It's Monday morning and one of your team rings to say their mum has died at the weekend. Your policy gives them five days off. Research from MetLife UK found that 55% of bereaved employees said it took them up to eight weeks to feel like themselves at work again, while typical compassionate leave lasts three to five working days. The leave runs out long before the grief does.
So bereavement support for employees isn't only a leave question. It's what happens around the leave and after it: the first phone call, the funeral three weeks later, the paperwork, the first day back and the first anniversary. This guide covers what the law requires from April 2027, six steps for supporting employees through bereavement, and the benefits that can help.
Bereavement support is everything you do to help an employee after someone close to them dies: time off, pay, how their manager responds, changes to their work when they return, and benefits such as counselling.
Bereavement leave is one part of that. It covers the first days, but employees may need support for weeks or months after the funeral, while there's still paperwork to deal with and colleagues have stopped asking.
Right now, employees can take a ‘reasonable’ amount of unpaid time off to deal with the death of a dependant. Eligible parents get two weeks of parental bereavement leave if their child dies under the age of 18 or is stillborn after 24 weeks of pregnancy. If the person who died was neither a dependant nor a child, there's no legal right to time off.
That changes in April 2027. The government has confirmed a new right to bereavement leave for employees in Great Britain who lose a spouse or partner, parent, adult child or sibling. Step, half, adoptive, foster and kinship care relationships are included. The right also covers pregnancy loss before 24 weeks, with up to two weeks of unpaid leave for the person who was pregnant and their partner.
The details will be set out in secondary legislation, so check the final rules before you rewrite your policy. But some gaps are already clear. The new statutory entitlement will not cover a grandparent or a close friend, and it doesn't address what happens when someone comes back to work. Those decisions are yours.
Here's how to support employees through grief and loss, from the first call to the first anniversary.
When there's no clear policy, every manager improvises. One gives two weeks. Another gives three days. People compare notes.
Set out four things in writing:
Once you've agreed the details, put them in a clear bereavement policy. Make sure a manager can find it in two minutes on a Monday morning. HR software with an AI assistant can make this easier by helping managers find relevant policies and get answers to common questions without going through HR.
People remember how their manager reacted. Most managers have never taken this call, so give them some guidance.
Start by saying you're sorry, make it clear that work can wait, and ask how they'd like to stay in touch. Then ask three practical questions:
Leave three things out: when they'll be back, how the person died, and ‘I know how you feel’.
Follow up in writing the next day to confirm their leave and pay arrangements, if the leave is paid. Someone in shock won't remember everything you said on the phone.
Grief doesn't arrive in one block. Neither do the days someone needs.
The funeral might be next week or next month. Some faiths require or traditionally hold a burial within a day or two, while mourning periods can last for weeks. A death in the family abroad may also mean travelling overseas. If a coroner is involved, an inquest can come months later. Then there's the first birthday and the first anniversary.
From April 2027, statutory bereavement leave will be more flexible too. Employees will be able to take it as single days within 56 weeks of the loss. If you offer five days of paid bereavement leave, you could give employees the same flexibility, for example, taking three days now, one for the inquest and one for the anniversary.
Ask early on: ‘Are there dates coming up that you'd like to keep free?’
Be flexible about religious and cultural practices too. Unreasonably refusing time off for a religious ceremony after a death could amount to religion or belief discrimination.
A death can leave someone with a long list of practical tasks to manage. They may need to register the death, arrange the funeral, notify banks and pension providers, value the estate and, often, apply for probate.
Many of those calls and appointments need to happen during the working day. You can't do the admin for your employee, but you can make room for it:
Don't raise the return in the first few days. When they're ready to talk about it, agree the details before the first day back:
That last one is easy to miss. For example, a bereaved parent may want to know in advance that a colleague has announced a pregnancy. Ask what situations they may find difficult when they return.
Difficult periods can come later: when the estate is settled, around a birthday or at the first anniversary. Changes in mood, concentration or performance can also appear months after the loss, so support shouldn't end after the first few weeks.
Three habits help:
Grief is a natural response to a death, not a mental health problem. But some people may experience mental health problems alongside grief. If you see signs of anxiety or depression, our guide to employee mental health support covers what to do next.
Most benefits packages already contain bereavement support. It just isn't labelled that way, and nobody searches five provider portals in the week of a funeral.
Look at the support you already offer and how it could help a bereaved employee:
Then put it all in one place, with relevant phone numbers and links, alongside your bereavement policy. Send the link in your follow-up message after the first call.
FlexGenius gives employees one place to access their benefits, policies and communications on any device. Your bereavement policy sits in a searchable, version-controlled document library, and you can link to it from other pages and announcements. Employees can also access their EAP, health cover and financial protection benefits in the same place, and update their dependant details themselves. Targeted announcements let you brief managers when your policy changes ahead of April 2027.
So when that Monday morning call comes, there's one link to send.
Book a demo or download the brochure to see FlexGenius in action.