DJS Research Ltd

Wellbeing and mental health are incredibly important to us at DJS Research and ensuring that our colleagues are working in a supportive and nurturing environment is central to everything to do – and to our employee-owned ethos. That is why this year, as well as our annual MyDJS engagement survey, we have set about checking in on our employee partners more specifically around wellbeing. 

The Market Research Society itself has done a lot of work around wellbeing in recent years, including conducting a survey with Opinium to understand more about mental wellbeing in the sector. Towards the end of last year, more than 50 market research professionals gathered to hear the results of the 2022 Mental Wellbeing in Research survey and talk about ways to improve wellbeing across the industry.

The survey, which polled 706 market research and insight professionals, highlighted that while there have been small improvements in mental health within the industry with fewer researchers experiencing poor mental health and stress compared to in 2021 (83% versus 87%), there is still work to do. 

Just 19% of the researchers who had experienced mental health issues said they had taken time off specifically look after their wellbeing, with 'having too much work to do’ (52%), revealed as the greatest barrier to doing so.

The survey also found that people working in market research were more reluctant to take time off from work for their wellbeing than in other UK industries. While the proportion of market researchers who experienced poor mental health and went on to take time off work to rest has increased marginally since 2021 (19% up from 18%), it is still greatly lower than the national average (41%). 

When looking at reasons why market researchers are hesitant to take time off work for their mental health, the top reason cited was 'believing it wasn't bad enough to take a day off work' (60%).

Introducing our first DJS Wellbeing Survey

On a mission to improve wellbeing within our own market research company, our inaugural DJS Wellbeing Survey sought to understand more about what personal and workplace wellbeing means to our partners, as well as how they currently perceive their personal and workplace wellbeing. It also offered the opportunity to gauge which DJS Research wellbeing initiatives are working well in the eyes of our partners, as well as the areas which can be improved on – and some suggestions of how!

The results revealed that 97% of colleagues polled believe that workplace wellbeing is important, with 88% of our DJS team agreeing that DJS is dedicated to employee wellbeing and 70% agreeing that we provide useful support which aids wellbeing at work.

At DJS Research we currently have mental health first aiders who regularly check in and remind us that they are there to support us with any difficulties, information sheets that are shared with partners and cover a range of wellness topics, as well as regular yoga sessions, guest speakers (our most recent being on stress management), an extended lunch for 'Wellness Wednesday', and regular coffee and cake days at the office. We have also introduced an early finish on a Friday (wherever possible) to help us ease into the weekend…

The survey has given us some great ideas for exploring future wellbeing initiatives and for looking at how we can improve the day-to-day for our company partners. It’s good to know also, that there are already many areas in which we’re getting wellness support right and our partners recognise our efforts in this area.

Listening to our employees and valuing their opinions has always been important to DJS Research, and since becoming employee-owned in 2021 on our 20^th anniversary, we have introduced even more ways of hearing their voices. As well as our annual MyDJS survey (which has recently been completed for 2023), our Employee Voice panel allows all employees to have a say in how we do things, share feedback and ideas, and help shape the future direction of the company.

For more insight into what it’s like to work for our supportive, employee-owned company  take a look here: ‘What it’s really like to work at DJS Research’ to see how we roll…