The Great Resignation
New industry research shows that employee benefits focussed on wellbeing have become crucial factors. More than 25% of UK employees would consider moving jobs to secure better health and wellbeing support.
This has become known as the ‘Great Resignation' or ‘Big Quit' and the current trend has seen nearly two million UK adults leave their jobs since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. There are now record levels of open job vacancies in the UK.
The research demonstrates that SMEs are particularly at risk of losing talent, with only 37% of firms having reviewed their employee benefits packages since the start of the pandemic. This is despite the fact that 87% of SME HR decision-makers have highlighted that health and wellbeing benefits are the key to recruiting and retaining talent. At the present time 32% of SMEs have no plans to address these findings leaving them vulnerable to disengaged employees.
Among SMEs that have re-assessed their benefits offering since March 2020, 48% were prompted to do so after listening to the changing needs of their staff, 21% recognised they were struggling to attract new staff with their current benefits package and 20% knew their competition offered better packages.
It is important for SMEs to recognise the changing needs and priorities of staff in the new working environment, and they shouldn’t assume money means everything. Bonuses and pay rises are of course welcome in an environment of rising inflation, but both current employees and future recruits clearly place a value on their broader employee benefits packages with particular emphasis on appropriate and meaningful health and wellbeing support and advice. Overlooking this has the real potential to put staffing levels at risk in an increasingly competitive external market.
Meanwhile, separate research conducted among 500 UK business owners found that 63% confirmed that their employees place more value on their work/life balance now than before the pandemic.
Many business owners admitted that they don’t currently offer their employees a good work/life balance. However, a key requirement is to underpin this balance with effective wellbeing support which addresses the needs of employees spending more time working from home.
Businesses are now at a crossroads with concerns that their talented people may resign soon, but this provides a great opportunity for firms to adapt and position themselves as an employer that listens to and supports employees.
Building and committing to a health and wellbeing strategy that works for all the workforce will help them to attract the best talent and retain the valuable assets that they already have.
A happy, healthy workforce is a productive one so the benefits of flexible working and wellbeing support are not only there for individual employees, but business operations as a whole. Crucially, building a strategy that includes these elements can actually be very affordable, despite the untold benefits it can have both today and in the future.
Here at 1Stop4aGP, we offer unique and ground-breaking solutions to support your employees at an extremely affordable cost – and our services include their immediate family at no additional cost. Contact us today, for peace of mind tomorrow.
