Research: The Wellbeing Agenda: changing priorities in the workplace

This research provides insights into the current needs of the modern day workforce, as well as how best employers can prepare for the challenges they will face – and how to deal with them effectively.

Key findings

• 97 per cent of respondents believe a happy workplace is a more productive workplace, while 93 per cent agree that happiness is a good proxy for wellbeing.
• From those who said they have a wellbeing strategy in place, almost two thirds (64 per cent) report that it is fully functioning, with just under half claiming that it’s delivering real benefits to the employees and the organisation.
• Just over half of organisations with a wellbeing strategy in place are using HR metrics such as absence data, employee opinion surveys etc. More concerning is the 36 per cent who have access to these metrics but don’t use them.
• The top three reasons for implementing or wanting to implement a wellbeing strategy are: to keep employees fit and healthy, to improve productivity, and to improve happiness in the workplace.

Barnett Waddingham surveyed 200 employers, representative of the ‘UK plc’, to understand their thoughts and perceptions on workplace wellbeing.