The wellbeing landscape
The current climate
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Focus
We’ve seen a significant increase in employees’ being impacted and feeling unhappy with their physical, mental and financial wellbeing over the last two years which is as expected with the pandemic and lockdowns taking their toll. Financial health causes the most concern which is likely to worsen with rising living costs.
In addition, only 50% of employees feel supported by their workplace, with support on financial health lagging behind. This is not surprising when more than half of the employers surveyed told us their wellbeing strategies need work. We all know employee wellbeing effects productivity, absenteeism and retention - so what can employers do to help?
A well-rounded employee wellbeing strategy should be unique to your workforce and consider the physical, mental and financial wellbeing of individuals. When was the last time you reviewed yours? Are you happy with how you’re supporting employees or could you be doing more?
Significant increase in employees affected by wellbeing concerns
This year, we have seen a considerable increase in employees being affected by mental, physical and financial concerns either personally or through someone close to them.
Whilst we see these increases rising sharply in the young and mid-age bands, the increases seen in the older generations have also risen significantly too.
Question: Have you, or someone close to you been affected by any of the following in the last 12 months?
Employee happiness – rising levels of concern
The level of unhappiness amongst employees is rising. We’ve seen a 6% increase in those unhappy with their physical and mental health, and an 8% increase in those unhappy with their financial health over the last 12 months taking it to almost 1 in 3. Employees are most unhappy with their financial health compared to physical or mental.
Question: Thinking about your overall wellbeing, which of the following best describes how happy you are with each with these aspects?
The workplace – building a supportive environment
Asking how supportive work environments show encouraging outcomes. There has been a year on year increase in those who feel their workplace is supportive in each of these areas, although financial heath support still lags well behind physical and mental health support.
Question: How far do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements?
There is an appetite from organisations to build and develop their wellbeing strategies. Although financial health is lagging behind in terms of what’s already in place, the majority of companies are looking to push this forward.
This is good news for employees who typically look to their employer as the main source of support and options within the benefit package provided.
Employer Question: What level of strategy does your business currently have in place to support each of the following?
LCP viewpoint
Dr Jonathan Pearson-Stuttard, LCP
The finding of worse self-reported physical, mental and financial health from employees over the past three years is concerning...
...We have seen an expansion of morbidity - more years of life being lived in poor health - in recent years and these findings across employees are consistent with that. While there will likely be large differences amongst employees we know from previous economic shocks such as the Financial Crisis that these have substantial impacts on health, with approximately 900,000 more working age adults estimated to have developed chronic (physical and mental) health conditions as a result of the rise in unemployment seen following that period.
In contrast, the increase in reported efforts of workplaces to create environments that are health-promoting is promising. We know that the health environment is extremely important in shaping health outcomes and is generally much more effective than individual agentic based interventions. The Covid-19 pandemic has made it clearer than ever that the health of employees is an asset to a business and many firms are beginning to take steps to value this accordingly.
The large and consistent inter-generational inequities in self-reported physical, mental and financial health are alarming though consistent with wider trends. In many instances younger adults have been hit hardest by the indirect impacts of the pandemic. These findings confirm the variation in health - physical, mental and financial - need of employees and effective workplace strategies will be tailored according to the needs of each specific group in turn.