Well-being at work – what do people really value?

As headhunters, we are in conversation with people all the time about their career motivations. Recently we have seen a rise in candidates placing greater importance on areas other than the traditional reward and progression piece, and rightfully so. The modern-day work environment, with long periods of sitting, quick takeout meals in-between meetings, and computer screen eye strain, isn’t conducive to your mental and physical well-being.

Organisational culture and the working environment have become as important as ‘pay and rations’ to today’s talent. People are seeing the importance in actively managing their mental health to guard against overwhelm and burnout, and they are looking to their employers to help with this.

To investigate the issue, Berwick Partners is partnering with DLA Piper’s employment law team and InsideOut, workplace mental health campaigners and consultants, to launch a survey. Together, we are running a survey we will seek to understand the levels of well-being provision made by employers, its impact on career decisions and the link with mental health.

Through the various brands within our group; Berwick Talent Solutions, Berwick Partners, Odgers Interim and Odgers Berndtson, we engage with candidates at several points in their career, from senior technical roles through to senior board and non-executive positions. We are very well placed to produce a definitive picture of what’s happening across all segments of the market.  Throughout the next two months, we will be asking more than 7,000 people their opinions on the importance of employer well-being provision.

Given the anecdotal evidence we have already received, we expect that we will see a number of distinct trends in the data. We suspect that well-being provision is becoming a key decision point for candidates when considering alternative employment.

Through the survey we will examine:

• What well-being initiatives people value
• Whether there are any distinct variations between sectors and types of employers
• Whether people feel there is a link between corporate well-being provision and their own mental health
• Whether people place more importance on well-being provision at different stages of their career life cycle.

Take part

If you would like to take part in the survey or to register to receive a copy of the findings, please email hollie.coyne@berwickpartners.co.uk before 31^st March 2020.

All responses are anonymous unless you choose to share your story. The full report will be published online at www.berwickpartners.co.uk and all participants will receive a preview copy by email if contact details are provided at the end of the survey. All data will be kept safe and will not be used for anything other than talking to you about this survey.