Help Your Human!
Celia was early into the office again.
She liked to get there before everyone else so she could get some quiet time before people turned up and started causing distractions.
It had felt difficult recently.
People seemed rather lackluster after the summer. Sure, it was mostly chilly and damp outside now, the clocks had gone back and it was going to be always dark soon and the usual dance of “pass the sniffles” was beginning… but this year seemed harder than ever.
There was a lot weighing on people’s minds, she knew that. Heck, there was a lot on HER mind! Since the pandemic though, she was keen to get her business back on track and there wasn’t time for people to be off with a cold or flu.
But now the Lemsip boxes were starting to be pulled out of drawers and dusted off, people were working from home because they were too ill to come in (but said they could still function), and Celia wondered when it was going to be her turn to come down with whatever was going around. It’ll probably wait until the Christmas break she thought. It’s ALWAYS Christmas when I stop working that I get sick. Typical.
Her phone buzzed and she saw it was a text from Gus.
Gus was her sales director. She’d hired him before lockdown and he was incredible. He was just what the business needed to grow and then of course, COVID had scuppered a lot of that. Things were picking up though and to say that Celia was relying on Gus to get them to where they needed to be was an understatement.
If Gus didn’t deliver, they were properly screwed.
I can’t come in today. Not slept. Feel terrible – speak soon.
Gus.
Just what I need, thought Celia.
Damn. We’ve got an important client meeting tomorrow – he better be back for that.
From there on in, Celia’s day got worse. Two other team members called in sick. She vaguely remembered one of them had been off a lot recently but she couldn’t remember when or with what. A flutter of annoyance rippled through her.
One of her senior managers who was working from home because they were feeling rough as well had sent over their weekly report and as Celia read through it she noticed a lot of mistakes in it. Small ones, but she’d have to go through and re—check the numbers now. Bugger.
Of course, with that added to her already full to-do list, there was no way she was going to get out at lunchtime either. The sun was out today and she had thought about going for a walk into town and back but there was no time for that now.
Working through lunch, with a mouthful of Wotsits (the only choice remaining in the vending machine that wasn’t one of those awful “healthy breakfast bars”), something caught her eye online. It was some kind of article on her business news page.
“…latest official data shows that 32.5 million working days were lost to work-related ill health in 2019/20, with stress, anxiety and depression accounting for almost 18 million of these”.
That’s a lot of time off, Celia thought. I’ve had two call in sick today already plus Ali’s at home but at least he’s still working... although given the state of that report he’d have been better off not bothering.
She skipped through the rest of the numbers in the report – ah, here are some recommendations, what do these people suggest we do then?
“Develop an evidence-based understanding of the causes of absence and unhealthy practices in your organisation, such as ‘presenteeism’ and ‘leaveism’.”
Never heard of those. I suppose I could be more on top of why people are off sick though…
“Unless the underlying issues prompting people’s attendance and behaviours are addressed, efforts to improve health and wellbeing will be short-lived.”
Well, that makes sense… she continued reading.
“Tailor policies and practices to organisational and employee needs. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to designing an effective employee wellbeing strategy – its content should be based on the organisation’s unique needs and characteristics, and of course those of its employees.”
Hmmm, starting to sound like a lot of work…
“Build a robust organisational framework to promote good mental wellbeing and foster a culture where people can talk about mental health and seek help where needed.”
An image of Gus suddenly popped into her mind.
That text message was unusual for him – and I have no idea when he’s coming back in.
Maybe he’s stressed?
Does he have something wrong with his mental health?
Am I even allowed to ask him that?
So how am I supposed to go about finding out about sick days and stress and all that jazz? Celia mused.
I’m no doctor and I’m not really sure it’s any of my business what my people do with their health and should I really be responsible for how happy they are? Next they’ll say we should all sit and hold hands first thing and sing songs.
Surely looking at wellbeing just means stopping people being ill, and that means I get workers rather than people off sick? I mean, that’s great but why does it need all this fuss with frameworks and strategies?
She stopped scrolling. She had reached the end of the article.
Finally, she thought, a summary. You know, why don’t they put this kind of information at the top, then I don’t have to wade through all this nonsense to get to the good bit?!
“Traditionally, when articulating the business case for managing people’s health, employers focused on quantifying the negative impact of ill health such as the cost of sickness absence.
Recent thinking reflects a more positive business case, and growing evidence showing a positive link between the introduction of wellness programmes in the workplace and improved engagement and performance levels.
A 2022 Health and wellbeing at work survey identified the top three benefits of employers increasing their focus on employee wellbeing:
A healthier and more inclusive culture.
Better work-life balance.
Better employee morale and engagement.
Research shows that health and wellbeing shouldn't have to be treated as an ‘add-on’ or ‘nice-to-have’ activity by organisations – if employers place employee wellbeing at the centre of their business model and view it as the vital source of value creation, the dividends for organisational health can be significant.”
So then, considered Celia. Wellbeing strategies aren’t just about stopping people being ill. It’s about creating an environment where this is just part of how we operate as a business?
Well that’s certainly something I can talk about on social media. (She was pleased with that one, it was always hard coming up with new content).
When I’m hiring, people will see that and it’ll make us look different to our competitors that’s for sure.
What else? Morale and engagement? It certainly wouldn’t hurt for the team to perk up a bit.
There used to be a time when if I cut these guys open they’d bleed our company colours... recently I’m not so sure.
And I know for a fact that when they are engaged the quality of work goes up, I can get more product out the door AND it’s pretty cool when they joke around and put the Friday playlist on. I miss those days.
Maybe I should look into this wellbeing thing when I have finished this report…
Celia sneezed.
The force made her finger involuntarily click the mouse she was holding.
The report vanished.
Her heart stopped.
Please let the autosave function be on she thought.