The results from the first Channel Islands’ Wellbeing report show that Covid has had an impact on mental health in the Channel Islands and highlights the productivity impact to businesses.
The results also highlight islanders for their ability to build highly-functioning teams with an authentic understanding of communication and trust.
Marbral Advisory and We Talk Wellbeing have released the report that provides a platform of data-driven insights into wellbeing at work across Jersey and Guernsey for the Professional Services sector.
The data-driven survey provided the backbone of statistics for the report which was completed by 691 individuals across the CI. It consisted of 95 questions based on 3 areas – Self, Team and Organisation. Interviews were also conducted with industry and wellbeing leaders.
Findings of the research show that whilst the current status of wellbeing in the Professional Services sector in the CI is not ideal, there were numerous examples of individual good practice.
Whilst this research report highlights areas of positive behaviours and intentions, it also shows that organisations within the CI professional services sector have improvements to make in fully developing inclusive wellbeing strategies. The sample ranked their wellbeing with ‘Team’ performing best, then ‘Self‘, and ‘Organisational’ wellbeing scoring the least.
Mental health is of growing concern in workplaces around the world, the CI being no different, stress being the main symptom of prolonged adverse mental health. For the CI Wellbeing Report, scores were collated for four areas of health with ‘mental health’ scoring the lowest, followed closely by ‘social health’, then ‘physical health’ and ‘inner self health’ being ranked the highest.
The headlines from the survey show:
Self
- 64% rated their mental health pre-lockdown at a 4 or 5 (5 being ‘best’) whereas post-lockdown only 30% rated their mental health 4 or above.
- 49% do not feel they have work-life balance.
- 32% reported a perception of not coping.
- 31% do not feel positive about their future at work post-Covid.
- 63% cite ‘work’ as one of their primary causes of stress, anxiety and poor wellbeing.
Team
- 87% show care for their fellow team members all or most of the time.
- 80% say they have trust in their teams ‘all’ or ‘most of the time’.
- 32% were not certain about their colleagues’ abilities to overcome obstacles and manage their emotions.
Organisation
- 53% said the importance of employee health and wellbeing was consistently reflected in senior leaders’ actions.
- 43% did not believe that senior leadership reinforced the importance of taking regular breaks and ensuring a healthy work-life balance.
- 29% of respondents were ‘not sure’ or did ‘not agree’ that the organisation they work for takes action to prevent harm to employees from abuse, harassment, discrimination and violence.
- 17% of those surveyed would not recommend their organisation as a great place to work. Out of these 17%, 87% did not feel valued at work, and 70% felt that employee wellbeing was not part of their organisation’s mission, vision and/or business objectives.
Company performance could be at risk due to increasing levels of stress. The findings demonstrate that individual wellbeing factors i.e. resilience, happiness and lifestyle, were all correlated with levels of stress. Research shows that stress is highly linked to lower resilience and lower productivity. The report findings support this view making this finding a potential key concern for CI companies.
“If you take care of your employees, there’s a high likelihood they’re going to look after your customers.” Joe Moynihan, Jersey Finance
Prior to this report, wellbeing research on companies and employees in the Channel Islands was scarce. The common perception is that Guernsey and Jersey workers and residents enjoy a quality of life that is of a higher standard than their UK counterparts. However, recent local research (Guernsey and Alderney Wellbeing Survey 2018/2020 Jersey Opinions & Lifestyle Report) indicates that the general populations of each Bailiwick are also facing considerable health and wellbeing challenges.
There has been growing awareness of the influence of wellbeing at work in the UK and further afield given its importance after the changes experienced due to the pandemic, and the growing evidence demonstrating its effect on business productivity.
In the UK, stress, depression and anxiety continue to represent significant ill-health conditions in the workforce, accounting for 51% of work-related ill health and 55% of working days lost in 2020. Professional burn-out is now recognised by the World Health Organisation as an occupational phenomenon. By taking early preventative action in the CI, will reduce costs to businesses, strengthen our economy and our society as a whole.
“A happy employee is a productive employee. Less mistakes, higher productivity, less conflict.” Rupert Pleasant, We Are Guernsey
The research team for the CI Wellbeing Report conducted a small number of semi-structured interviews with a secondary sample of key stakeholders as part of their analysis. These included the CEOs of Jersey Finance and We Are Guernsey for a business perspective; a General Practitioner and a Mental Health Practitioner; the Operations Manager for Mind Jersey, and a Social Wellness Expert who champions wellness programs within businesses.
Hugo Forrester, Mind Jersey, said: “The three biggest wellbeing challenges organisations will face in the next 12 months are:
- the balancing of returning to the office and working from home,
- that people now feel empowered to talk about their mental health and businesses who have not invested in wellbeing will be on the back foot,
- organisations need to actively consider and budget appropriate finances to meet the wellbeing needs and expectations of their people.”
