×
First-time login tip: If you're a REBA Member, you'll need to reset your password the first time you login.
30 Jun 2021

Transform wellbeing at work: what if your job was good for you?

As we enter a period of post-pandemic recovery, where businesses are grappling with new ways of working and changing employee priorities, Business in the Community (BITC) has produced a report identifying how employers can take action to transform wellbeing at work.

1316-1625045918_BITCMAIN.jpg

The What If Your Job Was Good For You? report advocates two calls to action for employers that build on lessons learnt from the pandemic:

  1. Treat mental health and safety with the same importance as physical health and safety.
  2. Collaborate with colleagues to enable employees to create their own ‘good jobs’ within organisational parameters.

Employees don’t expect to be physically injured at work and nor should their mental health be negatively impacted. However, the reality is that 41% of employees developed mental health issues caused by work in the last year, figures from BITC’s Mental Health at Work (2020) report revealed.

Although work is part of the issue, good job design must be part of the solution. The organisations which thrive during this period of post-pandemic recovery will be those that put people first.

The report sets out ways of working that involve a collaborative, individual approach to job roles, and that focus on relationships between employees and managers that encourage open dialogue.

David Oldfield, CEO commercial banking, and interim group chief operating officer at Lloyds Banking Group, and chair of the Wellbeing Leadership Team at BITC, believes that the pandemic has created a once in a lifetime opportunity to reimagine ways of working and transform mental health and wellbeing at work.

“Working from home, and hybrid working, have created opportunities for taking a more inclusive and individual approach that enables people to co-create their own ‘good jobs’,” he says. “With the importance of listening to employee voices, mental health and safety needs to be established on a parity with physical health and safety so everyone can speak out without fear of negative consequences. I strongly urge employers to take action, and learn from each other, to leave a positive legacy from what we’ve learned in the past 15 months.”

Louise Aston, wellbeing director at BITC and member of REBA’s Advisory Board, added that although the report is evidence based, there are still many unknowns, with the best practices around future ways of working still to be written.

“During this period of transition into this new era, BITC is convening a collaborative movement which enables businesses to take a test and learn approach, where businesses can learn together, build knowledge and share insights to help everyone navigate the journey ahead, recognising that we can’t achieve change on our own.”

To mark the launch of the report, BITC is hosting a virtual launch event at 13:30-14:30 this afternoon (30 June). The speaker line-up includes: David Oldfield, chair of the Wellbeing Leadership Team at BITC; Peter Cheese, CEO at CIPD; Miriam Earley, director, inclusion & wellbeing at Deloitte; and, Rachel Boon, head of health and wellbeing at Royal Mail Group.

Download the report: Transform Wellbeing at Work: What If Your Job Was Good For You?, which was delivered in partnership with the BITC Wellbeing Leadership Team and Affinity Health at Work, and supported by CIPD.