Search Results for: mental health

October 27, 2015

Study links green building design to higher cognitive performance ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, Facilities management, News, Workplace design

People who work in well-ventilated offices with below-average levels of indoor pollutants and carbon dioxide have significantly higher cognitive functioning scores in crucial areas such as responding to a crisis or developing strategy than those who work in offices with typical levels. That is the headline finding of a new study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Center for Health and the Global Environment, SUNY Upstate Medical University, and Syracuse University published this week in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.The researchers looked at people’s experiences in “green” vs. “non-green” buildings in a double-blind study. The findings suggest that the indoor environments in which many people work daily could be adversely affecting cognitive function-and that, conversely, improved air quality could greatly increase the cognitive function performance of workers.

October 13, 2015

Third of employers admit rise in numbers of staff coming to work when ill ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Nearly a third of employers have reported an increase in people coming to work while they are ill, according to the annual CIPD / Simplyhealth Absence Management Survey. The survey of nearly 600 employers found that 31 percent have seen an increase in ‘presenteeism’ in the last year. It also claims that any increase is likely to be associated with a culture in which working long hours is seen to be the norm and where operational demands take precedence over wellbeing. Employers that have noticed an increase in presenteeism are nearly twice as likely as those that haven’t to report an increase in stress-related absence, and more than twice as likely to report an increase in mental health problems amongst its staff. However, despite this, nearly three-fifths (56 percent) of organisations that have reported an increase in presenteeism haven’t taken any steps in order to discourage it.

October 3, 2015

Death of the office + Gen Z at work + Transformational management ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Flooring, Newsletter, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

In this week’s issue; Mark Eltringham on why the facts don’t support the myth that the office is dying; and what Anaïs Nin can teach us about the way we design and use workplaces. The CIPD issues a new set of case studies that demonstrate the important role of HR in aiding transformational change; the BSIA explains why Generation Z is the first tribe of true digital natives; and human error is still the leading cause of data loss for UK organisations. More Americans than ever choose to work from home, but homeworking Brits are growing increasingly disconnected from their colleagues. And evidence that a caring and supportive boss is the missing link between employee engagement and mental health. Visit our new events page, subscribe for free quarterly issues of Work&Place and weekly news here. And follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

September 9, 2015

Wellness policies often ignore the role of the workplace environment ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

A new meta analysis compiled by researchers from Harvard Business School and Stanford University raises questions about the way Government and organisational policies designed to tackle the problems of work related health costs in the United States have largely ignored the health effects of ‘psychosocial workplace stressors’ such as high job demands, economic insecurity, and long work hours. The analysis of 228 existing studies assessed the effects of ten workplace stressors on four specific health outcomes. The researchers claims that job insecurity increases the odds of reporting poor health by about 50 percent, high job demands raise the odds of having a diagnosed illness by 35 percent, and long work hours increase mortality by almost 20 percent. They argue that any policies designed to address these issues should account for the health effects of the workplace environment.

September 2, 2015

We need to do more than pay lip service to workplace wellbeing ⁰

by Ann Clarke • Case studies, Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Too many companies continue to talk about employees as their ‘greatest asset’ yet their fine words are not always not borne out in their behaviour, be that through working culture, remuneration or environment. With more and more investors using employee wellness and engagement as a barometer for the health, stability and culture of the business – the concept of workplace wellbeing is finally garnering the attention it deserves. Our workplace behaviours, cultures and environments are not keeping us fit, well, productive, happy or profitable. Finally businesses are accepting their moral responsibility to take better care of their people. So what affects employee productivity, creativity and happiness and how can changes to the workplace promote the best financial and moral outcomes for businesses and employees alike?

August 28, 2015

Mind research reveals relentless email checks extend to toilet breaks ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

There have been quite a number of polls over the summer warning of the dangers of presenteeism and overwork; but the latest one from Mind does make for uncomfortable reading. It has found that more than 1 in 7 of people (15 percent) who receive work emails sometimes check them while in the toilet and nearly 2 in 5 (38 percent) of those who receive work emails admit that they often check them outside of work. Only half of respondents (50 percent) say that their manager respects that they have a life away from work. As well as having personal lives interrupted, the survey found that this relentless email-checking culture is making it difficult for workers to switch off when they should be preparing for sleep and the mental health charity warns a culture of working round-the-clock is making it difficult for people to achieve a healthy work/life balance.

August 24, 2015

Flexible working now an almost universal employee benefit, claims study ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace

A new report from employee benefits provider Unum claims to set out the future trends and challenges affecting the benefits packages firms should offer staff. One of the headline claims from the report is that four out of five employers (79 percent) already offer flexible working. ‘The Future of Employee Benefits’ report surveyed 13 organisations and incorporated the results with those of a series of interviews and roundtable discussions with employers and specialists including representatives from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. The report identifies a series of macro trends affecting workplace wellbeing and the recruitment and retention of employees over the next 15 years, which were categorised into four distinct working environments: The Ageless Workplace; The Mindful Workplace; The Intuitive Workplace; and The Collaborative Workplace.

August 13, 2015

Take-up of sit-stand desks still lagging in UK, but change is coming fast ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Furniture, News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The number of UK employers offering staff sit-stand workstations remains sluggish, despite rapidly growing awareness of their benefits, according to a new study from office furniture firm Kinnarps. Compared to the near universal provision of sit-stand desks in Scandinavia, and in spite of the fact that UK buyers now universally acknowledge what they can do to improve employee wellbeing, the UK market has yet to fully adopt workstations that encourage more active working. Based on a study of 132 senior decision makers, facilities managers, designers and HR managers, 98 percent of respondents say they can see the attraction of introducing sit-stand working, citing improved health (73 percent), increased productivity (11 percent) and attracting and retaining talent (5 percent), among the principal benefits. Yet only 8 percent say that such workstations are ‘widely available’ in their workplaces.

July 9, 2015

Many employers discourage home working, unless it is out of hours

by Sara Bean • Comment, Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A combination of tube and rail strikes causing travel disruption in London today, means many businesses will accede to requests to work from home. Yet a large number of UK employers are still reluctant to encourage home working. According to a recent report by Redcentric, despite the fact that that just under a third of UK office workers reported an increase in productivity when working outside of the workplace, 48 percent of respondents claimed that their employers didn’t allow them to work remotely, with 23 percent saying that their business simply didn’t like them doing it, for reasons such as data privacy and loss of productivity. Yet research by PMI Health Group shows nearly a third of staff feel pressured to routinely check and send emails from home, which suggests that employers tacitly encourage home-working, as long as it is on their terms.

June 22, 2015

Too much sitting down at work (or worrying about it) can increase anxiety

by Sara Bean • Comment, Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

More evidence in the case against sitting down at work has been published this week by researchers from Australia’s Deakin University which shows prolonged sitting is linked to an increase in anxiety. In the first systematic review to examine the relationship between sedentary behaviour and anxiety, published in the open access journal BMC Public Health, it was revealed that only nine studies have investigated the link between sitting time and anxiety risk, but that in five of the nine studies, an increase in sitting was found to be associated with an increased risk of anxiety. There appears however, to be no data available yet on a rise in anxiety amongst office workers who, in the last few months have been being bombarded with scare stories about how “sitting is the new smoking” and how they’re putting themselves in mortal danger if they don’t try and stand for several hours a day.

May 28, 2015

More support needed to help people with depression stay at work

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

At any one time around 1 in 6 people of working age are experiencing a common mental health condition such as depression or anxiety but a lack of awareness may lead employers to misinterpret symptoms as poor performance, finds a new report from Lancaster University’s Work Foundation.The paper, Symptoms of Depression and their Effects on Employment, recommends that in order to improve both productivity and health and wellbeing among those of working age, more concerted action must be taken to support people with depression to stay in and to return to work. The paper considers the ways in which some of the symptoms associated with depression can form a barrier to employment and calls upon government departments at a national and regional level to commit to improving the provision of evidence-based support to help people with depression.

May 22, 2015

Disparity in level of support from employers for first time mums

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The level of support by employers towards new mums differs dramatically depending on seniority. According to AXA PPP healthcare, in a poll of new mums, over half of those who had been working in entry level positions (59 per cent) said that their employer hadn’t provided any support beyond what was legally required in the run up to their maternity leave. But, for new mums who had been working in senior positions, that figure dropped to one in five (21 per cent). While 23 per cent of entry level employees were offered ‘keeping in touch days’ during their maternity leave, this number doubled for management level staff (46 per cent) and senior executives (54 per cent). Only 19 per cent of entry level workers were given advice about going on maternity leave compared with nearly a third (30 per cent) of management level employees.