With 1 in 2 Australians being diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime there is a likely chance your organisation will need to support employees through their diagnosis and/or treatment. It’s something that every business should now be prepared for. How you manage the situation is crucial to the wellbeing of the employee, your staff members and the business as a whole. 

If you have never experienced an employee being diagnosed with cancer, then it’s very normal to be unsure about how to handle the situation. Or maybe you have been through it before but know you could have done better.

Let me share a real-life story with you...

When an employee discloses their cancer diagnoses

A multinational company was recently told one of their staff had been diagnosed with cancer. The staff member initially approached HR to let them know of their diagnosis, before anyone else in the organisation. At the time they were unaware what the treatment protocol would be as they had only received the initial information about their diagnosis. But the staff member was in quite a lot of shock as the cancer was fairly progressed, at stage three. 

The HR team contacted us at MyMuse to get advice on how to deal with the situation as they had no policies or protocols in place. And, as far as they were aware, nobody in the company had been diagnosed with cancer before.

The individual initially approached HR about their diagnosis. They did this to avoid adding pressure to their manager who was already experiencing a huge amount of stress at the time. The manager also had a history of not handling situations well when people took regular sick leave. HR couldn’t decide whether to have direct conversations with the individual or to have the direct manager involved in the process.This made the situation challenging because of the possible effects that it could have on both the manager and the team member.

How we helped was that we discussed with the HR team the different ways that they can handle tricky situations like these. We talked about all the possible outcomes if they involved the manager in the discussion or not. We brought our experience to the table to help them understand what could work for and against them in both circumstances.

The importance of communication

In the end, properly handling this kind of situation all boils down to communication. If you want your employees to provide open communication and you want them to trust and support you, you need to be the one who should start a good and positive communication with them. A manager who leads a team also needs to be to deal with stressful situations when they arise.

In these circumstances, a manager does need to step up because this is going to affect not just the individual, but also the team and the wider company as a whole potentially . If it is handled properly or poorly, the first time, it’s going to have a follow-on effect. So, our initial consultations with the company were actually about how the HR team should support the manager.

With the permission of the staff member, we had to figure out how to have that conversation with the manager. The HR team then had permission from the individual to approach the manager in a calm manner and show the manager that they themselves were going to be supported by the company too. Because that is one thing that initially goes through a manager’s mind or anyone in a leadership role in these instances, ‘how is this going to affect my team?’

Other concerns and thoughts that regularly come up are ‘I’m not going to have a budget for this person to be off sick.’ ‘How long will they be off sick?’ ‘Can I get a contractor to cover them?’, along with a number of other questions about what will happen moving forward. So, a lot of the time leaders do get stressed and worried about situations largely because they don’t know what their options are when situations like this arise.

This is why it was important to let the manager know that there were options and support for both them as the manager  and for the individual. We let the manager know that once the individual had their treatment plan, they could figure out if they wanted to work part-time, what days they would need to take off for treatment, or they could choose to work from home. The company also shared with the manager what the company could do to support them through this.

Once the manager had all the information, they actually felt very comfortable to then sit down and have a chat with the individual to plan what the next steps were going forward.

What could have gone wrong

The HR team could have decided to go straight to the manager instead of coming to seek our advice at MyMuse. This wouldn’t have been bad if the HR team was already aware of how to go about the situation. But because they were not confident in how to deal with what was in front of them, it is likely they would have gone to the manager before they had the information on what support the manager could have access to and may need.

This would have caused the manager additional stress and worry, and could quite possibly have affected the way they treated the individual who had been diagnosed and their other team members. It could have also been a PR and HR nightmare. Because this was the first time they had to deal with an employee being diagnosed with cancer, bringing us in allowed the business to now have a clear idea of how they will handle the situation should it arise again with another employee. 

What eventuated for the organisation

The manager was able to talk to the employee and let them know that they could take time to figure out their treatment plan and what they want to do in terms of their treatment and work. They were able to offer support to the individual and involve their partner in conversations to help assure them that the employee was being looked after through this. 

In this instance, the company was able to be very flexible around the individual and their needs. While the employee was unsure of their treatment plan and outcome, the company was able to make the decision to not talk to the rest of the team about it because they felt that it would be better to approach the team when there was more information and certainty.

It also gave the individual time to come to terms with their diagnosis. This was a huge life-changing situation in front of them and it was not just their work situation they had to think about.

With the support of MyMuse the company was able to respond appropriately to the situation. Making it easier for everyone involved to cope with, especially the employee who had been diagnosed.

While we assist organisations who need assistance ‘as it happens’ in their workplace, it is far better to be proactive. The first conversations are crucial. MyMuse can help your business to co-design a policy and program that will prepare your team for how to appropriately respond when an employee is diagnosed with cancer as well as demonstrate that you are a business that cares. This process will also help you gain insights into the best practices in enhancing people’s experience in your workplace and also contributes to your organisation becoming an employer of choice. We have developed and run these programs for a number of multinational large organisations within Australia and New Zealand on a bespoke basis that have been extremely successful. 

Related article: Taking care of employees in the 2020’s

MyMuse works with businesses and organisations across Australia and New Zealand. To discuss your needs or learn what is involved in co-designing a workshop or program with the MyMuse team of experts, phone on 0420 790 091 or fill in this contact form and we will be in touch shortly.

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