

Although an unplanned absence can wreak havoc on scheduling and care, see what you can do to mediate the pause.

“Go through their workload. Distribute what you can and decide what can wait until they return. Cancel or reschedule any necessary meetings during their absence. Review their to-do list with another team member,” says Sloane Davis, who writes for Modern Loss.

Losing an employee, regardless of the circumstances, can be especially devastating for your agency and team members. “Life is unpredictable and employers are often unprepared for the unexpected sudden death of an employee. Taking the time to slow the ‘work-as-usual’ and help employees cope with a loss can help the organization go through the natural stages of grieving and return to a state of productivity,” Lotich says.

Consider taking steps such as bringing in a grief counselor and scheduling around the funeral as much as possible, for example.

Don’t forget: The employee’s family or recipient of benefits may need support and assistance that only you can provide, in terms of figuring out the timing and dispersal of benefits or closing accounts the employee held through work, such as health savings accounts (HSAs).