Spike in wellbeing courses for the workplace amid post-lockdown WFH permanence

@PhoenixHSC -SPIKE in wellbeing and stress awareness leads to demand in workplace education courses 

In recent days there has been plenty of push back from employees in regards to returning to work and their legal rights. 

For some, the work-life balance has been positive when able to work from home and spend a portion of time in the office. 

Although even when comfortably at home, there are issues around employees not being seen by their peers and therefore not able to see struggles or mental health states that are arising in some people who are working from home.

Unsurprisingly, there has been a spike in people searching for ways to cope at home. Google search trends show a 400% increase for searches on ‘5 steps to wellbeing’ in the last month alone, which could be seen as a testament to how many people are really struggling.

Equally, specialists in health & safety have seen a huge increase in interest for their wellbeing and stress awareness courses, with businesses investing in coaching and training professionals to spot and manage employees in the workplace who may need help and guidance. 

Nick Higginson, Managing Director at Phoenix Health and Safety said: 

“Wellbeing in the workplace is more important than it’s ever been, employers are responsible for protecting the mental health of their employees and this includes stress associated with work and continuously working from home. 

The past twelve months have brought to the forefront the importance of mental health awareness in the workplace. There has been a spike in businesses approaching Phoenix Health & Safety to train their employees and HR professionals in our new ‘working with wellbeing’ and ‘stress awareness’ courses, to ensure they can correctly support their employees.

There is a cost to mental health problems in the workplace and it has been proven that businesses that take a proactive approach to employee wellbeing outperform those that don’t.

Our wellbeing qualification and stress awareness course educate employers of their responsibility to employees’ mental health, and how they can measure the effectiveness of wellbeing in the workplace. The practical initiatives taught in the courses will teach how to spot stress in others and offer many solutions on how to improve worker wellbeing, especially now that more of us are working from home on a more permanent basis.”

With such a high demand, Phoenix Health & Safety are now offering a new course, ‘working with wellbeing’ which is provided by NEBOSH and can support employers in improving staff turnover, increasing employee satisfaction and overall productivity. 

NEBOSH Chief Operating Officer, Dee Arp, said: 

“Our new course will give managers the know-how, skills and practical interventions to support the overall wellbeing of their people, for the benefit of colleagues and businesses.

“The wellbeing responsibilities of employers has been a hot topic over the past year. People who are well are typically more resilient to change and adversity. That’s not to say people are expected to be infallible but that by having effective wellbeing support, employees can better cope with significant and unusual situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic we are currently experiencing.”