Work related stress causing one in four to be absent
Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP)
The report ‘Britain at Work 2016’ by reputation management consultancy Lansons and insight agency Opinium reveals that around a quarter of UK employees, equivalent to 6 million people, have taken time off work in the last 12 months due to stress brought about as a consequence of doing their job.
In addition 21% of employees receive no health or wellbeing benefits at work.
The report shows that major organisational change is affecting a large proportion of employees (just over three quarters of employees have experienced it in the last two years) and people don’t always get the support they need. Just over half (56%) think that organisational changes have been well communicated.
People want to see their senior leaders face-to face, yet nearly three in ten employees don’t feel they hear from their senior leaders regularly.
Whilst 92% of those in management roles said they have the necessary skills and knowledge to manage people effectively, 39% of the group say they haven’t received any form of management training, and only half (53%) were assessed on their people management skills before being appointed to their role. Against this, 34% of employees say they need more support from their manager. The gap in managers’ perception of their own ability and the reality goes some way to explaining why only half (49%) say they trust what senior leaders in their company say
On a positive note the report did find that there is a substantial increase on last year relating to fair pay (last year 44%, this year 52%), and there has also been a significant increase in job satisfaction (54% last year, 61% this year).
Access to the full report is available on Lanson’s website which also explores issues including pay and reward, career progression, and pride in company and industry, to draw a complete picture of what motivates (and de-motivates) UK workers today.
