The pandemic put a whole new range of words into circulation — from lockdown to WFH. By mid-2021, this list of terms included “The Great Resignation”. Furlough made many rethink their careers, with workers quitting in their droves. At the start of this year, over half of employees under the age of 34 were resigning or looking for new roles.
It means employers are obliged to rethink what they’re offering, and one area identified for improvement is employee health and wellbeing. Work-life balance, attitudes to menopause, financial health and more all matter when it comes to making a holistic impact in this area.
Across the country, businesses are waking up to this. At JP Morgan, they’ve added cover for fertility treatment to their benefits package, at boutique bank Hambro they’ve added an extra month of paid holiday, while there is talk of installing a “chief happiness officer” at legal firm Clifford Chance.
While some of these policies seem meatier than others, they provide plenty of food for thought. But what does wellness look like for workers at the businesses that sell it? Gympass is a corporate wellbeing platform app through which the employees of hundreds of companies can book gym classes, or choose from a shelf of wellbeing apps addressing everything from financial fitness to IBS support.
Right now they’re working on becoming menopause-friendly, as well as prioritising parents, says CEO Luke Bullen. For the first fortnight after returning from parental leave, employees can work half their hours for full pay. But how to make sure measures like these take root across the workplace?
Essential, he says, is leadership. “Managers should demonstrate their own red lines and be seen to take time out… it implicitly gives permission to the rest of the organisation to do the same.” Perhaps making wellbeing a measurable priority is the fast track to instilling it into company culture and one way to stem the great resignation at its source.
