Combining employment and informal care for the aged

In contemporary society, an increasing number of people reach high age which implies the need to accept responsibilities as informal carers for a growing number of relatives. To combine informal care with employment often leads to difficult, challenging situations. Thus, the focus of the research project COMBECA is on practices of combining employment and care on the workplace level and on the relevance of different welfare-state provisions and cultural environments. A comparison of the Switzerland and Austria will provide opportunities to analyze these differences. Combining employment and informal care is increasingly gaining relevance. COMBECA analyzes how people cope with the wide range of challenges that informal care poses if it is to be carried out in the context of complex, sometimes chaotic, sometimes rigid-bureaucratic workplace environments. Informal carers are threatened by massive losses of income, losses of entitlements, losses of social networks and recognition. What are the options of prevention on the workplace level, how do welfare- state provisions fit into this picture? The project will analyze practices in several cases studies in different sectors and company sizes in Switzerland and Austria based on interview and focus group studies, including perspectives of carers and other stakeholders. Following this, a representative sample of companies will be invited to participate in an online company survey. The result of these analyses should improve our understanding of typical practices employed today and thus offer possibilities to develop structures and cultures on the level of organizations and improve welfare-state provisions for a better balance between needs of carers, people in need of care, companies and institutions.

More then 300.000 Austrians combine employment and care for older relatives, and this number will rise as the number of (highly) aged persons is rising and women increasingly participate in gainful employment. Nevertheless, reconciliation of employment with care has received much less attention than childcare -neither by social policy, nor by most companies. In the international research project, "Combining employment with informal care for the aged" (COMBECA) FORBA, Vienna and FHNW (University of Applied Sciences of Northwestern Switzerland; Olten) collaborated between 2021 and 2025. The project investigated practices of reconciling employment with care on the company level. Of particular interest were practices that prevent a large and permanent reduction or a total withdrawal from employment. Also the socio-political framework of this reconciliation and options for improvement were addressed. A complex mixed-method design was used, which allowed us to compare the perspectives of different stakeholders within the companies and to compare practices between companies and also between regions. A systematic international literature review (Module 1) was carried out to make detailed use of the current state of knowledge. Then an expert study (Module 2) was conducted on the current national and regional framework conditions. Results indicate that social policy actors and organizations representing employers and employees are interested, but have little specific knowledge and no concrete plans for improving conditions. Case studies in companies and institutions (Module 3) formed the core of the project. Qualitative methods (interviews and focus groups) and a standardized survey were used to explore practices of reconciliation and organizational support. Five companies in Austria (primarily health and social services sector, but also production) and nine companies in Switzerland were prepared to participate. Perspectives from upper and middle management, HR management, staff representatives, employed carers and colleagues indirectly affected were taken into account. The results show that the participating companies have found viable solutions. Primarily regulations concerning working time were modified to allow for care in a way fitting in operational processes. In addition, location of work was adapted where necessary and possible. Sometimes also the tasks in the work-role were adapted and rapid replacement solutions for unexpected crises were established. A clear anchoring in upper and middle management and managers that are open to the issue and willing to act if needed turned out to be central. Another important result is that remaining in the job - if well managed and supported - can also have a positive effect on the health of carers and is not primarily a double burden. A representative company survey (Module 4; sample 10,000, online) failed in Austria as only 26 companies participated (0,25%) - a further proof that the topic needs more attention.