Greater awareness of mental health and wellbeing at work is proving to be one of the pandemic’s lasting legacies. Seventy-five percent of employers say staff have demanded greater support for their health and wellbeing since the pandemic, and 54% say employee wellbeing will be a focus of substantial changes to their workforce strategy in the next three-to-five years – a big increase from the 36% who said the same in 2021. “Since the pandemic, wellbeing has become its own dedicated function,” says Doran. “We have people working on wellbeing full time, and they are focused on a number of different strands.”
Despite regional differences in definitions, employers are embracing a range of wellbeing initiatives across all markets surveyed. When we presented employers with a list of 10 different wellbeing policies, at least 88% of respondents had adopted or said they were planning to adopt each policy on the list. The most-implemented initiatives are providing space for employees to discuss work issues, which has already been taken up by 67% of respondents, and providing managers with training to support wellbeing, implemented by 65% (see figure 7 below). “Wellbeing can only be a positive and you can’t train enough and educate enough in that space,” says Doug Evans at Hays. “It’s a fundamental issue.”
The prevalence of wellbeing programmes suggests employers are going above and beyond employee demand. Why are they so keen? Just over a third (35%) see...
Two Canada-based steel companies, Farjess Inc. and Royal Canadian Steel Inc., along with their part-owner and president, Feroz Jessani, have agreed to pay $19 million to resolve allegations that t...