A new report from Business in the Community (BITC), a British business-community outreach charity, warns about the risk of creating a two-tier workforce after it was found that employees whose mental health and wellbeing would benefit the most from having a say in how they work are the least likely to achieve a good work/life balance.
Your job can be good for you (BITC, 2022), which draws on insights from BITC’s YouGov 2022 survey of 4225 employees, roundtables with business leaders, expert interviews and a review of recent evidence, suggests people in board-level roles and those earning more than £20,000 per year are more likely to achieve job flexibility.
On the other hand, work-related poor mental health is higher among employees from a black, Asian, mixed race or other ethnically diverse backgrounds, along with women, people aged between 18 and 35, employees who have experienced disability and LGBTQ+ people.
The BITC publication comes at a time when the UK’s mental health is deteriorating and work is recognised as being a significant influence in this respect, with the report citing 36% of employees experiencing work-related poor mental health in the past year, although this is a slight improvement on the 2020 data disclosures.
BITC argues that enabling employees to co-create how they work has been shown to reduce the leading work-related mental health risks, namely workload, long hours, excessive pressure and being unable to take leave while also promoting work/life balance.
And the publication notes that, although opportunities to personalise working practices may differ across sectors and roles, it is possible to co-create jobs in some form in nearly every role and at every level.
The report includes several case studies that demonstrate how employees have been able to access greater flexibility in the workplace, personalising the way they work in ways that have met both the individual and the business’s needs.
What are the challenges?
BITC’s recommendations do have considerable merit. However, the report also raises a few important issues related to these recommendations.
Not surprisingly, the role of line managers is critical. The report argues that managers ‘must be trusted to co-create ways of working that balance the needs of both employee wellbeing and business needs’ and BITC outlines six broad categories where adaptations can be made.
The difficulty, as the report highlights, is that employees are more uncomfortable than they were in 2020 to talk about a range of issues, including stress, gender, race, disability and sexual orientation, which suggests there is a trust issue in relation to line managers. This may not be an easy one to resolve in some businesses.
Data from the YouGov 2022 employee survey backs this up and reveals that very few employees access support to manage their mental health problems at work. In fact, 12% who had experienced a work-related mental health problem said they had been forced out, demoted against their wishes, not promoted, or disciplined.
This figure rose to 20% for those at board level, which brings into question the earlier statement that those in board level roles are necessarily more likely to achieve job flexibility.
