Losing a family member or friend is an emotionally overwhelming experience that requires time to grieve, reflect, and manage necessary arrangements.
For employees, it also means navigating the challenge of stepping away from work.
While many companies have bereavement policies, these policies aren’t always comprehensive or flexible enough to meet the diverse needs of grieving employees.
According to Justin Clifford, CEO of Bereave—a workplace solutions company specializing in bereavement leave—there are a few key bereavement policies every organization should consider having in place to better support their workers in moments of loss.
Include pregnancy loss in your bereavement policy
First, consider including leave for pregnancy loss in your policy.
Many bereavement policies address only bloodline relations, overlooking the profound impact pregnancy loss can have on families.
While some companies are starting to include time off for pregnancy loss in their policies, a lot of the stagnation in the past has come from it being really hard to talk about, Clifford says.
“It is much easier when you’re creating policies to call your benefits broker and/or benefits advisor and figure out, what’s benchmark?” he explains. “It’s easy to say… ‘That’s benchmark, we’re just going to stick it in,’ and we’re not really going to consider what happens in these really difficult moments of our employees’ lives.”
Most leaders, unless they’ve experienced it themselves, don’t have a clear guide, and there’s no playbook for handling these situations, he says.
As a result, many companies struggle to create thoughtful policies that truly support their employees.
Instead, they often rely on simply reusing last year’s policy, missing the opportunity to provide meaningful assistance during critical times.
Include pet loss in your bereavement policy
Another policy some companies are starting to include is leave for pet loss.
More progressive organizations recognize that grief isn’t limited to the death of a person; it can also stem from the loss of a beloved pet, says Clifford.
“We talk to people all the time who say that [their] relationship with their parents isn’t [as strong as the one with their] dog or cat, and for them, the loss of a pet would be more profound than most human losses,” Clifford adds.
Pets have become such a significant part of people’s lives that even workplace Slack channels often have a dedicated section for talking about pets.
“The role that pets play in many families is a very significant role, and that loss can be very profound to a lot of people. So, to not include pets is to almost create a policy that is void of people’s lives and people’s families,” Clifford says.
Remove eligibility-by-relationship in your leave policy
One way to improve your bereavement policy is to recognize that all families are different.
“Most of the policies that we engage with say things like you get five days for
direct relatives,” Clifford says.
These policies typically list who qualifies as a direct relative, often including a child, spouse, sibling, or parent—but excluding relatives like an aunt, uncle, or close friend.
Policies like these don’t account for the different emotional weight that various relatives carry for people.
Clifford offers an example from his own life. “I had an uncle die… that I saw maybe once a year. I also have a friend in high school who was raised by his uncle. Those two people are going to be treated the same with a bereavement policy that references uncles,” Clifford says.
When crafting your policy, it’s important to recognize that every family is different. Instead of setting a blanket rule of five days for direct family members, consider adopting a more flexible approach.
Your policy could state something similar to:
We won’t dictate who you love or who you feel the closest to, nor will we ask you to name those people.
Instead, we’ll give you time for your losses, whether you’re the executor of a will or need space to grieve and mourn. We’ll offer that time based on trust—trusting that if you say you need it, you truly do.
Best practices for creating a bereavement policy
When it comes to creating an ideal bereavement policy, there isn’t one that will fit all companies.
“It does depend on the company and the culture and what you’re trying to achieve,” Clifford says.
Still, there are a few other key features worth considering.
First, it’s important to ensure your bereavement policy aligns with other company policies.
For example, many companies offer 90 to 120 days of paid parental leave, yet their bereavement policies may only provide three to five days off, sometimes unpaid, Clifford explains.
This imbalance sends a mixed message: It suggests that bringing a child into the world deserves a quarter of a year off with pay, but if that same child were to pass away, the employee is only allotted a few days.
The difference in how these life events are treated by one-size-fits-all bereavement policies send different signals.
While parental leave is often celebratory, it’s important to consider why that time off is provided, usually for attraction and retention. “Align your bereavement policy in a similar fashion,” Clifford says.
Another important feature is ensuring equity across job titles.
“We hear all of the time about a C-level executive getting or taking more time than an entry-level frontline employee because they have the title,” Clifford says.
Beyond your company policy
When an employee returns from bereavement, there are practical steps that managers and companies can take to offer meaningful support.
One idea Clifford suggests is allowing the employee to bring a friend or a buddy to the office on their first day back to provide them with emotional reassurance.
Or, if you’re a manager, you can also try meeting with your employee privately prior to the team meeting.
This small act can help ease the transition, helping them avoid the discomfort of facing the entire group immediately upon their return.
Ultimately, while having a supportive bereavement policy in place is essential, it’s often the small, thoughtful gestures that make the biggest difference in helping someone navigate their return to work after a loss.
Photo by PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/shutterstock.com.
