The 2020 (UK) - CONNECT
Wellbeing Benchmarks & Organisational Wellbeing Weather Reports Introducing the Net Engagement Wellbeing Benchmarks for UK employers Providing insights above and below the Wellbeing Waterline.
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 - 3
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Our Research Based Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 - 6
Creating the WoWW! Benchmarks for Employers - The NETT (UK) Scores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 - 11
NETT (UK) CONNECT Scores 2020 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 - 14
Segmenting the results for practical application - the 3 s zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 - 16
Measuring the climate - the weather themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
So, what next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Our final call to action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
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Executive Summary Wellbeing, in the workplace and at home, is now at the forefront of organisational concerns given the worldwide Covid 19 pandemic. In 2015 we commissioned UK wide YouGov research to provide a national
Organisational
benchmark for Financial Wellbeing as well as Personal Wellbeing. In
Wellbeing
mid-2020 we revisited this and extended the survey to include
-53%
Organisational Wellbeing – especially as ‘home’ became the new workplace. We wanted hard data on the impact of ‘the new normal'.
Personal Financial
Wellbeing
Wellbeing
-76%
-77%
The NPS % results for Connecting with Wellbeing, show the following:
Financial Wellbeing has dropped by 14% (from -63% to -77%) Personal Wellbeing has double dropped by 28% (from – 48% to – 76%) Organisational Wellbeing comes in at -53% -53% (no 2015 comparator)
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Executive Summary Organisational Wellbeing scores offer some reason for hope, given a 23/24% lead over Financial and Personal Wellbeing – we believe that the years of focus on being ‘responsible’ employers is starting to pay off, but there is still considerable work to do - even to get the NPS Scores into the positive.
Whilst poor Wellbeing has a critical impact on performance and productivity, promoting good employee Wellbeing is not just a shareholder issue – good employers understand the need to support and develop their most important asset – their workforce. However, the concept of Wellbeing can seem nebulous – hard to measure and harder to improve. This is why we have developed a methodology for tracking and tracing the virtuous circle of Organisational, Financial and Personal Wellbeing.
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Executive Summary Built on the UK Governments 5 Ways to Wellbeing, the Net Engagement Triple Tracking (NETT) scores are the tool for businesses who want to be on the right side of the Wellbeing revolution.
This report will take a deeper dive into the 2020 NETT Scores. More importantly, you will find out the steps you can take to segment your workforce across the ‘Triple S Zones’ of Stress, Susceptibility & Smiles.
We segment our research across each of the 5 Ways to Wellbeing, to provide greater focus. The current update looks at Connect, the first of the 5 Ways – and the most important according to the Harvard study on Happiness (the longest of its kind). Simply, relationships the are most important way to what we call Well-Beings.
Because we believe ‘Well-Beings Build Businesses Well’ we’d love to ‘Connect’ and talk about how we can help.
We can 'Listen-in' and benchmark your employees engagement with wellbeing, identifying the issues and providing a practical framework for continued action.
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Introduction SOS! From UK Households & Employees
Listen-in & Learn For most of us, the world post Covid 19 is proving challenging to navigate like someone took the rule book and threw it in the bin.
This world-wide pandemic has caused a seismic shift and made us all aware how much people really matter. Businesses and the economy all rely on the efforts of individuals, who bring their own issues and concerns with them to work every day – more now than ever. Key workers have kept the show on the road, and as lockdown eases and more businesses return to a different kind of normal, Wellbeing has risen to the top of the agenda. Organisations and businesses are now increasingly aware of the need not just to reduce infection risks for their staff and customers, but also to nurture
The Virtuous Circle of Talk & Trust™
staff welfare in general, in the realisation that we are all operating under stress and need support to function well.
With The WoWW! Business (Ways of Work & Wellbeing!) we have always believed that Wellbeing is core to individuals - and therefore businesses – performing well. Our mantra is ‘Well Beings Build Businesses Well’. But how do you promote Wellbeing and create truly ‘Well Beings’ within your business or organisation. How do you know if your efforts are working?
Track & Trend
Stop & Start
A WoWW! Business ... is one that through its culture (how it thinks, feels and what it believes) and climate (what it says, does and looks like) creates an environment where Well-Beings thrive.
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Our Research Based Approach The BIG Listen-In
BIG Impact Above & Below The Waterline
Knowledge is power. You can’t solve the problem until you know what
Triple tracking provides quantitative and qualitative data on total
you’re dealing with, and prevention is always better than cure. Where to
employee engagement in wellbeing. Imagine the old order as being like
start? We call our YouGov UK Benchmark ‘The Big Listen- In.’ We have
a triangle, with the Organisation at the top, and the Personal and
developed a Virtuous Circle of Listen-In & Learn, then Stop & Start (stop
Financial Well Being of Employees at the bottom. We have re- imagined
to reflect, and start to react appropriately).
this triangle as an iceberg, with Employee Well Being hidden below the waterline, which has a knock-on effect on a business’ bottom line. A pre Covid study by Barclay’s Bank in relation to employee financial concerns
Next, to keep the Virtuous Circle going, Track & Trend to check progress.
alone put this at 4% - arguably the post Covid figure will be worse.
Back in 2015/6 we commissioned a UK wide YouGov survey on Financial and Personal Wellbeing and established a UK Benchmark for both – we show comparative figures later in this report. Post Covid, we have re-
BIG Impact On The Top & Bottom Line
commissioned YouGov, extending our UK wide survey to include Operational Wellbeing for companies and businesses. So we now have a comparative, post Covid, UK Benchmark for Financial and Personal Wellbeing, and a new post Covid UK benchmark for Organisational Wellbeing. We call this triple tracking.
According to a 2017 CIPD report, financial stress cost the UK economy £120.7 billion and caused 17.5 million hours of absence. And the effect on internal relationships, customer service, business reputation, retention ...... we don’t need to go on!
It’s simply critically important to know what’s going on below the Waterline, and to address employees’ needs and concerns to promote Wellbeing in the workplace. It’s not just about the figures – it’s about listening in to what your people are saying. It’s why we measure the feelings behind the facts so we can better understand the emerging weather themes.
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Our approach ... to Wellbeing research is very much built upon having ‘The Big Listen-In’ and allowing the ‘Words’ to speak for themselves. Where hard facts provide a way of benchmarking, words and language patterns allow you to tap into ‘Feelings’ and, if the objective is to promote organisations full of Well-Beings, then you must be led by feeling.
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Creating the WoWW! Benchmarks for Employers – The NETT (UK) Scores When looking at what was on offer to measure, track and trend the wellbeing of UK employees we wanted to find a way of measuring the role that relationships played in the subjective wellbeing of the population. Relationships being the most significant factor in determining the long-term health and recorded happiness in Harvard’s 80 year study of Adult development. After significant research and much deliberation, The WoWW! Business created the Wellbeing benchmarks by factoring in 5-key elements.
The 5 Ways to Wellbeing ...is based on evidence from Global Research by nef (New Economics Foundation) commissioned by the UK Government Office for Science - the Foresight Project into the core elements of Wellbeing. The 5 ways providing an easy to follow, holistic approach to wellbeing that is understandable and accessible to everyone. Our benchmarks measure responses in each of the 5 ways to wellbeing.
Connect
Be active
Take Notice
Keep Learning
Give
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Creating the WoWW! Benchmarks for Employers – The NETT (UK) Scores 10 Levels of Wellbeing When measuring ‘Wellbeing’ you must accept that there is a ‘spectrum’ of wellbeing that covers two sides of the same coin, in so much as you can either show signs of being ‘well’ or showing signs of being ‘un-well’. Therefore, we have built our research using a Wellbeing scale from minus -5 to positive +5, from greyscale to colour, from Un-Wellbeing to Wellbeing.
Q1
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
+1
+2
+3
+4
+5
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Creating the WoWW! Benchmarks for Employers – The NETT (UK) Scores 10-point scale for Net Promoter Score ® By creating a 10-point scale we are able to apply a simple static benchmark using the ‘Net Promoter’ philosophy on the basis that the balance between ‘Promoters’ and ‘Detractors’ is a critical factor in determining the success of any wellbeing initiative. Human beings are social beings and are heavily influenced and driven by acceptance within the group dynamic. The Net Promoter Score allows us to measure and benchmark overall group engagement in wellbeing.
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Creating the WoWW! Benchmarks for Employers – The NETT (UK) Scores Advanced Text Analytics Collecting and analysing words and language patterns is a key tool to gain deeper understanding of the underlying issues and how your well-beings are really feeling. Combining the static measure of the Net Promoter Score with advanced text analytics provides the full picture and a practical tool for developing effective wellbeing strategies.
anxiety ashamed
Deep Stress guilt scared
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Creating the WoWW! Benchmarks for Employers – The NETT (UK) Scores Total engagement in wellbeing at a personal, financial & organisational level The WoWW! Business knows that how someone approaches personal wellbeing impacts their financial health and that issues ‘outside’ of work, very much impact performance in the workplace. That’s why we measure organisational, financial and personal wellbeing concurrently so we can pinpoint the issues that most need addressing. Measuring what you can’t see as well as what you can’t – we call this the iceberg effect.
(UK) NETT CONNECT scores The 2016 NETT (UK) Scores, updated by the 2020 (UK) NETT CONNECT scores, in partnership with YouGov are the platform from which The WoWW! Business will run continuous benchmarks for each of the 5 Ways to Wellbeing, with the 2020/2021 (UK) ‘BE-ACTIVE’ scores coming next.
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NETT UK Connect Scores 2020 2015/6 - 2020 key comparative findings. Where we are in a post covid world
Organisational Wellbeing -53%
So, what did we find when we lifted the UK lid with our YouGov survey?
Personal Financial
Wellbeing
Wellbeing
-76%
-77%
The NETT Scores – the NPS results:
2020 NETT (UK) CONNECTING with Financial Wellbeing - minus 77% 2020 NETT (UK) CONNECTING with Personal Wellbeing - minus 76% 2020 NETT (UK) CONNECTING with Organisational Wellbeing - minus 53%
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NETT UK Connect Scores 2020/21 Where we are in a Covid Pandemic driven world
Organisational Wellbeing
Total engagement in wellbeing at a personal, financial & organisational level These scores are the sum of the +ive ‘Promoters’ and -ive ‘Detractors’, which show that in each survey the ‘Detractors’ are a significantly larger group than the Promoters when it comes to the UK’s views on CONNECTING with their Wellbeing. This is not a platform to grow ‘Well-Beings’. It’s significant that whilst the UK Financial Wellbeing score dropped by 14%, from -63% to -77%, the Personal Wellbeing score shows a much bigger drop of 28%, from -48% to -76%. Whether this reflects the substantial financial cushion provided through the UK Government’s furlough scheme, or whether this simply reflects a preoccupation with personal health, the risk of Covid infection and the limitations of
Employee Financial Wellbeing
Employee Personal Wellbeing
lockdown remains to be seen as time and vaccinations move us on. Interestingly, most comments don’t openly refer to the Pandemic, but it can’t be assumed that it hasn’t played an important factor. We have no 2015/16 comparator for Organisational Wellbeing in the workplace, but the -53% score of this factor above the Wellbeing Waterline is significantly better than the -77% and -76% below the Wellbeing Waterline. This proves the importance of the Iceberg Effect and knowing and, critically, Triple Tracking all of your NETT Scores. So, what would a good Net Promoter Score® (NPS) look like? Average scores vary across different sectors, so there is no simple answer. In general, unlike other scoring systems anything above 0% for employees is acceptable, and a good score would be between 10-30%. The UK is therefore not in good shape either above or below the Wellbeing Waterline.
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The scores in more detail Our table shows the mean, or average, scores across gender, social stratification and age groups - the mean score on our 10 point scale. It would take a statistician to fully analyse these – we have simply highlighted the highest and the lowest scoring sectors in green and red respectively. The 25-34 year olds top out across all three Connect scores for Organisational, Financial and Personal Wellbeing, whereas the lowest Connect scores are spread across the three older age groups with 35-44 year olds scoring the lowest in Personal Wellbeing, 45-54 year olds scoring lowest for Financial Wellbeing, and the 55+ year olds scoring lowest for Workplace Wellbeing. Again, the Financial and Personal mean scores are lower than the Workplace mean, at 4.10, 3.78 and 5.10 respectively.
YouGov UK SOS 5 Ways NETT Scores - Connect
UK Connect NETT Scores
NEO Organisational Wellbeing
NEF Financial Wellbeing
NEW Personal Wellbeing
NPS
Mean
Male
Female
ABC1
C2DE
18-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55+
-53%
5.10
4.90
5.30
5.43
4.51
4.66
5.65
5.41
4.95
4.60
-77%
4.10
4.05
4.15
4.51
3.56
4.15
4.61
3.89
3.76
4.16
-76%
5.10
(-48% = -28% )
(3.42 )
3.43
4.12
4.18
3.26
3.89
4.21
3.63
3.70
3.70
Net Promoter Scores
n/a
(-63% = -14% )
n/a
Legend: 2020 - Blue
Highest: Green
Lowest: Red
(2015/6 Comparison)
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Segmenting the results for practical application The NPS scores provide a single measure that can be benchmarked across industries and sectors and provide a relative mark for how successful or not a workplaces are at promoting wellbeing and inspiring Well-Beings. The results thus far confirm that we are severely lacking in promoters and much work is to be done.
Segmenting the scores will help us to identify those who can become our promoters, but as importantly those employees who are in serious need of help. Driven by the associated language patterns of surveyed respondents we have identified the tripe ‘S Zones’ of stress, susceptibility and smiles.
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Definition of the tripe ’S Zones’
The Smile Zone of ‘Well-Beings’ will represent people who are actively engaged in their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of others. They are ‘Promoters’ of Wellbeing. They will typically use language associated with a growth mindset “I really am okay and want others to be too”. This segment should be encouraged to share their stories.
The Susceptible Zone of wellbeing will typically represent the significant majority. They will typically use the language patterns of “It’s fine, I’m okay, don’t worry about me”, they do not detract from the group’s wellbeing, but similarly are less likely to be promoters. They are susceptible as a health or financial shock, or extended period of worry could tip them into stress. This group should be educated and encouraged to a more pro-active wellbeing routine.
The Stress Zone of ‘Un-Well-beings’ will represent people who are very much disengaged and who will have been living with the effects of stress for some time. They will exhibit language patterns of “I’m not okay, I worry, I keep my problems hidden and am showing signs of anxiety”. These people are less likely to be helped by initiatives that work well in the smile zone, which they may find intimidating. Employee Assistance Programmes, payday financing schemes and mentoring can help these people.
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Measuring the climate - the weather themes The hard data gathered from the NETT Scores and Segmented Scores provide a great place to identify the scale of the problem and to drive decisions at a strategic level. The real clues however lie within the feelings behind these facts and it’s only when you study the language patterns of respondents that you can tap into the underlying climate and appreciate in depth what happens below the Waterline. Whilst strategic decisions should be driven from the hard data, tactical decisions should be sensitive to the underlying Wellbeing climate.
Measuring today’s Weather with the NETT Scores and combining this with the feelings, is how you understand the Wellbeing Climate. The following pages will show the individual weather reports for each of the Triumvirate of Organisational, Personal and Financial Wellbeing, based upon the 2020 Connect scores.
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So, what next?
The Big Listen-In
- Until you know the issues both above and
below the Employee Engagement Wellbeing Waterline you will never know the underlying problems you need to be dealing with.
The Wellbeing SWOT Analysis
- Assess the quantitative and
qualitative data from your Scores and create a Wellbeing SWOT Analysis If you believe, as we do that running the NPS Well-Beings Scores in your
1. Strengths - What’s good? 2. Weaknesses - What could be better? 3.
business will provide you with the deep insights and a platform to create
Opportunities - What new things you could be doing? 4. Threats - What
a WoWW! business - then we would love you to join us.
do you need to stop?
Do you want our business name to become your business mission? A Way of Work & Wellbeing - WoWW! business.
Review & Refresh
- your Employee Communication and HR
strategies to ensure they promote Wellbeing & Well-Beings in the light of the hidden issues you've revealed.
Support & Sustain Future Wellbeing
- for those in Stress
Zone by providing and promoting short term Employee Assistance The WoWW! Business provides a range of Tools and Training and our WoWWorkouts! will assist your business on its journey towards being an
Programmes & Payday financing solutions, as well as long-term WellBeings solutions.
inspiring workplace where Well- Beings thrive.
Educate, Engage, Enthuse, Excite
- those within the
Susceptible Zone through webinars, workshops and information hubs focused on the issues identified and move them into the Smile Zone.
Enable & Empower
- those within the Smile Zone to become
mentors and ‘Well-Beings Champions’ - the WoWWayfinders.
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Our Final Call to Action Our Weather Report, for us, is our way to GIVE to the world a new insight and way forward to create a Culture of Wellbeing and Climate of Well Beings. Using the Weather Report will let people CONNECT through discussion of the ‘Storm Clouds’ and SOS language and reflecting on the Facts and the Feelings. Using the Weather Report to KEEP LEARNING builds your own and others’ Wellbeing around Wellbeing itself! Our Passion is to help individuals or whole organisations to start the Wellbeing journey with this Report, then decide to go forward with our WoWWayfinders programmes. How? Simply when you TAKE NOTICE of other’s feelings through applying the Iceberg Effect as a way to (get back to!) GIVE.
Created by
Email: connect@thewowwbusiness.com
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2283 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 9th - 10th July 2020. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+).
