Better wellbeing. Better business. The business case.
“Employee wellbeing has come of age and has grown up into a mainstream business imperative. It is changing ho we work for the better and improve working lives.”
Employee Wellbeing Research 2022, REBA
We find ourselves in interesting times. “Traditional models of working have imploded which has caused unprecedented challenges that require urgent action from business leaders, to not just change, but to revolutionise ways of working” (Your Job Can be Good for You Report, BITC, 2022).
In the last 18 months, terms such as ‘quiet quitting’ and the Great Resignation, (also known as the Big Quit and the Great Reshuffle), have become common place as individuals voluntarily resigned from their jobs en masse, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the UK alone, 28% of the workforce left their jobs in 2021 or planned to leave in 2022, with 61% citing poor mental health as the reason (BTIC, 2022).
Whilst we seek a ‘new normal’ David Oldfield, Group Director, Commercial Banking, Lloyds Bank emphasises that it is:“crucial we take this once in a lifetime opportunity to reimagine how best we work; support for mental health and wellbeing is part of that”.
When it comes to performance and wellbeing, not surprisingly Covid-19 accelerated many organisations activity on employee wellbeing. The challenge was always going to be how to keep it on the agenda in the Board room, as other priorities are seen to emerge.
In this year’s CIPD Health and Wellbeing at Work Report, there are already signs that a focus on health and wellbeing has waned for senior leaders – dropping to 70% from 75% in 2021. However, the effects of Covid-19 are far from long gone, as the health, wellbeing and economic legacy will be felt for many years yet to come.
If anything, it is naïve at best, short sighted at worst, to divest an organisations’ energy on tackling issues such as talent shortages, increasing costs, and the ongoing challenge of establishing new working patterns, i.e., home working, not to mention a potential future recession – from a seeing health and wellbeing as integral to businesses goals and day to day operations.
Staff retention is even more crucial in such scenarios, and a proactive approach to strategically and systematically supporting and encouraging wellbeing, generates loyalty and stability. In addition, a robust employee wellbeing offering also provides an enhanced employee value proposition, when it does come to talent attraction.
“There is a compelling moral, legal and economic case for putting wellbeing at the heart of business… not just on a mug!”
Going forward, to minimise the costs and realise the benefits of good workplace wellbeing, organisations must take a more joined up approach. For example, in their latest guidelines NICE recommend taking both a preventative and proactive and tiered approach to mental wellbeing. I.e. organisational level approach, as the foundation, followed by individual approaches, and then targeted. Those who do have seen wider business benefits across the board (REBA, 2022).
Find out more…
If our approach to wellbeing and Wellbeing Audits has piqued your attention, why not have read about how we used this approach with a high risk high performing team at Pepper Advantage here.
If you would like to know more about how Psychology Works could help you with your next Wellbeing Audit, just contact us.
In the meantime, if you’ve enjoyed Maria’s ramblings why not check out some of our other blogs and thought pieces. For real time updates and insights you can also find us on LinkedIn, our social media platform of choice: @PsychologyWorks and @mariagardner