Employee wellbeing, mental health and stress will be a top priority for most global HR leaders in the years ahead, according to research with 650 senior HR leaders.
The research found that 69 percent of respondents said these employee health issues would be key challenges over the next three to five years.
But respondents said that while there is support for improving employee experience to tackle these issues, there are barriers to making it happen. Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) said they feel restricted by limited budgets and resources, according to the research from HR solutions provider Aconso. When these constraints combine with organisational change, the result is a drop in employee morale.
Worryingly, more than two-fifths (41 percent) of senior HR leaders admitted that they struggle to manage their own work-life balance. And as a result, 43 percent of HR leaders said this means they feel unable to fully alleviate the impact of burnout and stress on employees. Researchers said this finding highlights the “urgent need” for more robust support and resources to prioritise both employee and HR wellbeing.
A more complex workplace
Half of the survey respondents said that the evolution of remote and hybrid work models and increased diversity in many workforces had made their jobs harder. Respondents said this was because they now manage a dispersed workforce with more complex needs and demands.
The arrival of generation Z in the workplace has created different expectations and working styles that can contrast with those of older generations. More than half (55 percent) of senior HR leaders said that managing multigenerational teams has significantly increased the complexity of their work.
In response to these changes, HR leaders reported that they had prioritised investment in AI and automation to reduce manual and monotonous tasks so their teams could put more energy into employee-centric initiatives.
Invest in employee experience
Almost three-quarters (72 percent) of senior HR people plan to increase their technology use to enhance efficiency and free up time to invest in employee experience initiatives. Researchers said that this shift was essential as 69 percent of respondents report that they frequently need to divert resources from employee-focused programmes to address urgent change-related tasks in the business.
Ulrich Jaenicke, co-founder and CEO at Aconso, said: “The findings highlight the growing recognition that a thriving workplace and sustainable business relies on supporting employees’ emotional health, fostering engagement and ensuring they feel valued.
“However, senior HR leaders are facing a balancing act with managing strategic and operational demands with employee initiatives, often with the latter being deprioritised when resources and times are tight.
“By adopting the right tools, HR can focus less on repetitive, mundane tasks and more on designing employee experiences that maintain a culture of care and sustainable growth for all generations, plus have more time to adapt initiatives as the workplace evolves.”
