New research finds that the majority of employees – over four in five – reported feeling supported by their organisation during the last year.
Data collected by Edenred, a reward and recognition provider, shows that more than four in five workers (81 per cent) stated that their organisation did a “good job” of supporting them over the last year.
When reporting on the areas which they felt supported in, almost three-quarters of employees were satisfied with the support they were given regarding managing their work-life balance (73 per cent), collaborative working (72 per cent) and physical wellbeing (71 per cent).
Despite this, it is evident that the pandemic has taken a toll on workers. Over a third of employees reported a fall in job satisfaction (35 per cent), three in 10 (31 per cent) had concerns about job security whilst over a quarter (27 per cent) were dissatisfied with their work-life balance.
Workers were surveyed about policies and help they wished to be implemented. Over one in four employees asked for help with their mental wellbeing whilst a fifth (17 per cent) confessed that they needed help in adjusting to a return back to the office.
In addition, around a third of workers (32 per cent) felt that employers were falling short when it came to reward. A further fifth (21 per cent) did not feel as though they were receiving apt recognition.
Around half of employees felt that their HR policy (56 per cent) and their benefits were aligned with their new working patterns. However, this leaves a substantial amount of workers who believed more could be done.
Alisdair Seenan, HR Director at Edenred UK said:
The coming weeks are a critical period for employers who want to ensure their people and their organisations are in the best place to thrive as we emerge from lockdown.
Having done a good job of getting our people through the last 12 months, we now need to act fast to ensure that whatever model of working your organisation embraces, you have the right policy, working practices and tools to meet the changing needs of your people.
With our research finding that 29 per cent of employees feel more positive about their organisation as a result of actions they took in the past year and 24 per cent saying they were more likely to go the extra mile, it is clear that employers who invest in supporting their people will be rewarded with engaged and motivated teams.
To gather these results, Onepoll, on behalf of Edenred, surveyed 2,000 UK employees. The full research findings can be found within Edenred’s report “Power up your people: Your blueprint for peak performance in 2021”.
Monica Sharma is an English Literature graduate from the University of Warwick. As Editor for HRreview, her particular interests in HR include issues concerning diversity, employment law and wellbeing in the workplace. Alongside this, she has written for student publications in both England and Canada. Monica has also presented her academic work concerning the relationship between legal systems, sexual harassment and racism at a university conference at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
