30 Aug 2023

Roundtable discusses ‘crisis’ in workplace wellbeing

Discussions held at Dialogue event looked at most pressing workplace wellbeing challenges

An expert panel of professional HR executives came together for a roundtable event in London in July to discuss the rapid changes in workplace wellbeing trends.

The panel was made up of HR professionals from across a diverse range of sectors including banking, charity, life sciences and manufacturing.

Discussions centred on current evolving trends:

4 million people in the UK say they are facing mental health challenges
30% of the workforce are job hunting – one-quarter of those feel demotivated
Companies are reportedly spending £45bn on health and wellbeing

With people the beating heart of a business, a wellbeing crisis presents HR professionals with a real challenge. Participants were asked to identify the challenges they felt were most pressing.

Topics discussed ranged from back-to-office tensions, to leadership perceptions, global identities and unparalleled complexities.

One executive said: “We have a lot of people that are still completely exhausted and now we’re trying to get back to normal, but we don’t know quite sure what the new normal is.”

And another executive supported this and elaborated on their own workplace perspective: “How people can be well in an always-on culture and in a high growth business is a problem - it can really push individuals on a daily basis”

By the end of the talks there was a clear emergence of three megatrends:

Fragmentation: employees with different circumstances and in different locations.
Back to office: what companies and their teams want from a remote, office or hybrid approach
The role of wellbeing in today’s workplace: The strategic importance of wellbeing and the role it plays in maintaining and attracting a highly skilled workforce.

To learn more about these megatrends and all other topics discussed during the roundtable, download the full roundtable report here.