Grant: Operating Grant

The CE, faced with managing simultaneous paid work and unpaid caregiving responsibilities, often encounters role strain (having to balance multiple work-family roles and responsibilities), forcing them to sacrifice one of their two roles and/or face negative health outcomes. CEs are defined as informal, unpaid caregivers, who are providing care to an elder care recipient (often at home), while also engaging in paid employment. This new category of worker, created through numerous demographic changes, such as population aging, and community health care provision realities of the 21st century, has brought attention to the need for support for people providing informal, unpaid care. One strategy is through caregiver-friendly workplace policies (CFWPs). CFWPs, often termed family-friendly workplace policies, are defined as "deliberate organizational changes - in policies, practices, or the target culture - to reduce work-family conflict and/or support employees' lives outside of work". Current Canadian evidence illustrating the health benefits and cost-effectiveness of CFWPs is needed if Canadian employers are to adopt and integrate CFWPs into their employment practices. Encompassed within the PI's CIHR IGH Chair in Gender, Work and Health (2014-2019), addressing 'Gender, Health and Caregiver-Friendly Workplaces', the goal of this three year, three study research project is to provide such evidence for the auto manufacturing (Ford Motor Company) and educational services (McMaster University) sectors. The research questions being addressed are: What are the impacts for employers (economic) and workers (health) of CFWP intervention(s) for full-time caregiver employees (CEs)? What are these impacts for employers and workers of the CFWP intervention(s) in each participating workplace? What contextual factors impact the successful implementation of CFWP intervention(s)?