How financial stress is changing employee priorities

The 2022 Wellness Barometer Survey by BrightPlan shows that 72% of staff report being stressed about their finances, affecting their mental and physical health — up 11% on 2021. Top causes of worry are rising inflation, retirement planning and market volatility.

In terms of benefits, the survey claims that finance-related benefits are now the most sought after, leaping ahead of mental health and flexible time off since last year. 88% expect their employer to be actively helping them deal with the cost of living crisis.

Package up

UK software firm IRIS is an example of how some employers are stepping up with a new package of support.

The company has ensured a broad range of benefits to meet the diversity of situations. At the core of the offering is an EAP, alongside a team of mental health first aiders and new web pages giving advice on financial awareness. This is backed up with new offers such as one-to-one financial coaching with an external consultant, and workplace individual savings accounts (ISAs). IRIS has also boosted attention to health cash plans and discount schemes on offer.

Financial times

EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell said: “A sense of financial insecurity is so often a root cause for mental and physical ill-health, they are all bound up together in ways that can create a vicious circle.

“The first job for employers, and in some ways the most important, is making sure people are paying attention to their finances and not sleepwalking into serious problems with debt. That can mean fundamental changes to lifestyle with implications for partners and families, what happens to expectations of treats and luxuries. And that can affect relationships and sense of self-worth.

“This is why the EAP is important versus any temporary offers or even increases in pay — it’s a way for employees to look at the big picture of money, relationships and their health, how their life might have to change and what’s going to work and how.”

Don’t become the next social media wellbeing lampoon

A new trend has seen more staff using satirical posts to highlight what they see as feeble attempts to support employee wellbeing.

In one viral post on TikTok, ‘HR in 2022’ an English comic pretends to be an HR professional explaining how important mental health is for the company, inter-cut with shots of struggling employees. Staff come up with ideas around reducing workloads and four-day working weeks, but are instead signposted to a take part in a lunchtime webinar.

Another series of viral posts came from a US employee forced to live in their office cubicle because of the cost of living crisis and lack of practical support.

Box ticked

The concerns about box-ticking approaches to mental health have showed themselves in a number of research studies. A survey by Headspace Health showed that while 25% of UK staff had missed at least a week of work due to mental health issues, two-thirds still felt their employer wasn’t taking steps to give them support. Just 25% said the additional focus on mental health brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic had led to anything long-term.

“I am struck by how often managers offer every support possible, with the exception of anything that will actually solve the problem,” said Terence Robson, Deputy Head of the COVID-19 Team at the Ministry of Defence.

Fair focus

“With the combination of the cost of living crisis and more staff having to on extra workloads due to cost-cutting and staff changes, this is no time for letting slip the focus on workplace wellbeing,” says EAPA UK chair, Eugene Farrell.

“At the same time there’s a need to understand that HR themselves aren’t immune to the difficult context we’re all living through. They’re obviously facing their own issues with workload and levels of change.

“All of this means there’s more need than ever for access to practical support, professionals who provide personalised advice on what to do next, counselling when it’s needed, and take some of the pressure away from HR.”

Don’t become the next social media wellbeing lampoon – EAPA UK

Why we’re on course for an epidemic of loneliness

A new report by Buffer (State of Remote Work 2022) has found that more remote and hybrid workers are struggling with loneliness — up to 24% from 20% in 2020. Working conditions aren’t getting any easier, there’s no signs of a ‘settling in’ to new ways of working and a balance between isolation and workplace community.

The report also found that 52% of employees globally feel less connected to their co-workers since they moved to remote working. Work routines in themselves have become more formal ‘transactional’ with no space for ad hoc social contact and gatherings which provided more human ‘breathing spaces’ throughout the day.

Social duty of care

The problem of how to better support staff and create a more sociable and connected hybrid environment is one for employers: a survey by workplace tech firm Silicon Reef claims that 73% of UK remote workers believe their employer should be doing more to deal with the issue of staff loneliness.

The general view is that HR and employers can best help with workplace wellbeing by making the ‘check-ins’ with staff more regular. Managers need to get better at spotting changes in manner and behaviour virtually. Employees should be given even more flexibility in their working day at home, with more opportunities to break up the day — a move away from micro-management towards judging performance purely through outputs. 

Head-on

“When an issue is so difficult to raise in conversation — the ‘L’ word — employers need most of all to make sure their remote and hybrid workers have someone they can speak to in confidence, without making a big deal of it with a manager or colleagues,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell. 

“All the evidence suggests it’s not something people want to do, they’d rather grin and bear it; and that can only happen for so long before loneliness becomes a factor in mental wellbeing. All the efforts by HR to introduce new forms of virtual social contact have their place, but it’s critical that people have a means of talking about the issues openly and in the context of their personal situation.”

Read more about the report here

Why we suffer from sick day stigma

A report from BetterUp Labs claims more than 70% of UK employees have tried to avoid taking time off, despite having mental health concerns, in the past three months.

28% had taken at least one day off during that same period — but more than half of those had claimed their absence was due to a physical illness. At the same time there’s an issue with taking any kind of sick day, as 59% also said they’d worked through a physical form of sickness.

Covering up

Younger employees are more prone to covering up their issues and sticking to their desks. 85% of 18 to 24 year-olds and 78% of 25 to 34 year-olds reported pushing through in spite of mental health worries (compared with under half of the 55 and overs).

Employers need to be doing more to make conversations about mental health more of a normal part of working lives, say the report authors.

“It’s unfortunate that more than half of people who took time off for mental health reasons felt the need to use a different excuse,” says Erin Eatough, Manager of Behavioural Science at BetterUp Labs,  “Mental health is health, and this ‘covering’ behaviour demonstrates that there’s work to be done to normalise both reactive and preventative mental health self-care.”

Opening up

“Just because mental health is now more visible in workplaces and society as a whole, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easier to talk about when it’s you,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell. “Mental illness is still something that we’d like to think only happens to other people.

“That’s why employers have to make it easier to have that initial conversation about individual struggles and situations when it comes to mental wellbeing. Until we admit out loud that we’re not coping it’s still something we can keep locked up, as something to deal with another time.

“EAPs are the most obvious channel for employees to open up: talking in confidence to an independent professional who’s not just a sounding board but someone who can signpost and arrange the most practical next steps.”

Why we suffer from sick day stigma – EAPA UK

Why employees expect to burn out

Research published in time for Stress Awareness Month suggests that 62% of British employees had experienced burnout (a state of physical and emotional exhaustion) in the past year. A quarter believe they had been burnt out ‘consistently’ over that period.

The figure was one headline in the Anatomy of Work Index produced by global software firm Asana from surveying 10,000 employees internationally (2,000 in the UK).

Why it’s happening

Burnout is supposedly more of a problem for women (67% compared with 58% of men had gone through the experiences), and for younger workers (72% between 16 and 38 compared with 56% of 39 to 64 year-olds).

Hybrid working isn’t helping with stress. Almost half 46% said they felt more isolated working remotely. 56% were multi-tasking during virtual meetings, and 55% were checking work emails outside work hours.

“The perception that burnout is an inevitable part of career success suggests that there may be a trend of championing overwork in some UK companies,” says Asana’s Simon O’Kane. “If businesses don’t take action, they risk workers falling into a cycle of exhaustion, poor performance, and low morale.”

Stress as a drug

“Burnout should never be seen as a badge of honour,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.  “It’s bad for anyone’s health, no matter how strong they believe themselves to be. The exhaustion involved is serious and has implications in terms of work and home life — and the potential for ongoing problems with physical and mental wellbeing.

“HR should be working with their EAP provider to promote the importance of healthy attitudes to work and the importance of a balance in people’s lives. Stress at ordinary levels is a good thing for motivation and for the pay-off in terms of a sense of achievement and overcoming problems.

“In this way, sometimes stress can be a kind of drug, encouraging overworking and risk-taking. But employees have to be able to recognise when the stress is getting unhealthy for them, be able to talk about it openly with their manager and peers, and know when and how to get professional support from an EAP before there’s a collapse.”

Are employers spending enough on mental wellbeing?

Deloitte’s new report —Mental health and employers: The case for investment – pandemic and beyond — suggests the estimated total cost from absenteeism, presenteeism and turnover caused by mental ill health has increased by a quarter since the start of the pandemic: up to somewhere between £53 and £56 billion.

The authors surveyed 3,599 employees about their experiences between September and October 2021 (building on previous work dating back to 2017 for comparisons). The worst period was November 2020 to January 2021 — with some improvements in levels of mental ill health since that time, but ongoing higher rates of problems.

Just a third said that in the past year they had used some tools and resources to help them manage their mental health. Use of EAPs and digital apps has been growing, says the report.

Focusing investment

The most common cause of costs to employees is presenteeism. But the biggest cost overall comes form higher turnover, where people have left their job in the previous year or intended to do so in the next 12 months, for mental health or wellbeing reasons.

In response, Deloitte recommends investment into more awareness of issues, screening (monitoring and measuring) and training around mental health. Its model suggests a £5.30 return on every £1.00 spent on these approaches. It also points to the value of targeting measures to support higher risk groups like younger employees, employees with caring responsibilities outside work, key workers and ethnic minorities. For example, younger employees (under 30) have been more affected by the pandemic, with about two-thirds of respondents in this age group saying they had left their job in the previous year or were planning to do so due to poor mental wellbeing.

EAP ROI

“Increases in costs for employers due to reduced mental wellbeing is, of course, no surprise,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell. “It’s all about what HR is doing in response.

“More employees have been turning to their EAP — backed up by EAPA’s research earlier this year, which found that 347,000 more employees had used their EAP between October 2020 and October 2021 compared with previous years. Higher usage rates resulted in even higher Return on Investment as a result of reduced absence and presenteeism. For every £1.00 spent on an EAP in the UK, employers have seen an average return on investment (ROI) of £8.00. This compares with a previous average of £7.27.

“The key is promotion and awareness, particularly engaging employees around specific issues relevant to them, and making sure the EAP services available are tailored to suit the workforce.”

Are employers spending enough on mental wellbeing? EAPA UK

What’s going to work in a national ‘ mental health recovery plan ’?

The 2022 Workplace Health Report commissioned by the NHS flags some worrying trends for employers: 58% of employees claiming to be experiencing mild symptoms of anxiety, and 18% that they have already been diagnosed with a mental health problem.

There is a gender divide. In the study, carried out by Champion Health, 37% of men reported symptoms of anxiety and 32% of depression, compared with 62% of women reporting anxiety and 61% of depression.

The main cause for stress was found to be levels of workload, followed by a ‘lack of control’, and ‘lack of support’. Outside of work, 30% of employees pointed to financial wellbeing as the biggest cause of stress.

On their own

Meanwhile, at the same time as more than half of employees are reporting mental wellbeing concerns post-Covid-19, relatively few are getting any support. Only 9% of employees say they are currently receiving support and treatment. 61% claim to have never received any kind of help. Three-quarters of those who have accessed support are women.

Sean Duggan, the CEO of the NHS Confederation’s Mental Health Network, is calling for the Government to map out a mental health recovery plan for the UK, looking at long-term policy and filling shortfalls in funding for NHS services.

Who’s on call?

“It’s critical that we, as a country, acknowledge that we’re living in a different world when it comes to mental wellbeing,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“The Champion Health report urges employers to think about the causes of stress in their organisation, and how these can be mitigated with more reasonable workloads and targets — based on an assumption that if things do go wrong the NHS will be there to deal with mental illnesses.

“Experience shows there isn’t the capacity, waiting times for appointments and treatments can be very long, and employees are put off from getting any help at all.

“In this context, immediate support through an EAP is an essential. Confidential professional support that’s always available and provides a channel into counselling when it’s needed.”

Who’s going to pay for the energy price hike?

Bosses at a string of smaller businesses are pre-empting the impact of the new energy price cap and the doubling of household energy bills.

That Recruitment Company in Birmingham, for example, have been given a permanent 5% pay increase so that the team don’t feel the pain of energy costs. RSL Renewables in South Shields have followed suit. Staff at Firefish Software in Glasgow have been given a £600 pay rise, while London PR firm Comms Co has given everyone a £700 pay rise.

Posting they care

The action by employers has been a great way to signal to staff — as well as the wider world — that they’re thinking about their people and the hard realities of the 2020s. News of the pay increases has been buzzing with shares and likes on social media.

Chris Stringer, Chief Executive at That Recruitment Company, said: “The energy increase is concerning. Everybody is struggling now. I don’t think you should work just to pay the bills. Life is hard. Anyway, it’s only 14 staff not like 250,000.”

Wider wellbeing

“Quick pay rises to cover the huge increases in energy bills will really be a weight off the minds of staff,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell. “But that’s obviously only going to be for the very few. Big employers — who will have their own bigger energy costs to pay as a business — just can’t do it.

“We all know that bills will be doubling or maybe even more, but it will take some time for the real impact on budgets and lifestyles and relationships are known. HR need to make sure that their people are actively thinking about what it means for them. Anticipating problems and planning for ways to cope. EAPs are here and easily accessible to make sure those conversations can happen early.”

Who’s going to pay for the energy price hike? EAPA UK

Do you have a ‘work-spouse’?

More usually, work and home are seen as being a disruptive influence on each other: working couples struggle to balance responsibilities, who’s dropping the kids at school, and what happens when someone has to work late?

Researchers at the University of Bath (alongside IESE Business School and Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands) studied the experiences of 260 couples where both partners were working. The purpose of the research had been to discover what happens when it comes to sharing out chores — and then where couples look for support when they are feeling under stress or worried about work/life clashes.

Love and the co-worker

Rather than going to talk about work/life balance issues with a manager, it was found that colleagues were far more important for support and advice. These are what the researchers refer to as ‘work-spouses’.

“They are the starting point of what we call a ‘gain spiral’, in which the benefits of a supportive relationship with colleagues then transfers to an employee’s home life, where they are subsequently shared with a partner,” say the researchers.

“In the other direction, a loving relationship at home is likely to translate into greater dedication and creativity in the work place.  if you’re happy at work, you’ll be happier at home, which in turn will make you better at your job.”

Caring spiral

“Most often, home and work lives have been thought of as acting against each other. Conflict in one place leads to trouble in the other,” suggests EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“It’s useful to think about the other side of the picture and how good practices of caring and support lead to a virtuous circle. EAPs play an important part in this kind of culture. People know they always have someone to speak to, they can open up and move forward. And that’s such a fundamental principle for working couples to catch problems early and start conversations before things escalate or fester. Employers can only ever benefit from a cycle of positive feelings and experiences in terms of satisfaction and productivity.”

Do you have a ‘work-spouse’? – EAPA UK

Why UK employers lead the world on wellbeing practice

Based on data on people practices and policies from across 1,800 organisations certified by Top Employers Institute, the UK is doing substantially more around health and wellbeing.

Almost all UK Top Employers offer an EAP (98% of the 84 that have been certified). That compares with 71% internationally. Meanwhile 80% in the UK have their own wellbeing champion to drive initiatives versus 59% elsewhere. There’s also more breadth of offering: 76% have religious or spiritual facilities (compared with 26%); 89% provide financial education (60%). Activity has stepped in the past year. 96% now promote physical activity, up from 79% in the 2020/21 data.

On/off

Importantly, there’s also evidence that UK businesses are trying to address the fall-out from ‘always on’ working. 58% now guarantee time to “unplug” or take stress-relief breaks (up from 44% in last year’s data); 65% now actively discourage use of email outside normal working hours (up from 48%); 48% offer programmes for coping with information overload (38%). 63% now also offer burnout recovery support (compared with 49%).

Other data provides more context for why UK employers are putting more into employee wellbeing. In terms of business priorities for HR, supporting organisational and cultural change remains top; the need to drive growth has jumped into second place. Health and safety of employees has stayed third.

Necessary action

“The top priorities for HR highlighted by the data are all linked,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“The need for change and growth in the post-pandemic period, to re-build and re-assert market presence, is clear. But all of that is founded on the effort and commitment of people still dealing with the after-effects of the Covid-19 crisis and all it’s meant for their lives and routines. That’s why new and expanded health and wellbeing practices have become so important, not just as a token principe, but for helping build the resilience of people resources.”

Eugene Farrell on UK wellbeing practice.