The CIPD’s latest health and wellbeing survey report comes just over a year after UK workplaces began protecting their workforces against COVID-19. It provides a wealth of benchmarking data on key areas like absence management, wellbeing benefits and mental health.
The coronavirus pandemic has transformed work on an unprecedented scale. Employers and employees have had to deal with a host of challenges, from sickness and loss to furlough and redundancy. Although more employers are committing to their employees’ health and wellbeing (especially their mental health), there’s significant room for improvement – particularly in the area of line manager support.
Presenteeism and leaveism are widespread, with many employees feeling like they can’t switch off: More organisations are tackling presenteeism and leaveism compared with last year, yet two-fifths of organisations experiencing these issues are taking no action whatsoever.
Employee wellbeing continues to rise up the corporate agenda: Senior leaders are taking mental health seriously, with most putting additional measures in place to support their employees in response to COVID-19. However, despite the increased focus on people’s mental health, organisations need to do to more to support their employees’ financial wellbeing.
HR professionals are concerned about the pandemic’s impact on mental wellbeing: Many organisations have stepped up their efforts to promote good mental health and tackle stress. However, there’s a disappointing fall in the number of organisations training line managers to support people with mental ill health, while more action is needed to manage the health risks from increased homeworking.
The most common challenge organisations face in managing people with a disability or long-term health condition is the development of their line managers: Around three-fifths of organisations have a supportive framework to recruit, manage or retain people with a disability and/or long-term health condition, yet very few organisations collect and publish workforce disability information. Although line managers are key to managing people with disabilities and long-term health conditions, less than a third provide these managers with training and guidance to effectively do so.
Only one in 10 organisations haven’t experienced any absence due to COVID-19: Musculoskeletal injuries are the second main cause of both short- and long-term absence, while mental ill health is the top cause of long-term absence.
Most organisations use a combination of methods to deter and manage sickness absence and promote attendance: The most common methods are return-to-work interviews, trigger mechanisms to review attendance, and leave for family circumstances.