In the last quarter of 2022, the number of employees taking a legitimate sick day was nearly 10 per cent higher than it was just 12 months previously and many more were turning up to work feeling unwell.
Workplace wellbeing may have been the new buzzword over the past two years because of the pandemic that resulted in lockdowns and work-from-home orders, but from a commercial perspective, failing to address employee wellbeing in the workplace can impact a business’ bottom line.
Research by Gallup estimated that globally, there is around US$322 billion of turnover and lost productivity costs because of employee burnout.
The ELMO wellbeing survey asked 1,000 workers about their own wellbeing between October and December 2022 and found that rather than things improving as restrictions were lifted, there seemed to be a decline in workers’ mental and physical health.
The results found that 35 per cent of employees took a legitimate sick day between October and December 2022 compared to 26 per cent in 2021.
Additionally, 29 per cent arrived at work while feeling unwell up from 22 per cent the year and 16 per cent took a mental health day that was on par with the previous year.
In regard to their feelings about the workplace, 32 per cent of employees felt overwhelmed with the amount of work they had to do between October and December 2022 — a 2 percentage point increase on the previous quarter (Q3 2022).
In a separate survey by Future Forum, more than four in 10 (42 per cent) of 10,243 respondents said they are experiencing burnout — up from 39 per cent in May 2021 when it was first measured. The Future Forum report also found that 46 per cent of women said they are burned out compared with 37 per cent of men while 48 per cent of workers under age 30 said they feel burned out at work compared with 40 per cent of workers aged 30 and up.
