Health and wellbeing at work

• Context
• The study
• Key findings
• Points to consider

Context

This study shows an overview of the annual CIPD survey which explores health, wellbeing, and absence in the UK workplace. The survey collects data on the wellbeing strategies of 918 UK-based organisations, what they include and what the outcomes of these strategies are. It also examines workplace absence rates and the reasons for these. Whilst not the primary focus of the study, information is reported on the prevalence of the promotion of staff financial wellbeing and the provision of financial education by workplaces.

The study

The study was conducted by The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) This study is the 23rd annual survey by CIPD and it explores issues of health, wellbeing and absence in UK workplaces. The survey was sent to HR and L&D professionals (CIPD members and non- members) and was conducted online from March to April 2023 as a self-completion questionnaire. The analysis is based on responses from 918 organisations, covering more than 6.5 million employees. The study is supported by health insurance company Simplyhealth.

Key findings

The overall findings were that most organisations take some action to improve employee health and wellbeing, and that mental health remains the most common focus of health and wellbeing activity.
Findings that relate specifically to financial wellbeing include the following:

• Financial wellbeing has received more attention this year (57% are promoting financial wellbeing through employee benefits such as pensions advice or debt counselling to a large or moderate extent compared with 44% in 2022). The authors state that this trend is encouraging given the UK’s cost-of- living crisis and other recent CIPD research findings that over half of employees are experiencing difficulties keeping up with their bills and credit commitments.
• Employers provide a variety of insurances or protection initiatives to employees, with occupational sick pay being the most widely provided

Points to consider

• Methodological strengths/weaknesses: The authors note limitations of the research and the approach taken to mitigate against biases, such as eliminating extreme cases from calculations.
• Applicability: Of general interest to anyone working with employers to support employees financial wellbeing.
• Relevance: The report is primarily about workplace mental health but does have some data on financial wellbeing and makes helpful links between finances and overall health and wellbeing.
• Generalisability: There is no information about how representative the survey is of workplaces as a whole in the UK but the report notes that distribution by industry is similar to previous years.