Brexit, 'Karoshi' and burnout - why a culture of wellness has never been more important.

1. 17 February 2017
Once a week insights, features and interviews for
HR professionals in hospitality
bites
Brexit, 'Karoshi' and burn out...
- why a culture of wellness has never been more important

2. Brexit, 'Karoshi' and burn out...
We wish we could tell you that it’s something on the menu at
Wagamama, a form of spiritual enlightment or perhaps a new
chain of ‘Yo! California Roll to Go!’ type sushi bars but it’s not...
It translates to ‘death by overwork’, and it could be one of the
first knocks on our door post-Brexit as the UK notches things
up a little on the productivity front in response to our high
performance international competitors.
The working week in Japan is 40 hours (doesn’t seem so bad)
– however a recent government report revealed that
employees in one in four companies are racking up more than
80 hours of overtime a month.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
HR & HOSPITALITY
BITES
“ I wish I could tell you
that it’s something on
the menu at
Wagamama, a form of
spiritual enlightment
or perhaps a new
chain of ‘Yo! California
Roll to Go’ type sushi
bars but it’s not. "
HEALTH & WELLBEING
01
While you’ve been scrolling through
your feeds this week, you may have
stumbled upon the news that us
Brits may be about to sample a
phenomenon winging its way over
from Japan - 'Karoshi'.
- why a culture of wellness has never been more important

3. This is a working culture where the term ‘work/life
balance’ doesn’t even exist, a culture which has
developed over the course of the last 40 years, beginning
in the 1970s where wages were relatively low and people
worked harder and longer to maximise their earnings.
And of course it became far too difficult to change the
working culture of the world’s second-largest economy
in the 1980s, so it continued, way after the bubble burst
in the 1990s where people worked longer and harder just
to keep their jobs.
This is a working
culture where the
term ‘work/life
balance’ doesn’t
even exist...
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HEALTH & WELLBEING
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A culture which is only starting to change now with the Japanese government announcing last
month that it will impose a cap on overtime of 100 hours a month to reduce the number of cases of
‘karoshi’, which research has put at 1456 per year (in the 12 month period that ended in March
2015). In the year that ended March 31, the health ministry identified 93 suicides and attempted
suicides as being caused by overwork. Police statistics, however, claim there were 2,159 suicides
that could be attributed to problems related to work.
The Japanese government has also
introduced the ‘Premium Friday’ policy,
which calls on employers to let their staff
finish up at 3pm on a Friday, start the
weekend early and experience a new
phenomenon for them – a work/life balance.

4. Research into the effects of long working hours by The
Lancet last year revealed that it’s not necessarily the
length of the working week that leads to heart attacks
and strokes, it’s the stress associated with sitting for long
hours at a desk; the physical inactivity and also factors
such as increased alcohol consumption used to counter
the increased stress.
We know the importance of work/life balance, stress
management and wellbeing in the workplace, but how
easy is it going to be to champion these types of
initiatives.
Our industry is about to go through perhaps one of the
most challenging periods of its time and the pressure to
increase productivity and performance is high.
HEALTH & WELLBEINGHR & HOSPITALITY
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Hospitality businesses are starting to weather the
perfect storm of challenges; the introduction of the
Apprenticeship Levy, the rise in the National Living
Wage, increases in the cost of food and drink as a direct
result of the fall in the value of the pound, rising
statutory employer pension contributions, the costs to
small businesses of Auto Enrolment coming this
October and of course the issue of staffing our industry
with skilled and talented people.

5. HEALTH & WELLBEING
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1. Social media at work
No more staring at a blank Outlook message
wondering how you can phrase ‘Can you please
just send me the info right now?’ in a slightly less
demanding way and proceeding to rattle off the
usual email niceties… We’re talking speed,
brevity and no more ‘Hope you had a lovely
weekend’… Quick and easy exchanges, saving
time, cutting down in email overload. Why
wouldn't you?
2. Social media at work
2. In an Instant
The potential changes to the free movement of people as a result of our exit from the EU will directly
affect our sector’s ability to attract, employ and retain overseas staff, both seasonal and permanent.
Just to put another layer of doom on the Brexit cake, our domestic market is also feeling the pinch due
to rising inflation and modest real terms wage growth, so reduced consumer spending will also hit our
industry hard.
Well, what you offer through your employee benefits
programme in terms of health and wellbeing initiatives
is going to be important obviously but the way you
champion and communicate these programmes is
ultimately what’s going to create a culture of wellness.
The link between improved health and wellbeing and
increased productivity is clear however last year’s
Financial Times Health at Work survey revealed that
79% of services and facilities offered by companies to
improve employee health have a low awareness rate.
Looking at the pretty grey backdrop of rising costs and productivity
pressures, our industry is operating against, how do we ensure that we look
after our biggest asset – our people?

6. HEALTH & WELLBEING
You can find out a lot about a company’s culture by the way they run their internal comms. Does
the way you communicate as an organisation really embody your core values? ‘Open-ness’, or
words of that ilk will always be somewhere in a company’s core values but how easy is it for your
people to talk to the ‘big people’? How available, visible and approachable are your CEO,
Managing Directors, Senior Managers in the eyes of your teams? Does that open-ness really
exist in your organisation or does it just sound good? And it’s not just about being open.
Remember that people nowadays are more interested in working for a company that has a
positive impact on the world than they used to be and shares that ehtos internally. The moral code
of the Millenials is as high up there on the list as salary and rewards..
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2. In an Instant
4. Spread the love
So, how do you ensure that your efforts hit the mark, and you deliver a health and
wellbeing programme that truly makes a difference:
1. Do your research
How do you know what initiatives to introduce if you don’t have evidence of the need for
them?
2. Data
Sickness absence data, online health assessment tools, employee health checks,
questionnaires - these will help you to identify health and wellbeing weak points within your
company and the areas for focus.
3. Be SMART
Have clearly defined goals which show what success looks like, based on your data.
4. Measurement
How do you know it works if you don’t measure it? Clear metrics are crucial to give an
accurate picture of how your health and wellbeing initiative is going down…
5. Preaching to the unconverted
It’s pretty easy to get healthy, fit people on board in your wellness initiative – it’s part of their
lifestyle anyway but the real challenge is in getting your unhealthier workers to make the
lifestyle changes (at home and at work) that they need to get the most out of your
programmes. Focused support for specific groups of employees is going to be important.
Talk to them and find out what’s going to motivate them.
6. Be the change
The most successful wellbeing programmes are the ones that have involvement, participation
and endorsement from all levels of management. The culture of any organisation starts from
the top.
7. Financial education
According to research by Nudge last month, 60% of respondents believe that employees who
suffer from stress due to financial concerns will drive demand for financial education in 2017.
Almost two thirds (63%) of employer respondents think that the impact of Brexit on the UK
economy will drive demand for financial education in the workplace.

7. HEALTH & WELLBEING
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2. In an Instant
4. Spread the love
The success of any programme is in the way its communicated of course. Use all the
tools available to you to strengthen your culture of wellbeing, from your company values
to your intranet, Enterprise Social Network (and all the other internal comms tools we
talked about last week) to embed a positive, healthy culture within your organisation. And
talking is good. Your employees will be as concerned about their own health and
wellbeing as you are. They may however be just too 'head down' to do anything about it,
don't have the time, can't weave it into their daily working lives which is where you, as an
employer come in.
Numerous studies, including from Forbes and the Harvard Business Review have
concluded that happy employees are around a third more creative and productive than
unhappy employees. Wellness = increased productivity - that's the way forward for our
workplace culture and the only sustainable way to protect our industry from the
challenges that lies ahead (and eliminating the risk of Karoshi ever creeping in to our
workplace culture).

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4. Spread the love
DAM is delighted to be supporting the Caterer
HR Forum 2017 taking place in London this
April, a must attend for all HR professionals.
Topics will explore how to get your workforce
ready for the challenges of Brexit, making
the most of the apprenticeship levy,
aligning customer and employee
engagement and the conference will also
explore the tools of retention that will help
you attract and keep the best talent.
We'll also be celebrating the Best Places to
Work companies in hospitality 2017.www.hrforum.com