A government initiative aims to help SMEs boost employee engagement. Start by creating happier workplaces
A Gallup survey in the US, which used daily tracking methodology, explored workplace engagement and the health and performance of workers before comparing findings with the lives of the unemployed. In gauging the wellbeing of employees, it used the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index of five factors, assessing positive experiences such as enjoyment, laughter, learning something new, being treated with respect, and feeling well-rested.
On all five measures disengaged employees scored significantly lower than the jobless. And in terms of daily negative experiences, they recorded higher scores for stress, anger and physical pain, with the unemployed scoring higher for levels of worry and sadness. Gallup says the results are consistent with a recent Australian study which showed that poor work environments had worse employee mental health than the jobless.
So the mantra that "work is good for you" must be seriously qualified. Yes, it is better for the health, self-confidence and wellbeing of people to be in work, particularly those previously on long-term sickness absence or incapacity benefit. But it is also crucial to find them jobs in healthier workplaces, where there is a good fit between their skills and personality and the demands of the job.
The challenge is also to make workplaces more attuned to employee wellbeing; otherwise the numbers on incapacity benefit will rise. Forty per cent of people receiving this payment suffer from mental ill-health and stress—the largest single group making a claim.
We need workplace cultures that value and engage people, create a trusting environment that provides personal satisfaction as well as a weekly wage, where people are managed by praise and reward and not by constant fault-finding, and where information about the organisation is accurate, timely and honest. What we don't want to see is what the poet, Philip Larkin, described to a friend in 1976: "One wakes up wanting to cut one's throat; one goes to work and in 15 minutes wants to cut someone else's—complete cure!"
Much of this may sound soft and fuzzy thinking, but employees are more productive and have a better sense of wellbeing if they feel trusted and valued; are managed flexibly; have open communication with line managers; and receive the right training and development to do their job. Such environments also lower sickness absence and presenteeism—being at work but contributing little—and improve health generally. The overall result is a much more committed and engaged workforce.
The government has just set up an employee engagement task force to help SMEs stimulate growth and ensure that companies retain and nurture their best workers. Again, prevention is just as important as treatment. Creating healthy, productive workplaces is better than finding ways to cope with long-term health problems caused by work.
John Ruskin, the social reformer, was right when he said: "In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it, they must not do too much of it, and they must have a sense of success in it."
These are tough times, but the challenge for directors is to secure full commitment from healthy workforces.
