commission-on-wellbeing-and-policy-report---march-2014-pdf

CHAPTER 5
illustrates a point that is frequently made: financial rewards can ‘crowd out’ other
forms of motivation, like the natural desire to do a job well. 160
Finally, people need a reasonable work-life balance. A recent European study found
that people working over 40 hours a week have lower wellbeing. 161 As we have
seen, social relationships and feeling part of a community are significant drivers
of positive wellbeing, so we should favour policies on flexible working, weekend
working, and annual leave that allow people time to spend on friends, family, and
leisure activities.
Why would an employer take the wellbeing of the employees into account Because
it affects their performance. Positive mood states have been repeatedly found to
boost productivity and creativity, reduce sickness absence, and increase customer
satisfaction. 162 As an example, medics put into a more positive mood have been
shown to make faster, more accurate, and more considered diagnoses. 163 Similarly, an
experiment boosting wellbeing in the workplace (through encouraging small gifts
between workers) led to significant increases in productivity. 164
If worker morale is so important for an employer it must be in the employer’s
interest to measure it. It is also vital that employers are sensitive to mental health
problems in their workforce, since mental health problems account for nearly half of
all sickness absence. All of this applies as strongly to government as an employer as
it does to private-sector employers.
In general, the evidence suggests that it is strongly in the interests of businesses
themselves to promote wellbeing at work (see Box 6). However, governments and
intermediaries can catalyse this shift by improving the information available to
workers about the satisfaction of workers through indices such as the Sunday Times
Best Companies to Work For.
BOX 6. THE BUSINESS IN THE COMMUNITY
WORKWELL MOVEMENT
160. Frey (2013)
161. Eurofound (2013)
162. De Neve and Oswald (2012), Helliwell et al.
(2013), Chapter 4
163. Isen et al. (1991)
164. Anik et al. (2013)
165. www.bitc.org.uk/programmes/workwell
The Business in the Community Workwell movement 165 is a coalition of
businesses who have agreed to work towards greater understanding of
workplace wellness and its benefits. Marks & Spencer’s wellbeing programme,
Plan A, won the Bupa Workwell Award in 2013. The scheme is centred on a
website, www.planAhealth.com, which gives employees information and support
for a range of wellbeing issues and links to online assessment tools for a number
of conditions. Corporate wellbeing challenges enable employees to make a
pledge aimed at improving their health and wellbeing. Since the launch of Plan
A, over 13,000 employees have used the website and 10,500 have undertaken
a challenge. Since launch, turnover rates have improved, sickness absence fell
seven percent in a month, and there was a reduction of 18 percent in referrals for
muscular-skeletal conditions.
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