One in five workers have reported losing sleep over financial woes, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
Its new report also found 58% were going to work despite being unwell - the highest percentage to do so since 2020 - with disabled employees more likely to do so.
The survey of 1,000 workers found only 49% were keeping up with their bills without difficulty, but 32% said employers were not doing enough to support financial wellbeing.
A further 37% of key workers - such as those in the health sector - said their workload was “too much”, compared to 29% of their counterparts in non-key roles.
As a result, the CIPD made three key recommendations to the Scottish Government: placing a renewed policy focus on improving job quality, narrowing the gap between quality of working life to key and non-key workers, and strengthening flexible working access.
Marek Zemanik, senior public policy adviser for CIPD Scotland, said: “The cost-of-living crisis continues to cast a shadow over the working lives of people across Scotland.
“We have seen a considerable worsening of employees’ financial wellbeing year on year, with real impacts on their daily lives.
“Better pay is important, but there are many other steps employers can take to improve their employees’ lives.
“Focusing on job quality is key – through improved benefits packages and job design, better skills development and career advancement pathways, effective two-way communication and broader flexibility.
“Overall job quality has barely been impacted by the pandemic, but that means serious gaps persist,“ he continued, adding: “All jobs have the potential to be better, but employers and governments need to know what to address.”
The report revealed that remote and hybrid working is now firmly embedded, with 9% of all Scots working from home all the time and another 44% working in a hybrid way.
However, a third of Scottish employees can’t - and another 11% don’t want to - work from home at all.
While there has been an increase in the availability and use of home working, more than half of all Scottish employees have no access to arrangements like flexi-time (53% unavailable), job sharing (76% unavailable), compressed hours (60% unavailable) or term-time working (75% unavailable).
The research also suggested practical recommendations for employers to improve job quality, including training managers to be able to signpost the appropriate financial wellbeing support, boost career pathways and identifying skill mismatches to develop staff.
A Scottish Government spokesperson responded: “Tackling poverty and protecting people from harm is one of the Scottish Government’s three critical missions – we have allocated almost £3bn, both last year and this, to support policies which tackle poverty and protect people as far as possible during the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
“While employment law is reserved - including governing flexible working, effective voice for workers and minimum and national living wage rates - the Scottish Government promotes fairer work practices across the labour market.
“All recipients of public sector grants awarded on or after 1 July 2023 will be required to pay at least the real Living Wage and provide appropriate channels for effective workers’ voice; this extends the reach of our Fair Work First criteria which has already applied to some £4bn of public funds since 2019.
“Asking employers to offer flexible working from day one has been one of our Fair Work First criteria on public spend since October 2021.”
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