We have business centres in three of the UK’s top 10 cities for wellbeing

Employee wellbeing should be top of the agenda for enterprise owners and leaders as it can substantially impact your business’s success. Recent research by Business Financed on the UK’s best towns and cities for employee wellbeing has found that three of our centres are located in cities in the top 10: Milton Keynes (ranked 4^th), Chelmsford (ranked 7^th) and Colchester (ranked 9^th) out of 86 surveyed cities. Here’s how these cities score so highly, and why employee wellbeing matters.

Importance of employee wellbeing

Employee wellbeing is inextricably linked to productivity, employee retention and recruitment as happy, healthy employees will be much more motivated and engaged. The proof is in the numbers: according to Business in the Community, The Prince’s Responsible Business Network, those FTSE 100 companies which prioritise employee wellbeing and engagement outperform the rest of the FTSE 100 by 10%.

Measuring employee wellbeing

While wellbeing can be tricky to measure, Business Financed used ONS data to inform the findings, incorporating median salary, average hours worked per week, average commute time, average happiness scores and average life satisfaction scores to rank the 86 towns and cities they surveyed. Here’s how Milton Keynes, Chelmsford and Colchester scored:

Milton Keynes

• Median salary £31,745
• Average hours worked per week 37
• Average commute to work, in minutes 14.05
• Average happiness score (self-rated, out of 10) 7.4
• Average life satisfaction score (self-rated, out of 10) 7.51

Chelmsford

• Median salary £30,512
• Average hours worked per week 35
• Average commute to work, in minutes 23.4
• Average happiness score (self-rated, out of 10) 7.79
• Average life satisfaction score (self-rated, out of 10) 7.55

Colchester

• Median salary £29,978
• Average hours worked per week 36.5
• Average commute to work, in minutes 21.2
• Average happiness score (self-rated, out of 10) 7.56
• Average life satisfaction score (self-rated, out of 10) 7.78

How to boost employee wellbeing in the office

The extent to which an organisation meets employee wellbeing needs is impacted by factors such as work-life-balance, stress management, positive working relationships and financial security. While you may or may not work in one of the cities with high levels of employee wellbeing, there are some measures you can put in place to boost workforce satisfaction in your company.

• Consider adapting your office design with lighting and social zones. Find out more in our insight into office environments.
• Incorporate plants into your office space. This can increase productivity and boost employee health. Find out more from our advice article on harnessing plant power to improve productivity.
• Take precautionary steps to prevent burnout, such as fostering a supportive environment, where employees’ needs and opinions are listened to. We have some tips about preventing burnout.
• Encourage your staff to exercise. You could consider offering your employees a cycle-to-work scheme, or a gym membership as we recommend in our article on benefits packages.
• Give employees flexibility, for example, by offering core working hours.

If you are looking for a flexible, customisable workspace for you and your employees, please get in touch.

Available spaces in Milton Keynes

Available spaces in Chelmsford

Available spaces in Colchester