Improving your wellbeing at work

Written by Bryony Porteous-Sebouhian

In recently published research, Bupa revealed that Google search terms relating to workplace wellbeing drastically increased during 2021

Since the initial lockdown in March of 2020, the nation's working environment has changed drastically. People across many professions (including some you might not necessarily expect, such as Psychiatric Nurses) have begun working flexibly between the office and at home, or for some, from home full time.

Throughout this time, healthcare provider, Bupa have been keeping tabs on the impact of this rapidly changing way of working on employee wellbeing. They recently published the results from their 2021 Workplace Wellbeing Census. The census surveyed over 4,000 employees across a diverse range of industries, nations and regions.?

The report by Bupa stated that there’s ‘a lot for employers to be proud of’ and emphasised the opportunity for learning and improvement in how employee wellbeing might be put at the centre of ‘any organisations Covid-19 recovery plan’.?

Some key figures and findings from the census:

• The impact of workload on mental health decreased from 36% in 2019 to 27% in 2021
• Employers have a greater understanding of mental health in 2021 compared to 2019
• 49% of respondents believe increased working from home would improve their wellbeing?
• 27% feel more flexibility for parents or carers would positively impact their wellbeing
• 37% of respondents have found that the lack of daily commute improved wellbeing
• The most negatively impacted by the pandemic have been younger people aged 18-to-24 and 25-to-34, as well as women (60%) being more negatively impacted than men (51%)
• Some of the sectors where employee wellbeing was least impacted by the pandemic were: hospitality and leisure, IT, real estate and manufacturing
• Some of the sectors where employee wellbeing was most impacted by the pandemic were: retail, medical and health services, education, accountancy

Bupa’s research into Google search trends

To give a more personal insight into how the pandemic and working from home has impacted people, Bupa also turned to Google to see what people were searching. They found that by the end of 2021, there had been a 53% increase in searches for ‘chronic procrastination’, a 30% increase in searches for ‘workplace stress’ and a 22% increase in searches for ‘signs of burnout at work’.?

All these issues and behaviours can impact our wellbeing at work, whether we are at home or in the office. However, home working often comes with a whole host of issues that can simultaneously distract us from our work, and allow us to neglect boundaries between our work/life balance.?

As such, it will become increasingly pertinent that employees have regular discussions about these boundaries and promote behaviour and working that encourages healthy working.

Some of our top tips for chronic procrastination, workplace stress and burnout when working from home are:?

• Get yourself a daily planner: breakdown your daily tasks and focus on one at a time. It is easy to loose structure at home and try to do too many things at once, which often leads to being distracted. Breaking our day down into singular tasks to focus on one at a time allows us to fully engage with what we’re doing.?
• Make sure you take that break: stress at work is so often related to the fact that we aren’t putting in those breaks and boundaries so that we are having moments of rest. Making sure you take your break is essential, if you can, try to get out of your flat/house – even if its raining!
• Communicate with your team about workload: burnout often comes about as a result of feeling as though we are being pushed too far or that there is too much responsibility on us. This can lead to overtime, not taking breaks, and inevitably burning yourself out. The absolute best thing anyone can do in this situation is to be wholly honest about how they're feeling - chances are there's someone else in the team who might be able to help. The odd late evening is absolutely fine, but when working from home, more than any other kind of work it is so important to draw a line under your workday once it is finished. We recommend going for a ten minute walk after your day finishes.

Discussing how employers and employees might move forward in a world post-Covid, Rachel Murray, Head of Employee Health and Wellbeing at Bupa UK Insurance said:

“There will be no return to the ‘old normal’…Organisations and managers do not have the answers to the uncertainty of the future ways of working, but in order to maintain the initial levels of positivity from employees, employers must continue to engage and communicate with empathy.”

Rachel also emphasised the importance of future leadership development models having a focus on care, human connection, and building resilience within workforces. She finished saying:

“Otherwise, the fallout of a stressed workforce, working under uncertain conditions with no end in sight, means burnout could become another epidemic of sorts, affecting both employers and society.”