Health and wellbeing programmes need to be the priority for HR say half of managers and senior leaders

London, United Kingdom, 23rd November: Cezanne HR, the leading UK-headquartered supplier of modern, easy-to-adapt HR software for mid-sized and growing businesses, has conducted an exclusive survey to discover what effects a recession may have on UK and Irish businesses.

Senior leaders and managers say HR needs to prioritise health and wellbeing programmes during times of financial crisis

With the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and looming recession hitting everyone’s finances, Cezanne HR’s survey – conducted in November this year – discovered that nearly 50% of managers believe HR teams should prioritise health and wellbeing programmes to support staff. Improving employee communications, preventing excess levels of staff turnover and upskilling the workforce were also stated as being important priorities for HR during a recession.

In addition, Cezanne HR’s survey also discovered that:

Nearly 90% of senior business leaders believe their businesses are or will be negatively impacted by the current economic situation. Over 55% say this is already the case.
Over 70% of managers say their staff are worried about how the recession will affect their jobs, with 60% concerned about redundancy
Nearly two-thirds of UK and Irish businesses have already or will freeze or reduce recruitment efforts due to the volatile economy
80% of managers are worried a recession will drive rates of excessive staff turnover, with job insecurity cited by over a third as the reason
77% of managers say supporting employee morale is their top priority in a recession.

Paul Bauer, Cezanne HR’s Head of Content commented: “The worsening economic situation and cost-of-living crisis has sent shockwaves through our society. With businesses having to take tough decisions, energy and food prices surging and job insecurity, many people are finding times incredibly stressful and worrying.”

“It’s comforting then that our survey found managers saying that during a recession, their HR teams should prioritise employee health and wellbeing- they really are putting their employees first.”

What can HR do to help their employees in this time of crisis?

With what HR can do to successfully support their employee’s health and wellbeing, Paul said that “HR teams need to ensure they have a sound framework in place to support people’s physical and mental health. This can include providing sources of professional help, such as counselling, to more formal benefits, such as an employee assistance programme.”
 
You can discover the full rundown of the results and what they mean for HR here.

About Cezanne HR

Cezanne HR is a UK HR software leader for mid-sized and growing UK and international organisations. They provide a modern, secure Cloud HR system that lets companies quickly and effectively digitise, streamline and improve human resources management.