UK workers now consider wellbeing to be biggest concern

The latest survey of workers in the UK has discovered that physical and mental health is now their biggest concern, replacing worries about money.

This finding is taken from the ‘Inside Employees’ Minds’ study produced by Mercer and published this month. It shows that concerns about managing financially from month to month have been overtaken by worries about wellbeing. Workers rated physical health as their single biggest worry, with work-life balance coming in second and mental health third. In previous years, concerns about money had been at number one, but have now fallen to sixth place. Over 4,000 workers were surveyed for this annual study.

It represents a big change for this year’s report, but it is one that many were anticipating. James Barrington-Madders founded the Incentifi health platform and he told HR Magazine:

“While financial security still matters, many employees now recognise that their mental and emotional health directly affects performance, relationships, and long term fulfilment.”

Addressing this concern means HR must build workplace cultures where wellbeing is a priority. That is something an employee relations consultant in Bedfordshire could assist with.

Bippit CEO Samuel Lathey said that HR teams should focus on the connections between finances and wellbeing when devising strategies. He advised a combination of policy driven by data, training for managers and healthy communications.

Lathey then went on to add that workers needed to feel safe talking about their physical and mental health. He suggested HR should provide them with opportunities to speak to qualified professionals with a guarantee of complete confidentiality.