This article is featured as part of our week-long series looking at awareness and practical advice to support the Mental Health of those working across the financial services sector
Research by Towergate Health & Protection shows that 45% of employers have found it difficult to ensure that communication of health and wellbeing support is relevant since the pandemic began.
Iain Laws, CEO at Towergate Health & Protection, says: “Our research tells us that employers are finding it harder to target specific messages at specific groups of their workforce.
“This has been the case since the start of the pandemic and is perhaps an indication of the challenge in keeping up with the rapid changes in working habits. Health and wellbeing support and its communication must be agile to adapt to these altering needs.”
The impact of hybrid working
The majority of employers (56%) state they have changed the way they communicate health and wellbeing support since the pandemic began. Hybrid working is a major factor, with 44% of employers saying they find it more difficult to communicate the support they offer employees because many work from home all or some of the time.
The rise of digital comms
The use of online options to manage support is on the rise, with 62% of employers saying they now concentrate more on digital health and wellbeing communications. However, even with this route, 40% still state they do not communicate health and wellbeing support as much as their colleagues would like them to.
Tailored benefits
The research results suggest that there is a changing landscape for the communication of health and wellbeing support. Personalised support is the most effective solution in meeting the needs of employees now that so many circumstances have changed with the pandemic.
It’s also important that employees have health and wellbeing support that matches their specific requirements as well as any particular health risks.
By making benefits relevant to the individual, they become more valuable, but communicating to different groups, across different channels, can be a challenge. Offering tailored wellbeing services needs to be matched with tailored communication too.
Integrated communications
The pressure is on employers to provide ever wider choice of channels of communications but thankfully the options for doing so are moving at a fast pace too. There are now a great number of apps, hubs, and other online options to cater for all types of communication preference.
If the employer can keep them all in one place and manage these from one source, so much the better.
While the demand for communication channels is growing, and hybrid working is making a mix of options even more vital, technology is keeping up with this requirement so employers can have access to powerful tools to make the challenges of communication easier.
Iain Laws says: “The clear need for health and wellbeing support to reach more people on a more basis means that effective communication of this support is critical.”
