Workplace Change Leads To Poor Health

The extent of workplace change is having a dramatically negative impact on employee health and business performance, but organisations are failing to address the issue.

Figures released by the Chartered Management Institute show that 89 per cent of managers have experienced some form of change in recent months. The impact is being felt across organisations, with 60 per cent reporting an increase in illness rates over the past year, 58 per cent admitting they are unproductive for at least 1 day each week, and only 17 per cent believing that change has increased productivity and profitability.

These figures will come as no surprise to college managers. Funding shortfalls, inspections, a new college principal and responding to new policy initiatives such as Train to Gain can all result in a staff restructuring or college mergers. Add in the additional pressures of corporate and individual targets, poor management training, excessive hours and workplace bullying and it is little wonder that college managers experience high levels of stress and sickness absence.

These problems aren’t new. Colleges have been restructuring and merging ever since incorporation. Indeed, with so much change one might expect the sector to finally enter a period of stability. But if our own members experiences are anything to go by, stability remains a very distant dream.