EMA and nib survey says employees report poor health as a result of work pressures

Flexible work, career development, feedback and wellness measures key to retaining staff

Workers’ future concerns include state of the economy and health

More Kiwis are experiencing increased workplace pressures, which has had an impact on their physical (91%), psychological (87%) and emotional (87%) wellbeing at least once over the past three months.

85% employees surveyed in the EMA and nib New Zealand (nib) Annual Workplace Wellbeing Survey suffered tiredness. A further 63% felt anxious and 69% had difficulty concentrating.

The survey, in its second year, was conducted nationally, across 1,200 New Zealand workers.

"We found the number one cause of workplace stress is understaffing, which often leads to poor work-life balance and places pressure on employees to work longer hours," said EMA Chief Executive, Brett O’Riley.

"Flow-on affects can impact an individual’s wellbeing, but also productivity at the business and its sustainability into the future."

Mr O’Riley also said one in four employees surveyed reported they intend to change jobs in the next 12 months, which should sound a clear warning bell that businesses that are not, now need to pay more attention to their employees’ wellbeing.

Respondents thinking about a career change said they want employers that offer flexible working (78%), career development (74%), regular performance feedback (74%) and wellbeing initiatives (69%).

nib Chief Executive Officer, Rob Hennin, said a proactive approach to workplace health and wellbeing is the right thing to do by employees and it can help increase productivity, retain staff and help attract new talent.

"nib has embraced flexible working, which enables our people to have a better work-life balance," Mr Hennin said. "Wellbeing is about physical, mental, and social health. It’s important that workplaces put policies and initiatives in place that support employees.

"We provide our employees with the autonomy to choose when, where and how they work - whether that means starting work early so they can do the school pick-up or kicking off the work-day later so they can be active in the morning," he said. "We’re providing the flexibility they need to support their health and career."

More than half of New Zealanders surveyed said health insurance is an important consideration when looking for work.

"It’s encouraging to see the survey results reinforce what we see in our business and what we hear from our rapidly growing portfolio of business clients, that providing fully funded health insurance for employees is a sought-after benefit," Mr Hennin said.

"57% of people said this is a key benefit for consideration when changing jobs and close to half the HR managers surveyed thought private health insurance would help those on extended leave get back to work faster."

Looking to the future, the biggest concerns for employees are the state of the economy (79%), uncertainty about the future (64%) and their health (58%).

Mr O’Riley says that for the EMA’s 7,500 members, and the wider business community, it is focused on solutions to enable businesses to invest in new ways of operating to ensure their people come to work happy and can be successful and productive.

"We’ve got a range of resources, e-Learning and even a diagnostic tool through FirstSteps that helps small to medium businesses drill down into the challenges and relevant solutions," he said.

For the full survey results, please visit: www.wellbeing.ema.co.nz

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