As the cost of living rises and after adjusting to life post-pandemic, employee concerns about issues relating to their general wellbeing have risen by a staggering 88% in the last 12 months alone.

The report, collated by change activation platform Rungway, looks into the state of inclusivity in the workplace to reveal how leaders are supporting their staff. The report also examines how businesses are communicating change, how people seek connections within their company, and the positive impact supporting each other through change has on the individual and the organisation.

Findings from Rungway’s report titled ‘The State of Inclusivity in the Workplace 2023’ shows employee concerns about wellbeing issues have risen by 88% in the past 12 months, while questions relating to personal challenges being posted on the Rungway platform increased by 38% from 2021 to 2022. A third of all posts in the second half of 2022 were on the topic of wellbeing.

The data also reveals that women are much more careful about their language when it comes to writing about wellbeing, taking twice the amount of time to write wellbeing related posts as men on the platform do. 

However, even though women take twice as long to write the wellbeing related posts, they are twice as likely to seek a connection in their messaging by using phrases such as ‘does anyone else feel the same?’. 

With wellbeing concerns no longer staying outside of the workplace and now being part of the conversations inside of the organisation, businesses and leaders need to learn to address wellbeing concerns in a human way. 

Julie Chakraverty, the founder of Rungway, comments: 

“If there is a decrease in the wellbeing of an organisation’s staff, then in hand, the staff and business will become less resilient to change. If a lack of resilience occurs, it’s likely to result in staff becoming less receptive to strategy changes, re-structures and other changes in the workplace, which leads to an increased strain on the leadership team. 

“In order to improve the wellbeing of your staff, it’s important to ensure that your staff feel looked after and respected by the business, as this is a major factor in ensuring that staff feel as if their wellbeing is being looked after. 

“Another step to take to ensure that the wellbeing of staff in your business is a top priority, is to set up an employee assistance programme. Programmes like this make sure that employees have a safe place to go to if they’re feeling overwhelmed or unsure about how to deal with a situation. Providing your staff with programmes like these highlight that they’re being looked after by the business, being able to gain confidential advice, whether personal or work related. 

“Employee benefits are also extremely important to help boost the wellbeing of staff, with benefits such as private healthcare, discounted gym memberships, mental health days and salary sacrifice schemes all helping to improve staff’s wellbeing.

“Overall, our data shows that wellbeing is a topic that people want to discuss now even more so than during the pandemic. Employees want to feel understood as individuals. Therefore business leaders should make creating an open, transparent culture a priority so they have the means of communicating change in a far more effective way.”