Today’s employees are not only workers. They are parents, guardians, partners, carers for ageing relatives, and members of families whose needs shift across life stages. The organisations that recognise this (and build their EVP with their people, not simply for them) will be the ones that retain talent, stay competitive and build a future‑proof workforce.
1. Balancing work with being a parent or carer is the new norm
Organisations often talk about supporting carers as if they represent a minority group. But in reality, most employees will become carers at multiple points in their careers. Early‑career employees may be caring for siblings or supporting family wellbeing. Mid‑career employees may be balancing childcare with peak work pressure. Later‑career employees increasingly provide eldercare or support family health needs.
This is a workforce truth we rarely talk about: care is a career constant, not an interruption.
Yet too many EVP strategies still assume a standardised employee with standardised needs. This is where the traditional EVP breaks, because it was designed around an outdated idea of linear careers, single-life-stage needs, and employers who “provide” value while employees “receive” it.
If organisations want to remain competitive, they must reframe caring not as an accommodation but as a strategic design principle.
2. Supporting carers is a test of how authentic your EVP really is
Your policies, benefits, flexibility frameworks and leadership behaviours reveal far more about your culture than your values statements do. When an organisation claims to “care about wellbeing” or “support people to be their best”, employees look not at the words - but at the lived experience during the most stressful, human moments of their lives.
These moments are defining:
- A child falls ill repeatedly
- A parent’s dementia diagnosis brings uncertainty
- Childcare breaks down
- A partner needs medical support
- School holidays collide with peak workloads
These are the moments where culture is no longer conceptual but felt. The truth is simple: if employees cannot rely on your EVP when they need it most, it’s not an EVP — it’s a slogan. And candidates know this. People evaluate employers based on how real their support is for families and carers, not how compelling the careers page sounds.
3. Shared ownership: The future of supporting carers at work
One of the most disruptive shifts in EVP thinking is the move away from top‑down benefit design. Carer support is a perfect example of where shared ownership makes a measurable difference.
Instead of organisations asking “What benefits should we offer carers?”, the question becomes “What value can we create together that supports every life stage?”
Shared ownership means:
- Co‑designing policies with employees
- Encouraging two‑way responsibility for wellbeing and workload
- Empowering employees to articulate what good support looks like
- Building transparent frameworks instead of one‑off exceptions
- Recognising care as part of a healthy, high‑performing workforce
- Holding both sides accountable for sustainable working practices
This is the essence of the Employee Value Partnership; a dynamic, reciprocal model that values people’s full lives, not just their job output. And when employees help shape the EVP, they feel loyalty, commitment and a deepened sense of trust — all of which strengthen talent retention.
4. Supporting carers strengthens organisational resilience
Talent strategy and carer support are often treated as separate conversations. They shouldn’t be.
When organisations support working parents and carers effectively, they unlock multiple resilience levers:
- Stronger retention of critical skills:
- Higher engagement and productivity
- Greater adaptability across life stages
- Reduced recruitment costs and continuity risks
- A more future-proof workforce
5. “Hire to retire” EVP design matters more than ever
Caring responsibilities don’t start and stop at predictable points. That’s why EVP design must take a lifecycle approach — one that spans attraction, onboarding, development, wellbeing, performance, and even exit.
Key questions organisations should ask include:
- Do new hires understand the real, lived culture around flexibility?
- Are managers trained to lead with empathy, fairness and clarity?
- Are career pathways designed with life-stage realities in mind?
- Do performance conversations reflect output, not presence?
- Is there a consistent framework for carers, not case-by-case exceptions?
- Do leavers leave as advocates because they felt supported through difficult moments?
A lifecycle-led EVP creates consistency and trust - two qualities that working carers rely on to navigate unpredictable responsibilities.
6. It helps you stand out in the race for talent
The organisations that will win in the next era of talent will be those who accept a fundamental truth: employees are whole people. Care is part of life, and if care is part of life, it must be part of work.
Supporting working parents and carers isn’t just a benefit, a differentiator, or a gesture of goodwill. It is an EVP imperative, and one of the clearest indicators of whether your values and culture are truly felt by your people.
