Blue Monday – a hoax? Not for London businesses

The third Monday of the new year is supposedly when the debt, weather and lack of New Year resolution finally hits us, causing mass depression. Apparently there is no science behind this, created as the promotional ploy of a travel company wanting us to plan our summer holidays. Mass depression or not, it is true that 52% of us are looking for a new job come January.

There are several reasons why we choose January to look for new employment, a fresh start being one.  Whatever the reason it seems important from an employer perspective that you are mitigating employee losses as far as possible. The culture of an organisation plays a big role in the job hunting decisions of your employees.

If an employee has job satisfaction they are far less likely to respond to a cold call about a ‘great opportunity’. And job satisfaction is more important than pay. Business Healthy has already reported on this. A brief review is that in London 66% of us are considering moving jobs, and so employee churn is a real issue.

We often make new years resolutions to change our personal behaviour for the better, but it is less likely that those in leadership positions think to make changes to their work behaviour. Lack of managerial support was a key reason for workplace stress and it is no surprise that NICE workplace health guidelines raised the issue that not everyone is cut out to be a manager.

But do you need leadership buy in to create culture change? We will be exploring this issue at Business Healthy, but to get you started the Good Day at Work blog have a interesting debate between opposing experts.

One thing you can do is ensure that you keep your employees happy on Monday 18th. Blue Monday have a few ideas…