National Work Life Week: improving employee wellbeing and work-life balance
Culture Shift
Report and Support software to transform your workplace culture, for good
The big news around workplace culture right now is that sick leave amongst employees has soared to a 10-year high, with 76% of organisations reporting some form of stress-related absence and 34% of people saying work is the biggest cause of stress in their lives. This is despite the increase in them trying to encourage more open discussions about mental health and wellbeing and having strategies in place to do so.
This week (2nd-6th October) is National Work Life Week, an annual campaign by Working Families to get both employers and employees talking about wellbeing at work and work-life balance. It interestingly follows on from International Week of Happiness at Work last week, where organisations shouted about how they try and keep employees happy at work through various different ways, and employees shared what made them happy at work in return.
Do employers' desires to: ensure their people are happy, help with mental health and wellbeing, create a culture of openness, allow them a positive work-life balance, and reduce bullying, discrimination and harassment, align with employees' views and experiences?
Well, according to the research of employees and employers by CIPD and Simplyhealth , as well as other studies - including our own - what companies are doing and how employees feel are sometimes at odds with each other, as per the example in this newsletter's first paragraph. Sadly, in the report by CIPD and Simplyhealth, they found that stress from too high a workload, presenteeism and because of their line manager were very common reasons. But if companies aren't first succeeding in building a psychologically safe environment for their people to speak up or take time off when they need it, how can this truly be reduced?
Getting the work-life balance right
Ciphr found that two-thirds of staff think work-life balance is more valuable than pay, employee benefits and job security. We recently highlighted the most important factors for people's happiness at work and work-life balance ranked 7th, but understand for many it is a culmination of more than one factor which keeps different people not only happy but in their job and at their current company.
Work-life balance is admittedly a difficult pillar of wellbeing to navigate because what that means could be different for everyone. However, sometimes simply giving people open options such as the choice to work completely remotely and discussing individual needs like certain days or times off for childcare is one of the best ways to try and cater to a range of different needs.
Often, it can be the autonomy and flexibility to work whatever times suit them that align with business needs and is led by example from senior leaders that works well, as our CEO and Co-Founder Gemma McCall explains below.
How workplace culture and behaviours affect employee wellbeing
Our research has shown that 42% of employees say a problematic workplace culture has impacted their mental health and more than two-thirds of those who have experienced bullying, discrimination or harassment say they have suffered anxiety because of it.
Furthermore, due to an incident or the culture:
Bullying, discrimination and harassment affects 2 in 5 workers, so this must be addressed as a possible reason among others for why your people might be suffering from poor wellbeing and mental health or are absent from work and therefore costing your business money and employees.
What we have at Culture Shift
Here at Culture Shift, there are several ways we try to improve our people's mental health and wellbeing, reduce stress and other issues that arise through work or workplace culture, and try to create a safe and supportive speak-up environment.
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1. Wellbeing Days
CIPD and Simplyhealth's survey found that only 23% of organisations offer this as an employee benefit. At Culture Shift, we offer 5 a year that don't count towards sick or annual leave. They can be taken if and when our people feel they need the time to recharge and can be used for a variety of different reasons, ranging from the anniversary of a passing, menstrual pain or women's health issues, stress and burnout or tiredness. These can be taken no questions asked, however, some people are comfortable disclosing why, showing a trust and transparency among one another.
2. Flexible and hybrid/home-working
As mentioned, we have a flexible and remote working policy that allows team members to work from wherever suits them and encourage them to, where possible, work around other commitments such as caring responsibilities or medical appointments.
When another study by CIPD shows that an estimated four million people have changed careers and two million have left their jobs in the past year because of a lack of flexibility at work, employers' decisions on working patterns and locations should take their voices into account as well.
3. Tips and advice during the cost of living crisis
The rise of inflation and cost of living crisis is a worry for many. Our Finance Director Ash McDowell has also hosted a lunch and learn session with tips for saving and maximising money, taking advantage of offers and managing money, some of which are detailed in the next point. From that there is a dedicated Slack channel for people to share their advice as well, plus we highlight a different benefit every month in our All Hands meetings. We also use a financial wellbeing and money management platform that people can access independently if they need it.
4. A comprehensive benefits package
Our team love having YuLife , which offers a wealth of perks from the ability to earn coins to exchange for vouchers and save on shopping, health and fitness challenges, access to wellbeing and mental health support as well as virtual GPs, the ability to link it with Calm , life insurance, and more.
In addition to that, other benefits include:
5. An anonymous reporting platform
Of course this is an important one. We couldn't be partnering with more than 100 organisations and educational institutions to give a voice to more than 2 million people and talking to others about the power of anonymous reporting or transforming cultures without practising what we preach. Internally we have our own system in place so that our team members know they can confidentially raise a concern or disclose an incident they've experienced or witnessed.
Only 36% of people we asked said they had previously reported an incident at work before and the same amount said that it led them to not trust their employer. However, 62% of people would if they could do so anonymously, which massively reduces the many barriers reporting normally poses.
By having and using the platform ourselves we too can nip behaviours in the bud and identify and prevent them.
Summary
Your employees' wellbeing and providing them with a good work-life balance are essential to the success of a business. So how will you make sure your organisation's wellbeing strategy not only exists but is purposeful, impactful and and addresses the intricacy and multitude of issues around the topic that your employees might be experiencing?