Health and wellbeing ‘dropping down agenda’

The health and wellbeing of workers is in danger of dropping down the business agenda, human resources institute the CIPD and insurers SimplyHealth have found.

Their report, Health and Wellbeing at Work 2022, found that the number of HR professionals who think that wellbeing is on the agenda of senior leaders has fallen from 75% to 70% in the past year. And the proportion who think senior leaders encourage a focus on mental wellbeing has slipped from 48% in 2021 to 42% in 2022.

The survey also found that stress levels remain high, with 79% of respondents reporting some form of stress-related absence in their organisation last year, rising to 90% for large organisations. And 67% of respondents are aware of some form of “leaveism” (such as using annual leave to work), while 81% say they have observed presenteeism (working when ill) among those working from home.

Rachel Suff, CIPD senior employment relations adviser, commented: “Not only is Covid still with us, it has exacerbated existing health and wellbeing challenges and created new ones, like long Covid. So, while the drop may be small at this point, it’s still a concern that some senior leaders are starting to pay less attention to health and wellbeing.

“Senior leaders have a defining influence on their organisation’s culture and it’s in their gift to shape an environment where people feel safe to speak up about health issues and seek support.”

https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/culture/well-being/health-well-being-work