Employers falling short on wellbeing support

New research highlights that New Zealand employers are falling short with wellbeing support, driving team burn out and fuelling the ‘great resignation’.

Over a third (37 percent) of workers think about leaving their workplace at least once a week. With talent retention top of mind for business leaders amid an ongoing critical skills shortage in New Zealand, research from Sir John Kirwan’s workplace wellbeing platform Groov (formerly Mentemia), has revealed a worrying trend among workers with one in five stating that they do not feel their employer supports their overall wellbeing. 

The research conducted in early March, surveyed over 1,240 New Zealanders and Australians, to reveal a startling link between wellbeing support at work and employee retention. Of those feeling unsupported, almost three in five (55 percent) had considered leaving the company at least several times a week. 

An astonishing 36 percent noted that they had thought about quitting most days. This is in clear contrast to the loyalty of respondents who do feel supported at work, with this figure dropping to just six percent. This points to a concerning gap in business focus that is driving employees to reconsider how valued they are in their current employment. 

Adam Clark, Co-Founder and CEO of Groov says the pandemic of the last two-plus years, coupled with the ongoing growth in millennials and younger people in workplaces, has seen a re-prioritisation for employees. 

“Money is an important factor, but what we now know is that people want to feel valued, cared for and treated with dignity. If workforces don’t provide this then they are losing people, and it is the top performers and high potentials that leave first.” 

“The link is clear, if you take the time to properly bake wellbeing into the workplace, the current issues around talent retention, recruitment, stress and burnout will hugely decrease or disappear,” says Kirwan (pictured), co-founder of Groov. 

“Because you’re taking the time to show your people you care about them and value them, it makes all the difference in this current climate.”

Kirwan says employers partnering with Groov like KiwiBank, The Warehouse Group, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), Auckland Transport and CISCO are clearly prioritising a wellbeing culture to support employee’s mental wellbeing. 

“Businesses wanted to step up to show their employees they are serious about prioritising health and wellbeing – the challenge was to do it well and create sustained, positive change.”

Kirwan and behavioural change expert, Dr Fiona Crichton, who leads the Groov clinical team, visited numerous companies to talk to thousands of workers and leaders about what they needed, and the challenges facing them.

“Businesses told us they wanted to support their employees but at the same time, what was clear is that burnout is a real concern and retaining staff is increasingly challenging – that’s where prioritising mental wellbeing is key,” says Dr Crichton.

“We developed Groov in response to their needs. It’s a platform that makes mental wellbeing easy to consume and deliver across an organisation. The focus is on feeling good and functioning well to help the organisation, leaders and workers move into the ways of wellbeing, and then understand how to keep wellbeing going.”

Dr Crichton says the challenge for most employers is putting a company-wide mental wellbeing programme in place that meets all employee’s needs while ensuring it is sustainable for the long term.  

“It’s difficult for a leader to know what to do because everyone experiences mental wellbeing differently and everyone requires different support to improve their mental health.”

Using a step-by-step guide called the Embed Playbook, the Groov platform is implemented across three levels within an employer – at an organisational, leadership and individual level to “Embed” wellbeing into the culture of the organisation.

The unique Groov approach enables companies of all sizes to tailor a mental wellbeing programme that meets both their organisations and employees’ needs.

Wellbeing drives business success 

Dr Crichton says the benefit of a deeply embedded mental wellbeing framework in a company has many business benefits including retaining and motivating your best staff, attracting top talent, increasing profitability and productivity, and inspiring creativity and innovation. 

“And who doesn’t think a more well person provides better outcomes for customers? People are speaking up more than ever before about the importance of mental wellbeing in the workplace. There is a generation who want balance in their life and wellbeing to be a priority for their employers, or quite literally, they’ll be out the door to somewhere that does.”