Murphy Group | Driving wellbeing during a pandemic

The wellbeing of staff has long been a challenge HR practitioners have had to face as part of their roles, and now with more employees than ever working on a remote basis, HR has had to put in place increased measures to support their staff.

For example, recent CMI research discovered that managers have witnessed a steep decline in staff wellbeing as a result of the ‘quick but necessary’ move to home working. It discovered that the fall in wellbeing was higher for managers whose staff had parental responsibilities (59%). 36% went on to reveal that mental health was one of the key challenges for them.

While this slump has been triggered, the ongoing pandemic is also causing several concerns for employees, which has contributed to growing anxiety. In fact, a recent paper in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, published by the US Government’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, found that the outbreak caused “generalised fear and fear-induced overreactive behaviour among the public,” which has resulted in a “public mental health crisis”.

As such, the onus is now falling on to HR to ensure employees are receiving the help and guidance they need during this uncertain time. This is a sentiment echoed by Dawn Moore, Group People Director at the construction firm Murphy Group. She told HR Grapevine: “I think particularly with the current challenges, wellbeing is at the forefront of thinking and I think inevitably people are having to look at it more holistically now. What I mean by holistic is looking purely outside of what I would call the straightforward physical and mental wellbeing.”