HR Caregiver & Bereavement Toolkit: Manager Scripts, Leave and Flexibility Templates, and Employee Guides

An employee comes to you and says their mom is in hospice. Or their dad died last night. In that moment, most managers improvise, and most small HR teams have nothing written down. Then the questions start: what do we say, what can we offer, who needs to know, what paperwork is there, and did we just treat this person differently from the last one?

This toolkit is the words, the forms and the process, already written. Give your managers the scripts, fill in one support sheet, and you are ready before the next person needs you.

Your other options are writing it all yourself, searching the night before, or buying a single bereavement policy template with a rollout guide (specialist sellers charge $349 for that alone). This covers both caregiving and bereavement, for managers, HR and employees, and it stays on the template side: no policy, no legal conclusions.

What's in the Standard download:

• Start-here guide: set it up in one afternoon, five principles, a 30-minute manager briefing plan, and a list of moments to call your counsel

• Manager conversation scripts (8): a parent's serious illness, a request for time off or flexibility, a death in the family, reaching out while they are away, the first day back, check-ins at 1, 3 and 6 months, when work starts to slip, and telling the team with consent. Plus a "what not to say" page and a one-page quick reference card.

• Leave and flexibility templates (5, editable Word + PDF): employee request, bereavement notice, manager response memo, temporary flexible schedule agreement, phased return plan

• Employee guide, "When a parent is declining": a starter list for the first week, who to call (Eldercare Locator, respite, Medicare, free Medicare counseling, 988), papers to find, how to talk to a manager, questions for the care team, and a contacts page

• Employee checklist, "After a death in the family": the first days, weeks and month, death certificates, Social Security, insurance and workplace benefits, plus a call log

• HR admin pack (8, editable Word + PDF): confidential case log, benefits and support sheet, condolence and flowers process, consent check before telling the team, team email templates, a checklist for when an employee dies, an announcement template, and a request tracker (also as Excel)

• Policy review worksheet: questions about what you do today, to take to your own counsel. Not a policy.

• One-organization license (PDF)

White-label and multi-organization adds (choose the White-label option at checkout):

• Every document as an editable Word file, with a "your logo" box in the header

• PDFs with no slowcoffeenotes credit

• The right to put your own name and logo on everything and use it in up to 10 organizations: your own, affiliates, or clients you serve as an HR consultant, benefits broker, PEO or EAP provider

How it handles the hard parts:

• It never tells you what the law requires. Where leave law matters, it says federal FMLA and some state laws may apply, links to the U.S. Department of Labor and your state labor office, and tells you to have counsel review.

• Every statement about a public program (Medicare, Social Security, hospice, death certificates, funeral price lists) is checked against a government or nonprofit source, listed on the page.

• Privacy is built in: a consent check before anything is shared, and forms that keep medical details off the page.

Sample, from Script 3: "Please don't worry about work right now. I'll make sure your urgent things are covered. HR will be in touch about time off and support. You don't need to sort that out today."

See the sample pages preview before you buy.

Before you buy: this is a set of files, not a policy, a training or legal review. It is written for US employers. You will still need to fill in your own benefits, time-off rules and contacts, and have your counsel review anything you adopt.

License: Standard covers one organization (one employer, all of its locations and staff), unlimited copies, no expiry. Please do not share the files with another organization or post them for download. White-label covers up to 10 organizations and allows rebranding. Neither license allows reselling the toolkit as a product.

If the toolkit is not right for your organization, reply to your receipt email within 30 days of purchase for a refund.

Templates and general information only. Not legal, HR-compliance, medical, financial or tax advice, and no outcome is promised. Not affiliated with or endorsed by any government agency or HR organization.

Made by Bean / slowcoffeenotes. Toolkit written and designed with help from an AI assistant (Bean), reviewed for accuracy. Follow along on X: @slowcoffeenotes