Toolkit: Supporting Caregiver Work-Life Integration as a Department Leader

Three sets of stick figures show, respectively: an adult walking hand-in-hand with a child, a person pushing another person in a wheelchair, and a couple holding a baby. These are representations of various types of caregivers

This Toolkit page contains best practices and recommendations designed for department leaders to support work-life integration for caregiver employees. 

The Faculty Success Toolkit contains similar resources for several areas of the faculty experience. View the Toolkit.

Table of Contents


Resources 


Overview

Many CSU employees are caregivers, regularly juggling multiple responsibilities related to their role. To lend support to caregiver employees, CSU department leaders can implement a range of best practices that have resulted in positive outcomes at other academic institutions, e.g., improving faculty and staff retention rates (Keeney et al. in 2014). Caregiving of dependents can include children, elders, and people with disabilities. While these recommendations will particularly support employees who provide care for children, they can provide benefits to all caregivers.

There is abundant evidence that employees are more creative, effective, and productive when their personal lives are healthy and happy (Ward et al. 2019). Creating a workspace where they can take care of themselves and their families is not only the right thing to do, it is also good for the department/center.

The following recommendations are designed for department leaders concerning best practices for supporting caregivers’ work-life integration. This content builds from work at the University of Denver and contains general information as well as best practices in relation to meetings, teaching, benefits, and evaluation/promotion processes.


Recommendations


General

  • Address culture in the department on expected norms around availability.
    • Voice and occasionally remind faculty and staff that they are not expected to respond to email or other work-related communication outside of working hours. Lead by example.
    • Be aware of contract appointments (e.g., 9- vs 12-month positions) and summer salaries. Acknowledge that work is not required outside of contracts. Caregivers on a 9-month contract may have other commitments over the summer if not covered by summer salary.
      • Consider revising current rules about contributions to student committees and faculty and staff searches during summer months.
  • Be aware there are potentially different academic calendars for primary and secondary schools. Unscheduled days (e.g., snow days), vacation weeks, scheduled school days off, and K-12 start/end dates are likely to vary and may require accommodations.
  • Be aware of life circumstances that may prevent faculty who are caregivers from participating in departmental events during the workday. Consider how to keep them included in discussions and decisions.

Research

  • Ensure faculty know that sabbatical proposals do not require extensive travel if travel is not possible due to dependent care obligations; discuss taking advantage of sabbatical leaves for career development even if travel is not possible.

Faculty Evaluation and Promotion Processes

  • Carefully review promotion of and requests for tenure clock stoppages/extensions. Stoppages/extensions disproportionately negatively impact women faculty (Cardel et al. 2020).
  • In annual reviews and promotions, take into consideration whether the employee took leave for part of the year and adjust expectations accordingly. If your department doesn’t have a policy on this, update code.

Meetings

  • Schedule meetings on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to accommodate school drop-offs and pick-ups among working parents. Most teacher in-service/school closure days tend to be on Mondays or Fridays, so the best days of the week for meetings are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
    • Consider providing virtual meeting options to maximize participation.
  • If at all possible, refrain from scheduling anything on weekends and designated holidays. If an evening/weekend meeting or event is unavoidable, manage expectations for caregivers and voice that it’s acceptable for caregivers to not attend (e.g., search committee dinners).
    • Be aware of the financial burden for caregiving for mandatory events that fall outside of regular work hours, and/or state that families are welcome (note that many children have early bedtimes, making late events challenging).
    • Schedule events/meetings well in advance so caregiving arrangements can be made.

Teaching

  • Do not support a culture in which faculty and staff feel they need to “teach-through” anything and everything.
    • Provide autonomy to cancel classes, discuss backup options (e.g., colleague or TA support), pivot to an online modality (if possible) or other alternative solutions for times when dependents are sick, or employees otherwise need to stay at home.
  • Develop and distribute a written plan based on input from faculty outlining the process for what should happen when faculty are unexpectedly unable to teach courses for longer periods due to illness or caregiving.
  • Carefully consider teaching and administrative staff schedules, keeping in mind that caregivers have limitations outside of the typical 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. school day. Allow for options to request/avoid particular teaching schedules and rotate unpopular teaching times equitably among faculty members.

Benefits

  • Be knowledgeable and supportive about parental leave and other caregiver benefits. Review HR policies and/or request a meeting with HR benefits staff to clarify policies.

Literature Cited

Cardel et al. (2020). “Turning Chutes into Ladders for Women Faculty: A Review and Roadmap for Equity in Academia.” Journal of Women’s Health. 29(5). https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2019.8027

Feeney, M. K., Bernal, M., & Bowman, L. (2014). Enabling work? Family-friendly policies and academic productivity for men and women scientists. Science and Public Policy, 41(6), 750–764. https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scu006

Galemba, R., McRae, K., Murphy, S., Sher, A., & Stanton, A. (2022). Supporting DU faculty (and staff) caregivers with family-friendly practices. DU Office for Faculty Affairs. https://duvpfa.du.edu/2022/01/supporting-du-faculty-and-staff-caregivers-with-family-friendly-practices/

Ward, G., De Neve, J., and Krekel, C. (2019). It’s Official: Happy Employees Mean Healthy Firms. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/07/happy-employees-and-their-impact-on-firm-performance/

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