Organisations say they take work- life balance seriously, yet sickness absence data tells another story. It’s time we ripped up the band-aid approach to wellbeing and address the root cause of the problem – culture. Here we share practical examples of how European countries sustain a working culture that supports rather than undermines wellbeing.
Somewhere there’s a disconnect between what employers say about work-life balance, and health and sickness data. Despite employers making a considerable investment in wellness solutions, the UK has some of the highest rates of stress-induced sickness absence and burnout. This year alone, Mental Health’s Burnout report found 91% of UK adults experienced high or extreme levels of pressure or stress within the workplace, in the last year, leading to one in five need to take time off work in that period.
Burnout is big business for the wellness industry for good reason. Employers understand the impact on performance, retention and attraction, reputation and brand and what to avoid negative consequences at all costs. Added to which, with an ageing population, the need to support employees to manage work and care responsibilities has become business critical. Unfortunately, many organisations focus on work-wellbeing solutions that seek to mitigate or offset the impact of working long hours and to unrealistic deadlines rather than address the root cause of the problem – the work culture itself.
Overtime isn’t a badge of honour
Our own research shows the size of the challenge. A third of UK employees are routinely given unrealistic workloads that they must work unpaid overtime to get through. And 38% say regular overwork makes then less productive and negatively impacts the quality of their work. The UK’s widespread culture of overwork is a ticking time bomb that HR leaders can’t afford to ignore. Excessive workloads and unrealistic expectations are burning employees out, killing motivation and productivity, and driving away top talent from organisations. It’s important for employers to understand unpaid work and missed holidays aren’t a sign of dedication, they are symptoms of a system which must work better.
A raft of new employment legislation comes into force this month which seeks to provide employees with greater work-life balance including the right to request flexible working arrangements from day one. However, two red flags concern me . First, to drive cultural change an employer needs to enter the spirit of the law, not see it as a tick box compliance exercise. That means tracking pay and promotion of employers that work flexibly. Something few employers currently do. Second, following push back from business leaders, the “right to switch off”, meaning employees can’t be contacted over a work issue outside of work hours will not be made law. Rather it will be left to employers to draft own statements. This raises serious questions about how serious employers are about the right to switch off and highlights how fragile the idea is in our work culture.
Culture Karma
Interestingly, many European countries, such as Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden, have managed to achieve higher productivity levels while working fewer hours than the UK. It’s important to note that these countries are not without their own challenges – Belgium, for instance, still grapples with burnout issues. However, they have made significant strides in reshaping their work cultures over the past 25 years, moving away from the traditional long-hours model that once mirrored the UK’s approach. While companies in these countries exist on a spectrum, with some exemplifying the eradication of long hours and others clinging to traditional practices, enough have embraced a new work culture to yield impressive results. Here are four ways best practice organisations have changed work culture.
First, highly productive countries have been quicker to adapt to cultural shifts in wider society. This adaptation has been accelerated, in part, by progressive government policies such as extended paid paternity leave, the right to switch off, and flexible working arrangements. These changes reflect a more egalitarian economy where both men and women must earn, rendering the old model of women shouldering the bulk of care responsibilities obsolete. Leadership teams in these organizations understand that excessive work hours directly impact employees’ family time and overall well-being.
Second adapting to the needs and wants of a new generation of workers. Today’s new joiners have different expectations and values compared to previous generations. Having experienced the negative impacts of absent parents, they prioritise work-life balance and family time. Spending time with family is valued more that time spent at work.
Third, crucially, leaders in these organisations see it as their responsibility to hold themselves accountable for work-life balance. In knowledge-based industries, this means recognising that there isn’t always a direct link between input and output. Instead, performance is managed by trust and measured in deliverables, with a focus on goal setting and objectives. Leadership teams regularly review data to check for patterns of overwork, interrogate examples of excessive hours to identify capacity issues, and assess whether performance targets for managers are realistic or if there are underlying issues with employee morale.
Fourth, leadership teams in these organisations actively communicate that while occasional extra hours might be necessary for specific projects, they do not expect or desire a long-term pattern of overwork. For example, when an employee self-reports working after hours, on weekends, or during holidays this prompts a phone call from our culture ambassador to explore the reasons behind this activity. This approach allows leaders to gain a more nuanced understanding of workload issues than data alone can provide.
Work wellbeing is a systemic not individual issue. If UK employers really value their people as their greatest asset, they need to change the culture and critically hold themselves accountable to monitoring and challenging patterns of overwork. Organisations that are willing to invest in this work will reap the benefits in talent retention and attraction and an employee experience that supports high performance.
If you’d like to know more about how Protime can support your organisation to create and maintain work-life balance, please contact me at simon.garrity@protimewfm.co.uk .
Simon Garrity
Simon Garrity is Senior Workforce management expert at Protime. Simon specialises in helping organisations use technology to improve productivity, commercial performance and employee wellbeing through technology. He is responsible for the UK business of Protime, a market leader in time registration, access control, visitor registration and personnel planning.
