Better management, better culture and better working conditions can transform the UK workplace and the UK economy. No rocket science.
Happy workers are more productive and their employers’ businesses more profitable, a truism proven by multiple surveys. Healthy workers tend to be happier than unhealthy. Healthy workers are certainly more productive than unhealthy. Sadly, British workers suffer from too much ill-health, too much tiredness, too much weight and too much depression as shown by the recently published FT-Vitality Britain’s Healthiest Workplaces Survey. The glass half full approach tells us this represents a real opportunity which sits within the gift of the people of the UK.
A BIT OF DATA
A wide-ranging joint survey by Oxford University and Harvard academics in May 2023 concluded that higher levels of happiness, satisfaction and purpose of the workforce correlated generally with greater profitability; and that the best indicator of wellbeing was a vital sense of belonging, that is workers being treated as human beings and having friends at work. Of course, levels of pay are always relevant in that they need to be satisfactory. Workplace wellbeing is physical and mental but also professional, social and financial.
The BHW Survey reported that, out of 4,787 employees at 59 organisations surveyed, on average employers lost 50 days of work a year per employee in 2023, a bit better than 2022 apparently. That loss comprised 43.6 days unproductive time at work, and 6.1 days of sickness absenteeism. Poor physical and mental wellbeing were a key factor: 58% of employees reported as overweight, 56% poor diet, 23% obese, 37% as physically inactive, 29% poor sleep time, 22% poor sleep quality, and 10% as depressed. The young tended to suffer more unproductive days and declare more depression than older people, and non-managerial workers more depression than executives and senior management.
Many businesses these days do pay attention to employees’ wellbeing, and some offer various interventions such as courses on resilience as part of a wellbeing strategy. But it was suggested that many such courses are only a nod to wellbeing as they are “box-ticking”. And interventions are often remedial, after the fact, whereas preventive processes are more effective, not surprisingly.
GAME CHANGING SOLUTIONS – NOT ROCKET SCIENCE
One business representative is quoted as saying “It’s all about the line manager – from the shop floor to the top floor. They need to have interpersonal, social and empathetic skills. But we promote them based on technical skills”.
According to BHW interventions are found to be considerably less significant influences on wellbeing than more structurally related issues: autonomy, sense of purpose, pay, working conditions and supportive management. Fundamentally, if employees are treated respectfully, with care and empathy, and fairly in a welcoming and sensible culture, they will feel a lot better. The secret lies with improved management, which is authentic, and where leaders practice consistently good values which many businesses espouse to tick that box but fail to follow.
Perhaps too many so-called managers are wrongly promoted to the task as they apply a carrot and stick approach, where if you treat people like donkeys they may feel like and behave like donkeys. Others adopt a totally directive approach, “do as I say”, which is uninspiring and so leaves the victims uninspired. Autonomy and responsibility produce commitment. Some CEOs today say their job involves real psychological skills. If the task of a leader is to select a good team, and enable managers to maximise their potential , which some would say is a major part of the role, then psychological, that is social, interpersonal and empathetic skills are fundamental. Perhaps businesses which engender a coaching style of management will produce a better and happier workforce.
With employees feeling mentally stronger, their ability to improve their own habits, such as diet, will be enhanced. Personal health is of course a personal responsibility within an individual’s control.
Core solutions to transform a workplace from low to higher productivity are actually quite simple. Governments can provide frameworks to incentivise investment, but it is heartening that the real answers lie in the hands of management and employees to create their own community culture and environment which leads to greater health and happiness. Arguably, as with the rest of life, it comes down to good and satisfying relationships between people whatever their job title or rank. Perhaps if everybody went to work with the objective of nurturing those work relationships and enjoying the work environment, and if pay is fair and reflects contribution, the rest will follow. Health, happiness and wealth sit well together.
