Cost-of-living pressures negatively impacting employee wellbeing

ELMO’s latest Employee Sentiment Index found that as the price of everyday living increases, Australian workers are becoming more anxious, particularly younger employees of which 82 per cent said they are feeling the most negative.

The Employee Sentiment Index provides a quarterly update of sentiment among more than 1,000 geographically dispersed Australian workers about their attitudes, actions and concerns in the workplace over the past three months, in addition to their plans and expectations for the future. 

The research also revealed that more employees perceive the Australian economy as not secure, and almost half of employees (45 per cent) are struggling to meet basic living costs. 

This uncertainty may be causing the great resignation to dissipate in Australia, with the research uncovering fewer employees are considering a career change or actively seeking a new role.

Australian workers are finding petrol, housing and groceries to be top three hardest things to afford in Q2 2022 and said if they were to cut costs, they would do so by reducing spending on clothing (27 per cent).

On average Australian workers put in 32.8 hours a week during the second quarter of 2022 – down by 0.3h or 18 minutes every week since Q1 22 (Q1 2022 33.1h). Just under two-thirds (65 per cent) of Australian workers undertook up to 38 hours per week, while just over a third (34 per cent) are working between 38 and 60 hours a week.

Fortunately, seven out of 10 (70 per cent) Australian employees believe they are working enough hours. However, a fifth (19 per cent) said they aren’t working enough, and 11 per cent are working too many. Employees in NSW/ACT and Queensland are the most likely to feel as though they are working enough hours.

With the arrival of winter and the cold and flu season the report found that those who have taken a sick day both legitimate and not, and those who have arrived at work feeling unwell have all increased with the most noticeable increase being in those who have taken a legitimate sick day (Q2 2022 37 per cent, Q1 2022 30 per cent, 7 percentage points increase).

This is close to a 10 per cent relative increase (9 per cent) on last year’s Q2 figure of 34 per cent that may be due to lockdowns and restrictions in some states at this time last year. Unfortunately, over two out of five employees in Gen Z (42 per cent) and a third of Millennials (32 per cent) are still arriving at work feeling unwell. This is much higher than the older generations (Gen X, 22 per cent; Baby Boomers, 13 per cent).