Is wellbeing becoming a top manager perk again?

Is wellbeing becoming a top manager perk again?

A survey among 10,000 workers internationally by the Future Forum research group has signalled a “troubling double standard”: a steady decline in the stress experienced by senior staff, but an increase in anxiety among the majority of workers.

The researchers point to a basic divide in terms of work flexibility and conditions post-pandemic. Exec-utives have been given more freedom to work from home and flexibly, while workers have been ex-pected to get back to the office. As a result, the average employee’s work-life balance score was found to be 40% lower than executives. Full-time office workers were found to have markedly lower mental health scores.

The back-to-the-office effect

After a period of more easy-going attitudes to wfh and flexible working hours, the desire among boss-es to see staff back in the workplace is having disproportionate effects. A Microsoft study has suggest-ed that 50% of organisations want to re-instate full-time office working routines.

Future Forum Vice President, Sheela Subramanian, explained the problem: “Executives are embracing flexibility while they’re telling everybody else to come back to the office. What we’re seeing is just a lot more rigidity, more top-down mandates happening and executives are not necessarily setting that model from the top.”

Keep it clear on wellbeing

EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell said: “Wellbeing among staff is the foundation for productivity and performance across the entirety of organisations, not something that can be seen as a perk. It’s going to be important for HR teams to ensure there’s not a quiet drift in attitudes to seeing work/life balance and flexible routines as something that can only work for the few — the few who are typically in the senior ranks.

“The danger is not so much now, while employers are having to compete for skills, but what happens when there is less competition? Support for wellbeing has to be even-handed.”

Is wellbeing becoming a top manager perk again? – EAPA UK