Pandemic fuels improvement in wellbeing for Dutch workers in all sectors

ABN AMRO’s first wellbeing monitor also reveals that almost every sector of the economy scores low on workplace equality, and that employees rate personal factors such as the work-life balance more importantly than safety and climate for their wellbeing.

Work-life balance most important factor for wellbeing for more than half of all employees

The wellbeing of employees has improved significantly across all sectors of the economy. Having risen only slightly between 2015 and 2020, worker wellbeing shot up last year (+12 percent), in a remarkable increase that seems at odds with the economic recession that hit the Netherlands. This is one of the findings from ABN AMRO’s first ever Sectoral Wellbeing Monitor. The bank investigated the wellbeing of Dutch workers in 17 sectors using 88 variables and seven categories: work-life balance, health, personal development, economy,workplace equality, safety and climate. All the variables come together in a composite index that shows the wellbeing of the workforce in a particular sector. According to the study, the chief reason for the improved wellbeing was a better work-life balance. Large swathes of the population working from home was likely a key contributing factor: parents had their children nearby, it was easier for workers to exercise during their lunchbreaks and less travelling meant more time for other activities. ABN AMRO’s further conclusions include that both workplace conflicts and burnout symptoms were down compared with previous years: according to a related survey that ABN AMRO conducted among more than 2,000 workers, for example, having greater possibilities to take leave is very important to employees.

Intimidation and bullying down; workplace inequality up

The pandemic exposed some problem areas in various sectors. In some lines of business, for example, employees felt safer than before the pandemic, including in the construction sector – although work carried on as normal, the strict Covid-19 rules that were imposed at construction sites helped to reduce the likelihood of accidents. With people working from home, businesses also saw a sharp decline in bullying, intimidation and sexual harassment. This was particularly apparent in the healthcare sector, where the proportion of workers who were intimidated by patients and other visitors (32 percent) is usually higher: the same figure for 2019 was 42 percent. Most sectors still score poorly in the category ‘workplace equality’, however. Many still suffer from a gender pay gap – different hourly wages for male and female workers in the same sector. Similarly, employees with high levels of education have more opportunities for further training than employees educated at lower levels: in the latter group, three out of ten workers followed a job-related course or study in recent years, while the corresponding figure among more highly educated workers was almost six out of ten.

Bring about change by appealing to the issues closest to workers

For most employees, tangible issues that are close to their own lives – such as work-lifebalance, health and personal development – are more important than abstract concepts such as safety, economy and climate. “As long as their own lives remain unaffected, people aren’t aware of larger social issues,” explains Franka Rolvink Couzy, Head of Sector Research at ABN AMRO. “For many workers, for instance, what’s most important is to be able to properly balance their work and their private lives. Employers need to draw lessons from the positive effects of the pandemic: worker wellbeing has improved hugely in various areas. With the economy opening up again, employers now need to decide which of these positives to retain to structurally improve their people’s wellbeing in the long term.”