New research has revealed that 65% of employees working in Accountancy believe their employer is providing minimal or less than the legal requirement of support in the workplace, with 43% claiming that managers only care about their wellbeing if they have to take sick leave.
The research, conducted by Sovereign Health Care, revealed that the economic climate across the industry has resulted in greater workloads and increased pressure. In response, 63% of employees in Accountancy felt organisations should provide more support for personal health and wellbeing, with 53% confirming they would leave their present employer in return for a better benefits package – even if the salary remained the same.
It was widely accepted that organisations have been significantly stretched by the recession and therefore employees in the sector don’t expect company cars or pay rises. However rather than simply do more work without reward, 65% said they would appreciate added value healthcare benefits such as optical, including glasses/contact lenses (51%), hospital consultancy fees (33%) with dental treatment (51%) leading the way.
Over half of Accountants (55%) are more stressed than a year ago, with 68% saying they have become ill in the past from work, citing work related stress as the main reason.
Russ Piper, Chief Executive of Sovereign Health Care, comments: “In many companies across the sector, it appears that while pay has remained frozen, employee workloads have increased. This unrewarded extra work can lead to low morale and employee discontent. It would be prudent for Accountancy firms to recognise this and consider cost effective ways to counter this and add value to their own workplace. One way of achieving this is through health related employee benefits.
“The message from the research is clear; practices need to review their ‘softer’ benefits and provide more health and wellbeing support – this will help counteract the increased pressure of the workplace and could result in more productive, higher motivated and happier employees.
In the research 46% of managers working in Accountancy admitted they do not fully understand the benefits and support they are able to provide staff – a fact that may be contributing to the perception that they don’t care.
Russ continues: “Most companies recognise that investing in the provision of health, safety and wellbeing support for their employees is important, but if this support isn’t understood or communicated effectively, it is a huge waste of money and could result in them losing their best staff.”
Whilst the UK’s 18 month recession officially ended in January 2010, one in ten respondents feel that the worst is still to come for their businesses. 37% of managers in the sector identified the uncertainty of their own job security as well as their employees as their main concern, whilst 37% also said the increase in workload without reward was their second biggest worry.
The survey was conducted as part of Sovereign Health Care’s ‘Duty of Health Care’ research to identify employee perceptions of the well-being support they receive from employers.
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