Why is wellbeing important for organisations?
Research shows there is a strong link between employee wellbeing – leading to workplace engagement, productivity at work, and then subsequent improvements in business outcomes and profitability.
Value is shifting toward wellbeing
- Care is the life-giving force that sustains health and wellbeing, binding together societies and ecologies. But everyday forms of care, though essential are systematically undervalued.
- We currently have an inverse: a system that values health only as a means to the end of economic growth but COVID-19 has been the catalyst for a shift in values toward ESG and sustainable workforces.
Wellbeing matters
- employers have a duty to protect and promote the health of their employees
- professionals who struggle with their wellbeing cannot serve their clients properly and compromise the reputation and integrity of their places of work.
- a profession with persistent levels of poor wellbeing is not a sustainable profession; it will soon find itself unable to continue attracting the best talent where other employers are adapting to the shifting wellbeing needs and attitudes.
Wellbeing is not weakness
- The notion that someone who is experiencing a mental health difficulty is ‘weak’ or in some way unsuitable for their job must be refuted.
- This is necessary to foster a culture in which individual professionals feel able to disclose mental wellbeing difficulties without repercussion.
People are leaving firms and general dissatisfaction
- 50% young lawyers wish to leave their current roles in the next 5 years
- More than 50% of young lawyers said they were drawn to workplaces that promoted a healthy work-life balance
- The young lawyers said they also looked at staff retention rates, professional development support and flexible work options when considering new employers. IBA Young Lawyers Report 2022
Beyond the individual
- Taking action should not be equated simply to a focus enhancing the wellbeing or resilience of individual professionals.
- Shifting the onus from the organisation to the individual in managing their own wellbeing is onerous as there are often factors in the workplace and its work design that cause or contribute to the problem.
- This poses ethical questions for professionals to diagnose, treat and remediate themselves.
Tackling systemic problems
Targeted cultural working practices which are problematic for wellbeing. These include:
- poor or non-existent managerial training
- a lack of basic wellbeing support
- bullying, harassment, sexism, and racism
- working cultures which equate success with unsustainable hours, billing targets, and ever higher pay
Understanding intersectionalities
Developing a richer understanding and awareness of the needs of specific groups and identifying effective ways to foster equality, diversity and inclusion is necessary to shape the future of the legal and financial services professions.