It can’t be a coincidence that sickness absence rates are falling when job insecurity is very high. I’ve long been expecting the fear of job loss to translate into lower sickness absence statistics. What’s worrying is that this can mean an increase in presenteeism. People working when they shouldn’t be is bad for them and bad for their organisation. Risks include mistakes being made, the knock on effects if illness is spread to colleagues and longer term absence if recovery time has not been sufficient.

There is potentially a greater risk to mental health specifically as this is easier to hide than a physical ailment. And when competition for jobs is high people are even more wary about admitting to feeling stressed or giving any sign they may be struggling to cope, although heavier workloads and external pressures mean this might be perfectly reasonable.

This might seem like quite a negative outlook; I’m sure there are many organisations whose efforts have reduced sickness absence for the right reasons. But to be confident about this, organisations need to really look at how much they really know about the well-being and engagement of their workforce and make sure they’re identifying any issues. Employee satisfaction surveys that serve as a tick box exercise mean nothing when everyone knows that in reality turnover is high, morale is low and many are struggling through for the sake of face time. Absenteeism and presenteeism are only really symptoms of workforce well-being, but effective use of measurement tools can identify root causes – allowing for the celebration of genuine improvements or providing a starting point for taking action.

There are several aspects of this occasion that made me reflect, as an occupational psychologist, on the workplace more generally. First, how loyal people can be to something as amorphous as a football team. The banners across the grounds read ‘Loud, proud and loyal’, and they were right. You could see this when City were relegated down to the old 2nd Division and their season ticket sales actually increased. The fans (insert stakeholders) knew they needed the financial resources to survive and claw their way back up. That belief and loyalty unfortunately is missing in many businesses today, particularly at a time when they need commitment as never before, as our economy continues to suffer in a prolonged recession. How can we bottle the loyalty, belief and commitment we find in the community of football fans, and transfer this to the British workforce, to management and trade unions, to the individual employees who can make UK PLC recover?

Second, we hear the pundits and managers of other teams decrying that City did it because of the vast sums of money they spent on players. It is certainly true that money can buy you talent, but management and leadership are about bringing these players together with a common purpose and sense of family. What we saw on the final Sunday of the Premier League was the product of an outstanding manager, who had the good fortune of being able to buy some of the best players but who created a ‘team’, a group of players who played for the greater good. As Machiavelli wrote in The Prince about the difficulty of change management and leadership: “It should be borne in mind that there is nothing more difficult to arrange, more doubtful of success, and more dangerous to carry through than initiating change…the innovator makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old order, and only lukewarm support is forthcoming from those who would prospect under the new”.

For many of these job seekers CSR includes the commitment to employee well-being. A visible, effective well-being programme is a crucial component of what employers can offer their graduates to increase loyalty and improve performance, securing and nurturing the talent that will be needed in the future. Of course this isn’t just about physical health; total employee well-being requires everything from learning and development opportunities to flexible working and provision of a balanced workload.

I’m often asked how to overcome scepticism about the importance of employee well-being. It’s a difficult question to answer, often requiring a blended approach that adds up to major cultural change. But here we have a generation of new employees expecting that companies pay attention to this subject. By responding to their needs, organisations have the chance to introduce positive change that is actively supported by a growing number of their workforce and improve retention at the same time.

In other graduate news, today has also seen the launch of government backed recommendations to increase the opportunities for international work experience for students. The benefits for individuals are multiple…but home-grown graduate schemes will have to work even harder to make sure they are attractive enough for those whose horizons have been broadened.

Having the courage to come forward and make a complaint about a fellow colleague, especially if you work in a small team takes a lot of nerve and the actions of the manager on this occasion were inappropriate. Being a manager is not an easy task, and it can be very stressful, especially if concerns are raised about something which may ultimately be seen as your own failure if a member of your team is under performing. However a more appropriate way of handling this situation would have been to take responsibility for the issue, rather than shifting the blame to someone else. The relationship between a manager and employees is supposed to be one of trust and respect for confidentiality and the way the manager reacted to the situation has only served to deter other employees from coming to them with problems, resulting in a drop in the morale and productivity of the team. If the manager felt it was necessary to tell the employee who had complained about them then a better course of action may have been to arrange an open and honest discussion between the two parties, which the manager could facilitate. This would have allowed them to get to the root of the issue, rather than allowing the complainant to be victimised and bullied by other team members.

On this occasion it appears that the manager has been unsure of how to deal with the situation and didn’t want to be seen as the ‘bad person’. Many managers lack fundamental training in managing people and it may be that the manager has never had to deal with conflict resolution or under performance and needs training in how to deal with such issues. If this is the case then managers shouldn’t be afraid to ask for advice from HR, or their own manager. Managers need to be seen as the driving force and by admitting they made a mistake in disclosing the identity of the complainant, disciplining anyone who is seen to be bullying other employees and championing that the complainant did the right thing in coming to them, they can start to take control of the situation. Admitting you made an error and asking for help, as a manager, is one of the hardest things to do; but acknowledging the mistake and seeking advice will stop you being at risk of losing good people or facing the possibility of disciplinary action as a result of your own management style and practices.

This got me thinking about the relationship between food and work. At its worst, food is abandoned as a result of a heavy workload, with meals skipped altogether or sandwiches hastily consumed at desks. But in many organisations at least two meals a day are consumed on site, so it’s dangerous to ignore. Google is probably the most famous for providing free food for its office staff (giving rise to the also infamous ‘google stone’ that employees put on when they start!).

There are seemingly infinite providers of workplace fruit baskets, veg boxes and healthy snacks as encouraging healthy eating is obviously going to be good for individual health and can impact on sickness absence rates. And for some organisations it’s vital – if our police officers do become obliged to undergo annual fitness tests then healthy options are going to be a must. All staff canteens should provide good, affordable food and information on how to manage a balanced diet.

But what really struck me in the article was the bonding element of this experience. Many compared these meal times to family occasions – an opportunity for people to spend time together. The lack of hierarchy was important, everyone is included and afforded the same quality. Using this time to develop team spirit and share information across teams appears to be a very valuable part of working life. Although the food itself wouldn’t be so central in other industries, the informal nature of the ‘meeting’ is certainly something that could prove effective in many other settings. Based on personal experience, the breakfast I take into my university spin off company, Robertson Cooper, on a Friday, certainly seems to go down well!

Relationships: “You need juniors to say positive things such as ‘he always takes time to teach me things’. And seniors need to talk about you as someone they can rely on. You need to invest in relationships internally.”

Job conditions (including fairness of pay): “Relative to my peers in some other banks I am possibly underpaid, actually…I do think about switching jobs, and if the money in banking were severely curtailed, a lot of others might too.”

Job security and change: “The job security is not great, to put it mildly. This is high-risk, high-reward work. You can just get a phone call and be told to clean out your desk.”

Control: “As you climb your work independence goes up. I get more control over the work I do, and I delegate much more. It gets more interesting as you move up.”

Balanced workload: “I don’t work till 3am every night, only occasionally. But there’s little room for social life during the week. Even senior people have a pretty antisocial lifestyle.”

Resources and communication: “Banks are huge organisations. It really helps when you know who to call for what, and if this person is inclined to help you.”

Obviously these issues may take different forms in different organisations but they will play out in one form or another (for better or worse). The following is also something that is evident in too many organisations “I think you could argue that investment banks are not always very well managed. What makes a good banker is not what makes a good manager”. And finally, he highlights why good managers are so important as – in spite of a generous salary – “The biggest motivator is praise. Praise from someone senior who has seen I’ve done a good job. That’s such a strong boost.”

If you’re interested in hearing about what financial services employers are doing in the area of employee well-being, click here to sign up for a free webinar I’ll be holding with Patrick Watt, Executive Director of Health and Wellness at Goldman Sachs and Stephen Bevan, Director of Workplace Effectiveness at The Work Foundation.

The difficulty of drawing the line between work life, home life and personal beliefs arises on a fairly regular basis. Memorable cases have included the right to wear religious symbols in the workplaces and the right to belong to the BNP. An even higher proportion of employees now risk being embroiled in these sorts of discussions as we add social media into the mix – how responsible should employees have to be about what they post online, even when the comments and images are not work related? Will we all have to move towards a squeaky clean image, as so many seem to demand from those in the more traditional ‘public’ eye?

I’m not talking here about gross misconduct, or the stories that just cry out for a little more common sense from the individual involved, but the things that hover around the blurred line. What for one person might be black and white, will be distinctly grey for another – making the distinction between right and wrong a difficult one. In addition, there is obviously a sliding scale of severity and the response will be context dependent – but who should decide what the terms are? Should they be based on an organisational, industry or national guidelines? This is a real challenge for those working in HR, equality and diversity, especially when, however the organisation responds, they run the risk of a brand damaging public back lash.

They found that 36% of their staff said they were significantly more productive, that 14% said they had spent more time with their family which made them feel good. There were financial and environmental benefits from less commuting; while the time saved allowed for both more sleep and more work.

We have known for a long time that flexible working is good for business. The research shows that those who choose to work flexibly are more job satisfied, more productive and have less sickness absence. So why has it taken so long to see that new technology can now enable us to do this without compromising, indeed, improving our work performance, and helping us to meet our work-life balance needs?

Part of this explanation comes from the reluctance of many managers to allow it, even when the company itself has a menu of potential flexible arrangements. Many managers want their ‘troops’ in an office, so that they can see what they are up to, can call meetings spontaneously and so on. The reality is also that many just don’t trust their teams to do their jobs if they are working remotely, or don’t know how to manage them in this context. This will require that managers set clear objectives, monitor those objectives, and keep in touch using more communications technology. We need to train managers to understand the value of flexible working as a vehicle to enable people to get more balance, but also because it delivers to the bottom line in terms of performance and a more engaged workforce.

Importantly, flexible working shouldn’t just be for those who have children, but should be open to all, where it is feasible. The Government Office of Science’s Foresight project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing found that the benefit to cost ratio was substantially larger when all employees had the right to request flexible working, and not just parents. And as growing numbers of students consider flexible working a right, rather than a privilege, it’s something that’s going to be making a difference to talent management in the future. Let’s use technology to our personal and business advantage, rather than let it manage us!

There were some positives to come out of the survey though, which highlights that the UK is committed to moving health and well-being up the corporate agenda. Most notable was the fact that the UK came top of the European league table for having confidence in their supervisor/employer’s ability to deal with occupational health and safety issues. This is a great feat and reflects the hard work that is being done to promote the importance of health and well-being at work throughout the UK (the category that job related stress falls under).

But UK respondents obviously don’t feel confident that job related stress is something that is going to be alleviated over the coming years, so it is important not to lose the momentum that we have already created. And this is an organisational issue too; as this and other surveys show, stress-related problems at work are now one of the leading causes of sickness absence for UK employees. They can also lead to lower engagement and productivity, two things that are both vital if UK employers are to weather the storm of these tough economic conditions and re-gain competitive advantage. Unfortunately it is clear that the link between stress and competitive advantage doesn’t always resonate in the minds of employers; the UK were in the bottom 10 for thinking that tackling health and safety issues would make organisations more competitive.

This statistic illustrates the work that still needs to be done to persuade senior management that improving the health and well-being of employees is a strategy for growth, and not just for improving employee health. However, if we can convince employers that enhancing the engagement, well-being and resilience of employees, improving their work-life balance and reducing the excessive pressures they are facing will have a positive impact on the productivity and growth of the organisation, then we might be going some way towards reducing the effects of job related stress on both the organisation and individuals.

Source of data: The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA)

Research has suggested that willpower is a limited resource and that when we’ve used it up, we’re more likely to take the path of least resistance (which in this case means roaming the net rather than focusing on the task in hand). And missing sleep means we haven’t ‘recharged’ our willpower, and will therefore find it more difficult to remain focused.

Researchers used the clock change phenomenon as a quasi experiment on a large group, and recording an increase in the number of entertainment related searches performed by workers. The controlled version of the experiment that followed demonstrated the same effect. Interestingly, this research also found that those with certain personality traits (like high conscientiousness) can overcome the effects of sleep loss to some extent.

They’re not the first to suggest this ‘willpower depletion’ theory. Roy F Baumeister has come to the same conclusion and suggests that willpower is like a ‘moral muscle’ which can get tired. According to his recent book, the flipside of this is that we can develop this ‘muscle’, or at least identify its affect on our behaviour and take steps to redress the balance – mimicking the impact of natural personality traits.

And willpower is not the only thing that can be developed to help us overcome our natural (and sometimes hindering) responses to challenging situations. Personal resilience is also a quality that will differ between individuals, but can be developed in all of us. If you’d like to get started with yours, you can click here to use the free i-resilience tool.