Feature
A
lmost half of event industry
professionals believe that,
over the past 12 months, their
employers have taken a more
active role in trying to improve
wellbeing compared with two
years ago.
This is just one of the recent
key findings from a biennial study
carried out by event industry
wellbeing organisation, Stress
Matters.
Some 55% of respondents to
the 2019 Stress Matters Report
say that company culture now
supports employee wellbeing.
While 75% of event professionals
believe their managers care more
about their mental health.
Although these statistics
represent a significant
improvement on 2017’s findings,
they also suggest that almost half
of companies still don’t support a
culture of wellbeing. There’s a real
danger that many organisations
are simply paying lip-service to
caring about their employees’
stress levels but not actively
making a change.
Laura Capell-Abra, founder
of Stress Matters, said: “We are
really encouraged to see such huge
progress in the events industry in
terms of looking after our teams,
however we still have a long way
to go. Many wellbeing initiatives
are not being approached
strategically and whilst we
support that doing something
is better than doing nothing, we
need to approach wellbeing like
we would any business strategy,
with measurable goals and a clear
plan.”
The 2019 Stress Matters
Feeling
overwhelmed?
Improvements in workplace wellbeing can’t
disguise the fact that more needs to happen to
protect the mental health of event professionals
Report encourages the creation
of a sharing culture at work to
encourage people to talk about
stress and mental health.
Some 88% of respondents find
that talking about stress really
helps but 28% admit that they
wouldn’t speak to their employer
about feeling overwhelmed as
they don’t believe it would lead to
any positive outcomes.
Part of the causes of stress
within the events industry is
lack of training, with a third of
respondents saying they’d never
had any training to carry out their
roles and half of those who said
they had, also said they needed
more.
In fact, only 7 percent of
survey respondents felt they were
provided with enough relevant
training.
Successful workplace wellbeing
programmes include free gym
membership, daily fruit, yoga
classes or health insurance. Those
companies who provide these
things are more likely to attract
and retain talent.
The 2019 Stress Matters
Report interviewed 430 event
professionals across all ages,
genders, job levels and parts of
the industry. It found that event
professionals work 25, 809 hours
longer than the average person
over an average working life-
span and if people are working
in a culture which doesn’t clearly
support mental health, they are
far more likely to turn up for work
when they are not well enough to
do so.
Being present but unwell
ultimately leads to poor
performance and an increased
likelihood of making mistakes,
which, in a high stakes industry
such as events, can cost a lot
of money. It can also make
symptoms worse in the long-run.
EN
Key findings
from the 2019
Stress Matters
Report
• 71% of
#eventprofs
believe their
colleagues
are suffering
from stress
• 28% have
taken time
off work due
to a mental
health illness,
60% of these
are under 35
years old
• 50% of
company
cultures
now support
employee
wellbeing
• 67% believe
a company's
pro-active
stress
management
approach will
impact their
future job
choices
• 31% of
respondents
believe that a
blame culture
is causing
them stress at
work
• 28% won’t
speak to
colleagues
or employers
about when
they are
feeling
overwhelmed
as they don’t
believe they
would help
October — 17