Why the key to success lies in your employees’ health and happiness
Business leaders are facing a number of macroeconomic challenges, including rising costs due to inflation and the cost of living, labour shortages and political instability. In this changing world, improving the productivity of each worker can help support economic growth, business performance and sustainable wage growth.
But what can employers do to achieve this?
A new report from WPI Economics commissioned by Unum UK (based on a survey of more than 4,000 UK employees), finds that one way of achieving this productivity boost is to improve workplace health and happiness. The results revealed:
- Eight in 10 employees (80%) say that they are more productive at work when they feel healthy and happy. When compared to those who are not happy at work, these happy employees are nearly three times as likely to rate their performance as being very productive (37% versus 13%).
- Physical and mental wellbeing is key to employees’ happiness. Employees who enjoy good physical and mental wellbeing are nearly 2.5 times more likely to be happy at work than those with poor physical and mental health.
- Comprehensive employer-provided health and wellbeing support can play a vital part in improving productivity. Employees with access to a comprehensive package of support are 35% more likely to report being happy at work, and 34% less likely to say that they are currently looking for a job with a different employer. Well over half of employees (58%) said that improvements in the health and wellbeing services their employer provides would lead them to take less time off and/or increase their productivity.
There is a clear link between health and happiness and driving business performance. It’s also no surprise that a healthier, happier workplace makes workers more likely to stick around, retaining top talent, and can also attract new hires.
Flexibility is key to maximising health and happiness
Yet there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to this. Today’s workforce is more diverse than ever, now including five generations where each cohort has their own specific needs. Flexibility is therefore key to any benefits offering to maximise health and happiness across the entire workforce.
Health and happiness are particularly important when you consider what lies behind a sizeable proportion of the UK’s economically inactive workers. Figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal that inactivity due to long-term sickness now stands at more than 2.6 million, an increase of almost 500,000 since the start of the pandemic. More than 1.35 million (53%) of those inactive because of long-term sickness reported that they had depression, bad nerves or anxiety in the three months to March 2023.
By recognising and accepting the connection between health, happiness and productivity, employers have the opportunity to see huge advantages. One potential path employers could take to help with this is the introduction of an employee benefits package, or even just simple health and wellbeing measures such as the Help@hand app from Unum, which offers employees practical, everyday support.
Health and happiness key to boosting productivity
Health and happiness are central to everyone’s wellbeing; improving workplace health and happiness can support with both recruitment and retention in today’s competitive job market. Vacancies may be down from a dramatic peak of 1.3 million in the three months ending May 2022, but remain high by the standards of the past 20 years. As a result, competition for workers among firms is fierce and a comprehensive benefits package can be a key deciding factor to sway a candidate’s decision.
Based on the report and its underlying data, it’s clear that investing in workplace health and wellbeing solutions would lead to fewer sickness absences, increased productivity and an increased likelihood that employees will stay with the business. And that’s good for businesses’ bottom lines, boosting the nation’s GDP and ultimately benefitting us all.
Read the full Health, Happiness and Productivity report.
