We believe Vitality's research findings on Employee Wellbeing are so important, we have shared their summary below. (Source: Vitality)

​

Productivity and engagement

​

• Overall, the results suggest that the employees who took part in the survey lost 14.6% of their working hours due to absence (1.1%), and presenteeism (13.4%)

• This represents a loss of 38 productive days per employee per year

• Lost productive time has increased steadily since 2014, when employees were losing 23 days

• Productivity loss is higher amongst lower income workers and younger workers

• 16.5% of employees showed high work engagement levels, an increase from 12.7% last year

​

Mental health

​

• Lower income employees are the most at-risk for mental health issues, with 16.4% of those earning less than £20,000 indicating that they suffer from depression

• For the £20,000 to £30,000 income category the risk remains high at 10.4%

• 56.4% of surveyed employees suffer from at least one dimension of work-related stress

• 35.1% of employees reported having felt unwell as a consequence of work-related stress

• Financial concerns are very common, with 51.1% of employees reporting at least some level of concern

• Employees who have financial concerns are losing more than twice as much productive time than those without, and report on significantly unhealthier lifestyle choices

​

Lifestyle and physical health

​

• 35.1% of employees say that they sleep less than seven hours per night, and approximately 42% have problems with the quality of their sleep

• Younger employees tend to sleep more hours per night, but are more likely to report problems with the quality of their sleep

• Younger employees are less likely to eat the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables per day, and are more likely to binge drink or to smoke

• More than half of the employees report suffering from two or more musculoskeletal conditions

• 39.4% of respondents have at least one chronic condition

​

Women in the workplace

​

• Women report healthier diets, less drinking and less smoking than men

• Less likely to exercise enough

• More likely to suffer from depression

• More likely to demonstrate high work engagement

​

Interventions offered by organisations

​

• On average, small and very small organisations offer around 25 health interventions to their employees

• For medium and large organisations, this increases to an average of 30 interventions

• The awareness rate about workplace health interventions offered by their organisations remains low among employees (28%)

• However employees tend to report positively on the impact of these interventions on their health when they use them

• Some of the most commonly-offered health interventions are employee assistance programmes, provision of health and wellbeing information and access to fresh-drinking water