Survey Of 1.5 Million Workers Indicates A Decline In Workplace Wellbeing

Survey Of 1.5 Million Workers Indicates A Decline In Workplace Wellbeing

Workplace wellbeing has declined in recent years, according to a survey conducted by Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and Great Place to Work. The survey, which forms part of the organizations’ joint  Well-Being at Work: Fostering a Healthy Climate for All report, analysed over 1.5 million workers from 2019 to 2023. It shows that there was a brief improvement in workplace wellbeing in 2020, but the return to full-time office work and a lack of flexibility has contributed to the overall decline. In particular, workers in the healthcare, hospitality and retail sectors reported the lowest levels of wellbeing. The key aspects of wellbeing that were measured were mental and emotional support, sense of purpose, personal support, financial support and meaningful connections.

EHS functions and software vendors offer various solutions that can help tackle these aspects of wellbeing. Psychosocial safety encompasses mental and emotional support, which, if not appropriately addressed, can result in numerous consequences. These include a lack of engagement, high turnover, increased health costs and lower profits. Firms have long been held responsible for maintaining their workers’ physical safety. Now, changing societal attitudes around mental wellbeing and social responsibility have placed increased pressure on organizations to also consider their workers’ psychosocial safety. Frameworks like total worker health have been introduced to act as a guide for firms to address these issues appropriately. According to the 2024 Verdantix EHS global corporate survey, 67% of decision-makers rank integrating total worker health programmes as high priority.

Lacking a sense of purpose – one key symptom of poor workplace wellbeing – is often down to poor engagement. This is a common issue within EHS functions, as workers often perceive safety tasks to be a waste of time and merely ‘tick-box’ exercises. A lack of interaction between senior managers and frontline workers can perpetuate these beliefs and can start to make workers feel disengaged. Many EHS functions have considered improving their workers' attitudes by using mobile applications, which allow frontline workers to easily connect with senior leaders, and BBS (behaviour-based safety) tools, which analyse the impact of certain behaviours on the worksite. This helps to create an environment where workers can regularly engage with senior leaders and feel valued as they contribute to a wider purpose.

To help monitor workers’ wellbeing, many EHS functions have turned towards mobile app solutions. These platforms leverage various interactive tools to assess a worker’s wellbeing and provide personalized programmes and exercises to address any issues. Managers can see the results from these assessments and engagement with these programmes, highlighting any issues they may encounter.

It is clear that despite attitudes towards mental health evolving, there is still some way to go to achieve a happy workforce. To read more about workplace wellbeing, please visit the Verdantix research portal.