The Women and Work APPG is proud to announce that in 2020 our theme will be women’s wellbeing in the workplace. Traditionally, wellbeing in the workplace has been concerned with the physical and psychological health of employees.
However, throughout our work, we’ve heard how multi-faceted wellbeing is as a concept and how its different elements often overlap and intersect. However, we see that too often wellbeing policies are reactive rather than proactive. They are designed once a problem has been identified, rather than embedded in the work culture to prevent the issue from arising in the first place. We know that issues such as mental health have climbed the political agenda and are increasingly on employer’s radars, yet best practice and guidance is not widely shared. We recognise that factors affecting wellbeing can stem from work but can also originate from outside work. Despite this, these factors can impact one another and affect an employee’s wellbeing, performance and productivity at work. We hope to make the argument that wellbeing is an issue that employers must take seriously in order to support all employees. Ultimately, such an approach will help improve the recruitment and retention of employees, ensuring that all women feel supported in the workplace.
The group will hold a series of meetings examining themes such as financial security, culture and leadership and menstrual wellbeing. Each meeting will seek to examine best practice on how employers can design and implement wellbeing policies. This will culminate in a report and toolkit with recommendations for employers, Government and women themselves.
If you would like to receive more information about the work of the APPG and the 2020 programme, please register your interest by emailing womenandworkappg@connectpa.co.uk.
Follow us on Twitter @womenworkappg for regular updates, including details of upcoming meetings.