One in six businesses think work/life balance is unimportant

June 15, 2016, 10:24 AM GMT+0

Notable proportion of businesses don’t place importance on work-life balance and mental wellbeing of employees

A new YouGov Business Omnibus survey reveals that a sixth (17%) of British business decision makers think making sure employees maintain a healthy work-life balance is not important to their company.

Additionally, the research found that a notable proportion (15%) of organisations in the UK also don’t place any focus on the mental health and wellbeing of employees. Furthermore, three in ten (31%) say that their company does not do anything to actively promote mental well-being in the workplace.

However, there is a clear difference in approach based on size of the organisation involved. Small businesses (44%) surveyed are far more likely to admit they don’t do anything, compared to medium (29%) and large (15%) businesses.

Given the extra resources at their disposal, it is perhaps not surprising that large business are far better than small businesses when it comes to offering employees counselling (44% do so vs. 5% in small businesses), flexible working options (50% vs. 34%) and stress management courses (21% vs. 3%).

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Many employers see benefits in taking action to manage workplace stress. Over six in ten (61%) believe it boosts staff morale, the same percentage believe it reduces absenteeism and over half (53%) say it increases efficiency. So, while there is recognition of how introducing such measures can help, it appears that for many businesses implementation is either difficult or not happening quickly enough.