Dame Carol Black: 'Your people are your profits'
With business challenges mounting and record numbers leaving the workforce due to ill-health, we caught up with Professor Dame Carol Black, Chair of the government’s new Occupational Health Taskforce, to explore why prioritising the health and wellbeing of staff has never been more important.
Since the financial crash of 2007/08 and accelerated by the pandemic, the country has grappled with poor productivity, record sickness absence and increasing economic activity.
Overall declining population health in the last few years also means we now have more people in work but living with chronic and lifestyle-related health problems.
With Britain’s Healthiest Workplace data revealing that low productivity has more than doubled over the past decade1, it has become increasingly obvious that organisations need to do more to support their workforce.
Multiple health risks
According to DWP Occupational Health Taskforce Chair, Professor Dame Carol Black (right), however, “[businesses] in the past haven’t paid enough attention to the contribution of [employee] health, both mental and physical to productivity.
“[Employers have] invested in making the workplace efficient but haven’t talked enough about the contribution of an individual’s health on their ability to work.”
For Dame Carol, it’s clear that there are numerous factors impacting the UK workforce, so it’s not enough to just focus on operational efficiencies.
“In the past, I believe ‘[organisations] ignored health or at least many have and thought if only we have efficient systems, then our productivity will go up. But you can’t get away with it anymore.”
We see from the latest Britain’s Healthiest Workplace survey findings how 96% of UK workers are living with at least one lifestyle or clinical risk, including 58% who are overweight, 37% physically inactive and 10% suffering from anxiety or depression1.
A watershed moment
However, despite the fact the UK workforce is not getting any healthier, there is cause for optimism according to Dame Carol.
The Covid-19 pandemic in particular put health and wellbeing in the spotlight and made it something employers can no longer ignore.
“The pandemic put health and wellbeing right at the top of the priority list for employers. Followed closely by psychological safety, [employee] mental health and flexible working.”
In recent years we’ve also seen a significant cultural shift within organisations, with expectations around management styles changing and a much better awareness of equality, diversity and inclusion.
It starts with the line manager
The fast-changing world businesses are operating in these days though means line managers are being put under greater pressure.
The expectations on their role and responsibilities are also changing and for Dame Carol, they are particularly crucial when it comes to ensuring staff are looked after.
“The line manager is the crucial lynchpin for me and the first thing you have to do is support the health and wellbeing of your line managers.”
There’s a growing recognition as well that good managers must possess strong emotional intelligence.
For Dame Carol, training them isn’t just about “sending them on a course to be a good manager. It’s about enabling them to understand human beings and to be more sensitive: to be able to listen.
“It’s enabling that line manager to have enough confidence and have the ability to get the best from the people they’re managing.”
The economic case
For businesses concerned about the financial benefits, investing in employee health and wellbeing can ultimately be a simple matter of improving the bottom line.
The estimated cost of lost productivity due to poor employee health to the UK economy stands at a staggering £138bn1.
“There’s very good research evidence that if you invest in the health and wellbeing of your workforce, they’re more productive”, says Professor Black.
“If you invest, people will become more engaged and will enjoy their work more. You don’t want miserable people coming into work. You want them to feel that you’re investing in them and that they can trust you, and you’ll go that extra mile.”
Interventions must be meaningful
Gone are the days of thinking a fruit bowl in the office or the occasional yoga session will suffice when it comes to employee health and wellbeing.
With organisations on average offering a whopping 46.5 interventions1, there is also a sense that a more streamlined ‘less is more’ approach could be what’s needed, providing it’s tailored and accessible enough across an entire workforce.
For Dame Carol, it’s one of the strengths of surveys like Britain’s Healthiest Workplace:
“The survey tells an employer what the size of their musculoskeletal or mental health problems are, smoking levels or chronic disease. You can look at your baseline, what your workforce is like and choose interventions to match those challenges and then, if possible, measure.”
Importantly, she explains, businesses should also “look for interventions where there is evidence and best practice” to support their effectiveness.
“[Businesses] could offer an employee assistance programme, mindfulness, individual resilience training or financial education.
“Leadership, board engagement, line-managers; the culture of the organisation is also crucial.”
Getting it right
It’s also important that any health and wellbeing interventions are inclusive and appeal to different demographics of employee.
Businesses need to think “what are my demographics and what will appeal to those different groups [of employee]; bear in mind ethnicity and culture. You have to think carefully about who is working for you and then try to ensure you have a variety of interventions that you can try and not expect them to work for everyone.”
Navigating this changing landscape can sometimes feel daunting for businesses, which is why having the right advice and guidance is key. Advisers can play a crucial role.
Ultimately though, getting it right doesn’t need to be complicated. “Keep it simple”, says Professor Black.
“Start with organisational culture. Look at the leadership and get the board engaged and then the line-managers. Think about the things the business is going to do. Whether that’s wellbeing champions or the role of the HR department. Decide the things you’re doing to do that would make a difference.”
At the end of the day, she reminds employers: “your people are your profits”. “If you invest properly in your people and try to understand them and support them they will deliver for you, because they’ll want to deliver,” she concludes.
We recently sat down with Dame Carol Black and Director of the Vitality Performance Champions, Maggie Alphonsi, plus took a deeper dive into the latest Britain's Healthiest Workplace data, on our Forward Thinking webinar.
Where to next?
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Against a backdrop of immense change in the UK, a more considered approached to employee wellbeing interventions is what’s needed, writes Pippa Andrews Director of Corporate Business for Vitality.
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Supporting employees in an ever changing workplace
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Dame Carol Black and Director of the Vitality Performance Champions, Maggie Alphonsi, explored how employers are supporting staff in a rapidly changing world on our recent Forward Thinking webinar.
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1. Britain's Healthiest Workplace data, Vitality and RAND Europe, 2023