Employees of smaller companies report the highest health scores, survey shows

The Globe and Mail and Morneau Shepell have created the Employee Recommended Workplace Award to honour companies that put the health and well-being of their employees first. Read about the 2018 winners of the award at tgam.ca/workplaceaward.

Register now! The Deadline to register for the 2019 Employee Recommended Workplace Award is midnight Nov. 22. Register at www.employeerecommended.com. Get feedback from your staff and get recognized for your excellence in health and wellness.

Small companies report better overall health, mental health and workplace health scores than mid-size and larger companies, a report based on the 2017 Employee Recommended Workplace Award shows.

Employees at small companies, with 25 to 99 employees, also report the greatest amount of leadership trust and have higher scores for respect in the workplace.

Employees at large companies, those with more than 500 employees, report that they are doing well in their personal life and also report slightly better scores for their physical health than employees at small or mid-sized companies – those with between 100-499 employees.

The Employee Recommended Workplace Award (employeerecommended.com) helps companies measure how well their staff are doing in four key pillars: their work life, their personal life, their mental health and their physical health. Companies get a score for each pillar and also get an overall score for the total health of their employees, which includes all four pillars.

Morneau Shepell and The Globe and Mail, co-creators of the Employee Recommended Workplace Award, compile the data from all the companies that participate in the Award each year into a benchmark report to help companies see how they stack up to others of similar size when it comes to the health and well-being of their employees.

Each employee who takes the survey gets a score that shows how well they are doing on those four pillars and over all, and indicates areas of concern that could be negatively or positively affecting their health and well-being. It also gives them online resources to turn to in order to make positive changes.

Companies who take part in the award also get a report that aggregates the scores of their employees who took the survey and lets them know areas of strength and areas that need improvement, including which programs are having the best impact.

The survey found that the most commonly reported medical conditions by employees are anxiety and joint or muscle pain.

The report also found that companies, regardless of size, that offer flexible work hours have much higher scores relating to trust. Mid-sized companies that let managers give employees work flexibility have higher work, trust and management effectiveness scores.

Small companies that provide mental health training for managers have much better scores from employees on questions related to depression.

The survey also found that employees who have more healthy behaviours, such as eating healthy food and exercising, have much better health, engagement and productivity scores.

The survey shows that mid-sized companies report the lowest scores for staff recommending them as a place to work, and also have more absenteeism.

The full report is available for purchase on The Globe’s Data Store at this link.