Engagement and Wellbeing

We are working in really tough times which look set to continue. People are putting in longer hours, are more stressed and feel anxious about the future, particularly job security and their financial future.

• Survey after survey indicates that only around one third of UK workers say they are engaged – a figure which leaves the UK ranked ninth for engagement levels amongst the world’s twelfth largest economies as ranked by GDP (Kenexa 2009)
• The UK also has a productivity deficit. The most recent ONS survey found that output per hour in the UK was 15 percentage points below the average for the rest of the G7 industrialised nations ; on an output per worker basis, UK productivity was 20 percentage points lower than the rest of the G7 in 2011. This represents the widest productivity gap since 1995.
• Stress at work, leading to long-term absence, has more than doubled since the 1990s, with an estimated 500,000 suffering from work-related stress in the UK. Yet only a third of employees received any support to manage workplace stress.
• Raising engagement and productivity was a key challenge in 2013 highlighted by CEO’s in the recent CEO Challenge study.

Despite clear evidence that good workplaces have higher productivity, greater employee retention and improved customer satisfaction, only a third of UK employees are actively engaged at work and levels of stress and mental illness are rising. A three year study across 41 global companies showed that operating margin improved by 4% in organisations with high employee engagement and declined by 2% in those with low employee engagement (Towers Watson, 2010)

Businesses are putting their long term success at risk as at least 20 million workers are not delivering their full capability. Employee absence costs the economy more than £17 billion a year and trust is falling with only 40% of employees believing their bosses act with integrity.

BITC Workwell has been developed by international business leaders to build company resilience. It is the first model to support the creation of good workplaces and to successfully integrate all aspects of people management alongside business objectives.

BITC Workwell is changing the way employee performance is measured, reported and tracked as an indicator of business success. Results of the first FTSE100 Workwell benchmark will be available in April 2013.

The business case for promoting wellness and engagement is clear. A healthy, engaged and resilient workforce is more productive and profitable in terms of efficiency, customer relations, team working loyalty and retention, and sustainable performance.

Most business leaders know instinctively that a happy, healthy workforce is a productive workforce, but many still treat employee wellness and engagement as an ‘optional extra’ rather than as an integral part of the way they do business.