(MENAFN- EIN Presswire) Inside the Grotto: Employee wellbeing is not just for Christmas...
It's tough at the top: As many as 49% of business leaders suffer from mental health conditions, fatigue and stress.
As many as 1 in 3 employees suffer from some degree of anxiety or mental health issues
A look at the challenging working conditions and startling employee health risks at Santa's grotto, from exhausted elves, to the pressure on the man at the top.
HULL, EAST YORKSHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM, November 29, 2022 /einpresswire.com / -- A closer look at the challenging working conditions and startling employee health risks at Santa's grotto, from exhausted elves, to the pressure on the man at the top.
The Christmas period brings a host of stresses and increased pressures for businesses as they struggle to keep up with workplace illnesses, absenteeism, demanding delivery deadlines and the kind of logistical issues that come with operating throughout the festive period.
The increased pressure over this hectic period pushes management teams, employees and business owners to their limit.
One workplace in particular will be subject to particularly intense pressure during the festive period. Santa's workshop, with a workforce of more than 100,000 elves, faces a host of challenges as they look to hit tight deadlines and intensely demanding quotas. A growing population and ever more complex product lines only serve to pile this pressure on further. So how exactly does this incredibly complex production line and logistics operation cope? A new report from Latus Health, inside the grotto , takes a closer look.
Santa's Workshop is arguably the world's largest and most complex production line, with millions of products developed, manufactured and delivered each year. Ignoring the fact that the workshop is located in one of the coldest and most uninhabitable locations on Earth (located at precisely 90° N, 135° W), a manufacturing and logistics firm of this size is already subject to huge issues with the safeguarding of employee wellbeing, not to mention numerous workplace regulations and challenges.
While an operation to the scale of Santa's Grotto is perhaps difficult to comprehend, it is helpful to look at a smaller sample in order to gain perspective. Let's take the UK as an example.
In the UK (as is the case globally), manufacturing is one of the industries with the most workplace injuries and fatalities. While manufacturing accounts for only 10% of the total UK workforce, it accounts for almost 20% of the injuries. There are an average of 31 fatalities per year from manufacturing workplace accidents in the UK. With more than 4,500 cases of major injuries and 19,500 cases of injuries that caused workers to miss three or more days of work, it's clear that businesses in the manufacturing industry should pay particularly close attention to their employee wellbeing programs.
The mental health and wellbeing of employees is another important area to look at. With as many as 1 in 3 employees suffering from some degree of anxiety or mental health issues, the pressure on employers to maintain a healthy workforce is intense. While Santa's Workshop sits in the heart of the happiest place on earth, and is undoubtedly surrounded by many of the joyful trappings of Christmas, these wellbeing perks only go so far. As is the case with any business, without a robust and considerate employee wellbeing program in place, employees are destined to suffer, with the impact being felt by the wider business. Workplaces with poor employee satisfaction and wellbeing are invariably less productive.
While the busiest period of the year for the grotto is in the months leading up to Christmas, year long care and support is vital for maintaining the health of employees. This is the case with any business... Employee wellbeing is not just for Christmas.
The good news is that a report from the CIPD (the professional body for HR and people development) indicates that employee health and wellbeing has been slowly creeping up the corporate agenda over the last few years. Public sector organisations are most proactive on wellbeing, however a reported 16% of SMEs and 7% of large organisations (250-plus employees) are still taking no action whatsoever to protect the wellbeing of their employees.
For any business, protecting the long term health and wellbeing of their employees is essential to any kind of sustainable growth strategy. For an organisation such as Santa's Grotto, with tens of thousands of employees on their books, implementing a robust program that considers workplace safety, employee physical and mental wellbeing and that builds support structures for those most in need should be a priority.
For smaller organisations implementing workplace wellbeing and health programs is not only the ethical (and in many cases, legal) responsibility of the business owners, it can make the difference between a business successfully retaining their best people or losing them to a competitor who does in fact pay more attention to the complex needs of their team.
View more on latus health's report, inside the grotto Calvin Innes
Latus Health
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