Member Article

Research says flexible working is only a ‘sticking plaster’ until businesses embrace wholesale culture change

A new white paper published by corporate wellbeing consultants, CHAMPS, states that businesses need to look beyond home-working and wellbeing support services in order to sustain business success in a post-COVID world.

While immediate concerns around pandemic uncertainty and periods of employee isolation prioritise the need for ongoing flexible working policies, CHAMPS argues that there are a whole raft of risks on the horizon that could compromise business sustainability and that need to be addressed.

CHAMPS’ new research paper, entitled Moving Forwards (which is available for all employers to download for free) highlights the emerging themes and issues affecting workplaces and discusses ways in which businesses can respond to safeguard employee wellbeing, retention and productivity.

Ruth Cooper-Dickson, positive psychology practitioner and Managing Director of CHAMPS said: “We’ve all been through significant disruption to traditional ways of working but we would be naïve to think that we’ve seen all there is to see when it comes to the impact of the pandemic on our workforce.

“Key emerging themes around loss of talent, decreased mental wellbeing due to loss of structure – particularly for employees who have been on furlough, the always-on culture that flexible working can encourage and employees languishing in limbo can have a detrimental impact on the wellbeing of individuals – and on businesses as a whole.

“Continuing to allow home-working and providing, for example, mental health support services for employees is great, but there must be a comprehensive audit of employee and employer pain points in order to ensure that the business is fit for this new world we are living in. Job roles may need to change, employee ambitions may have shifted and, on top of all this, if your suppliers and competitors move to a new way of working that will also impact how you need to operate.

“Now is absolutely the right time to invest in a wellbeing audit that considers more radical disruption. At the end of the day, your business recovery is wholly dependent on your people’s wellbeing and desire to continue working with you. It’s probably the best investment you can make.”

The paper explores each of the key themes in more detail and provides employers with points to consider and tools to respond in the context of the employee life-cycle.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by CHAMPS Wellbeing Consultants .