Employee Benefits poll: Health and wellbeing is the top priority for organisations this year, closely followed by flexible working.
According to Employee Benefits’ latest straw poll, 42% of respondents said their staff’s health and wellbeing are paramount in 2021.
As Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic restrictions continue, another third (33%) of respondents said flexible working was top of their list of priorities, reflecting the radical shift in working patterns during the pandemic, which has seen the likes of HSBC, PWC and Standard Chartered introduce blended working strategies.
However, a tenth (10%) of organisations cited mental health as a key concern this year, despite mounting evidence that the pandemic is taking a heavy toll on the mental health of staff.
A study by Wade Macdonald, released in January 2021, revealed that around one-quarter (28%) of employees say that their mental health has declined as a result of the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.
Research by Purpose Union, published in March 2021, also found that younger generations want their employers to focus far more on the mental health challenges they are facing, with seven in 10 (70%) of millennials and Generation Z now considering mental health to be the generational challenge of the day.
A further 15% of respondents to the Employee Benefits’ poll said their top priorities lay in “other” strategies this year.