Marvin OnumonuBritish Safety Council’s ‘Keep Thriving: Future of Workplace Wellbeing’ survey found that most employers and employees across Great Britain were prioritising wellbeing in the workplace.
However, the survey revealed that there was no clear or agreed definition of what ‘wellbeing’ actually meant.
87% of employers said their wellbeing strategies were grounded in health and safety, while 70% said their organisational purpose was linked to worker wellbeing.
49% pointed to higher engagement as a main reason for supporting wellbeing at work.
When asked how they put together their wellbeing strategies, 58% of employers said they developed them using their own staff and resources.
33% said they involved workers by gathering their feedback or ideas, while 28% brought in external experts or consultants to help shape their approach.
Human resources (HR) leads, safety, health and environment leads, and chief executive officers or managing directors were most likely to be responsible for wellbeing at work.
Mental wellbeing and physical health were the two main focuses for 67% of organisations.
Time pressures (25%), resource challenges (24%) and a dispersed workforce (23%) were the biggest barriers to supporting wellbeing.
In academic research, nearly half of the interventions for wellbeing focused on giving employees information or advice, and over 40% offered some form of training.
However, there were gaps, such as a lack of standard definitions, not enough focus on practical delivery, and few interventions tailored to specific groups.
In-person interviews showed that 90% of organisations put physical wellbeing first, followed by mental wellbeing (80%) and financial wellbeing (70%).
Every participant said they used worker feedback to shape wellbeing strategies, mainly using surveys or polls.
Employers said that economic challenges and uncertainty were the main worries for supporting wellbeing in the future.
