Research from Legal & General has uncovered a stark contrast between the way in which workers in the north of England perceive how their employer looks after their wellbeing when compared to counterparts in the south.
The research reveals just 59% of SME employees in the north of England believed their employer actively looked after their wellbeing, compared to 88% of those based in the south.
However, employers across the country were far more confident that they supported the wellbeing of their employees. In the north, 83% of bosses felt they supported the mental wellbeing of workers, with 91% saying the same in the south.
The study, which is part of L&G’s Wellbeing at Work Barometer, also indicates employers overestimated the impact of their workplace wellbeing initiatives.
In the north, over two thirds (69%) of employers believed their benefits and wellbeing programme had good appeal to all their employees, while only 38% of employees agreed. This compared to 79% of employers and 65% of employees respectively in the south who said the same.
The research found more employees in the south (90%) than in the north (75%) would be more likely to work for an organisation that was open about its commitment to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of its people.
The use of wellbeing benefits among SME employees was also far lower in the north, with just one in five (19%) employees indicating they had used the workplace benefits available to them. While in the south two thirds (65%) of employees reported having used the benefits available to them.
When it came to awareness of benefits, almost a quarter (24%) of employees in the north said they were unaware of the wellbeing workplace benefits available to them at all, compared to just 12% in the south.
Opinium’s research for L&G in May 2021 quizzed 1,055 employees (middle managers and below) and 1,011 senior managers in business with 10-249 employees.
Serious cause of concern for employers
Commenting on the findings, Colin Fitzgerald, distribution director at Legal & General Group Protection, (pictured) said: “The need for workplace wellbeing is universal, yet our research shows that when it comes to wellbeing it appears the age-old north-south divide is very much present.
“Employers that don’t have wellbeing either already embedded or as a priority to address are missing out on new talent as well as impacting on the effectiveness of their existing workforce.
“In an employee’s market – where the demand for talent is fast outstripping supply – this should be of serious cause for concern for employers.”
Fitzgerald noted that helping address health and wellbeing inequalities made good people and societal sense and good business sense as it impacted on key outcomes such as absenteeism, presenteeism and productivity.
And he added that employees are increasingly looking to the S in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues and that the insurer believes health inequality should be a key element of ESG, making it ESHG.
Partnership with Sir Michael Marmot
In June of last year, Legal & General announced a partnership with Sir Michael Marmot, director of the University College of London (UCL) Institute of Health Equity and Professor of Epidemiology.
The collaboration will consider the role of business in addressing health inequality, suggesting also that health and health inequality should be a key element of ESG, or ESHG.
The partnership also aims to provide funding in this space through a multi-million-pound charitable, Legal & General IHE Places Fund.