Around a third (34%) of respondents offer standalone work-life balance programmes for employees, according to research by Britain’s Healthiest Company.
Its survey of 32,538 employees across 112 organisations, conducted by the University of Cambridge and RAND Europe, found that, on average, just 8% of staff who have access to separate work-life balance programmes make use of them.
The research also found:
- 71% of respondents that take part in work-life programmes view these as beneficial.
- 73% of respondents suffer from work-related stress.
- 70% of employer respondents offer at least one initiative to address stress in the workplace. This includes schemes such as paid exam and study time, long-service annual leave awards and enhanced shared parental leave policies.
- Almost two-thirds (60%) say their job makes organising life outside of work difficult.
- 36% of respondents work more than 40 hours a week.
- Half (50%) of respondents are able to work flexible hours and 50% can work from home.
Greg Levine (pictured), director of corporate healthcare at VitalityHealth, one of the founders of the Britain’s Healthiest Company initiative, said: “It is clear that while many organisations are offering excellent work-life balance programmes more can be done to make sure employees use them.
“Better communication and convincing support from leadership is needed to make employees aware of the initiatives they can take advantage of to help reduce stress and achieve a healthy work-life balance.”