Business Info - i142

businessinfomag.uk magazine 10 David Gould Craig Bulow WELLBEING UK businesses are embracing the wild to counter rising stress levels among younger workers, claims workforce performance company CRWorldwide in a new report, CorporateWellness 2.0 . Its analysis of data from over 287,000 users of reward, recognition and incentive programmes at 120 large enterprises shows that in the last 12 months UK businesses have increased their spending on corporate getaways by 22% to an average of £3,100 per person per trip. This includes a doubling of expenditure on wildlife trips, to the point where 56% of UK business breaks now include a nature-based activity of some sort, from shark diving to orangutan treks in Borneo. Because of its perceived benefit to mental health, many of these trips include an element of human-animal interaction, such as working with endangered rhinos in Rwanda or husky sledging, which has become one of the top five Christmas corporate travel activities. The call of the wild Even though UK firms have increased their average spend on employee rewards by 44% in the last year and by 100% in the last three years, most employee rewards are much more modest, with an extra day off work being the most common incentive worldwide. Other trends identified in the report include: n growing demand for health-based or experiential rewards, with wearable fitness monitors and an ‘afternoon tea for two’ among last year’s top 10 most widely chosen UK employee rewards; and n greater harvesting of employee data to create more personalised HR policies and programmes, with more than one third (38%) of enterprises now using automated real-time systems to track and reward employee performance. Commenting on the findings, CR Worldwide CEO David Gould said: “Employers have been investing in gyms or chill-out spaces in the workplace for a few years now, but new data shows that corporations are increasingly investing in employee wellbeing outside the workplace by offering rewards, from extra time off to company-sponsored jungle treks.” He added: “This reinforces recent evidence of the widening scope of so-called ‘corporate wellness’ initiatives from employee counselling services to international retreats. The main drivers include a growing need to recruit a younger workforce that believes companies should care about their overall wellbeing, as well as the pressure to counter rising workplace stress, which has an impact on productivity.” Businesses are going back to nature to improve staff wellbeing, reveals a new report Prioritising wellbeing Reflecting the trends highlighted in CRWorldwide’s report (see above), Corporate Away Days is a new company that prioritises employee wellbeing ahead of traditional goals such as team building. Launched by Craig Bulow, it organises events and incentives that promote wellbeing through social activities that are fun, engaging and often involve clean air and gentle exercise, such as a day trip to the world’s oldest Oyster Farm, dance lessons or living like a Tudor for the Day. Corporate Away Days also provides wellbeing and mindfulness training and can help businesses design corporate wellbeing policies. www.corporate-away-days.co.uk Key facts n UK firms spent £6,849,595 on employee rewards last year, up from £3,629,473 in 2016-17. n UK spend on employee travel incentives increased by 22% to an average of £3,100 per person per trip. n Last year saw a 33% increase in companies offering long-haul exotic trips to destinations including Borneo, Mexico and the Caribbean. n 56% of UK travel included nature-based activities in 2019, compared with just 15% in 2018. n UK companies spent £273 per head on incentives for sales staff in the past year. www.crworldwide.com A change of scene A related trend in corporate travel is the ‘worktation’, where whole teams decamp to a foreign city to work. The change of scene is claimed to boost productivity and inspire team members to work more creatively. Go Vilnius, the official development agency of the Lithuanian capital, has been promoting Vilnius as a worktation destination on the basis that what businesses are looking for today are not sunny beaches but a progressive business environment and a healthy work-life balance. In September, it invited the winners of the 2019Workation Vilnius programme – British Airways, Siemens and Monese – to spend a week-long worktation in the city. Michael Sinniger of Siemens Schweiz AG, Smart Infrastructure, hoped the experience would help his team to create added value for customers. He said: “We are a cross-functional team responsible for the global Go-to-Market of our Cloud offerings, which requires a high level of agile collaboration. Thanks to the week in Vilnius, we believe that we can achieve great deliverables and refresh our mindset.” www.workationvilnius.com Refreshed: BT team members enjoying a Vilnius worktation in 2018