The insight is designed to be a point of departure for the development of clear strategies and tactics to support employees, not only over the coming months, but also the coming years, as we come out of a life-changing pandemic and begin to return to normal.

Key findings:

•  50.5% of employees say their employer has not provided any health and wellbeing support during the pandemic
• 48% of UK workers do not inform employers when suffering from mental health, physical health, grief, finance or drug or alcohol issues
• 45% described their feelings about the return to work negatively (36% are a little anxious, 9% are deeply concerned)
• 70% of employers agree that the seriousness with which my employer treats employee health and wellbeing, including work-life balance, is more important to me compared to a year ago.
• 66% feel the last 12 months have negatively impacted their career in some way
• 69% of furloughed staff feel anxious about returning to work

“The location, look and feel of workplaces and work patterns will continue to evolve far beyond these pandemic years, but the constant needs to be that employers put their workforce’s health and wellbeing centre stage.”

Dr Rohit S. Prajapati, chief medical officer at BHSF

Our chief medical officer Dr Philip McCrea, BHSF co-presented a thought-provoking workshop on developing the resilience of your business, to ensure growth throughout 2021.

The workshop explored:

• how businesses can establish an effective, long-term framework to support employees – in person and remotely – struggling with their physical and mental health, and boost overall resilience
• feelings towards being prepared for possible future economic shocks
• how the West Midlands economy, in particular, was impacted by the pandemic in 2020 and how it will be dealing with the changes brought about by Brexit in 2021

*As originally seen in Employee Experience and Wellbeing published by Raconteur Media on 15.3.21 in THE TIMES

We joined Personnel Today’s HR and wellbeing editor Ashleigh Webber, Tracey Paxton, managing director of The Employee Resilience Company, and CJ Bedford, director of people and performance at Wiser for the Remote Working: Top Tips For Wellbeing and Connection Webinar.

Our discussions examined:

• the challenges of the pandemic for employees cut-off from their support networks in spare rooms and make-shift studies
• how the lack of visibility that comes with remote working has made monitoring staff wellbeing more challenging for HR teams
• the effect this long-term remote working has on employee wellbeing
• top tips for maintaining employee engagement and connection

Maintaining momentum in your remote working wellbeing strategy: White Paper with Personnel Today

And as a follow up to the webinar, we have developed a dedicated white paper with Personnel Today which further explores why and how employers need to be developing clear health and wellbeing strategies as we emerge from the pandemic into permanent hybrid working models.

Read the report for valuable insight during such a critical time for our workplaces.