Health and Wellbeing Survey

Wellbeing and mental health are beginning to slip down the business agenda, a new report from the CIPD and Simplyhealth has found, despite the fact that organisations are still dealing with the fallout from COVID-19 and it remains an on-going concern for workers.

The report reveals that the number of HR professionals who think that wellbeing is on the agenda of senior leaders has fallen from 75% to 70% in the past year. There has also been a drop in the proportion of HR professionals who think senior leaders encourage a focus on mental wellbeing through their actions and behaviours, falling from 48% in 2021 to 42% in 2022.

Similarly, there has been a decrease in respondents who say managers have bought into the importance of wellbeing, dropping from 67% in 2021 to 60% for 2022.

But the report notes that COVID will continue to impact workers for some time and needs to be factored into organisational plans, particularly with regards to effective mental health support and helping people with long COVID. If they don’t, it warns, employers run the risk of losing valuable employees at a time of severe skills shortages.

The research, which 804 HR professionals were surveyed for, representing more than 4.3 million employees, underlines that COVID-19 still looms large in many organisations. Two-thirds (66%) of HR professionals said they are concerned about the impact of the pandemic on employees’ mental health – and nearly a quarter (24%) of HR professionals also state COVID-related anxiety is among the top-three causes of workplace stress in their organisation.

Find out more here.