Work culture is important. When we’re spending a lot of time at work, our habits can naturally transcend into our home lives.
If we have a negative workplace culture, this can only mean bad things for our personal time.
In a new report published by YouGov and insurance company, YuLife, findings show that 45% of UK employees believe that their work directly influences their lifestyle decisions. This includes diet and exercise habits.
However, despite the correlation between the two, only 19% of respondents think that their employers take an interest in their lifestyle decisions.
This highlights a significant gap between employees’ expectations from their workplaces and today’s reality.
“These findings demonstrate how central workplaces are to the way we lead our lives and how they influence our core lifestyle decisions,” says Sammy Rubin, CEO and Founder, YuLife.
“How and where we work affects how we eat, sleep, and exercise, and so workplaces can and must play a leading role in helping their employees adopt healthier habits.”
The report also says that 45% of UK employees believe that workplace stress will increase until the end of 2022. Just 8% think workplace stress will decrease over the coming year.
It’s a Team Game. 31% of UK employees would be more likely to make healthier lifestyle decisions if they saw their colleagues making similar changes. This is over double the proportion who said that their colleagues’ lifestyle changes would be unlikely to impact them (15%).
How Can Employers Address Negative Workplace Habits?
The report advises that 70% of UK employees would exercise more if their employer incentivised them to do so.
One of the most popular motivational tools would be rewards for exercising. Of the respondents, 21% say vouchers from leading brands for exercising would be more motivate them.
Two-thirds (66%) of employees would like employers to dedicate a weekly slot to improve their health and wellbeing. 47% would like this to happen more than once a week and 15% would like this to happen every day.
These findings highlight how businesses can improve employee satisfaction and meet employees’ needs by introducing designated “wellbeing time.”
Healthy Work Culture Mean Healthier Lifestyle Choices
Employees are also swaying towards keeping work within work hours. Also, 40% of employees say that working outside office hours has a negative impact on their lifestyle decisions.
What’s more, just over a quarter (26%) have not taken all of their allocated annual leave since March 2020.
“Employees increasingly recognise that their workplaces can help them achieve positive behavioural change, and a business that addresses this need effectively is ideally placed to stave off burnout in the era of the “Great Resignation”,” explains Rubin.
The report findings are based on the answers of 974 UK employees. The research was undertaken between 9 and 10th November 2021.
Did you find this article useful? Take a read of Working parents and carers hit by “outdated” work culture and practices, UK employees experiencing toxic workplace culture and Black employees feel organisations don’t have an inclusive culture.
