is research accelerates our efforts to support the wellbeing of the guests, employees and the communities we serve.” The findings revealed Greater China recorded the highest regional Wellbeing Index of 79 compared to the global average of 65, with 62 per cent of its citizens feeling well across all three dimensions, mentally, socially and physically. In contrast, fewer than 1 in 10 employees in Japan believe that they experience a positive work/life balance.  The report was conducted between November and December last year across 10 countries including Australia, China, Singapore, South Korea and others.  McDonald said at Lululemon, one of the guiding principles the company established to navigate Covid-19 was to support its people, which included providing its employees with physical, mental, and social programs. The company has offered more than 1,100 online wellbeing and development courses to employees since the onset of the pandemic and rolled out Mental Health First Aid training to equip leaders with skills needed to support employees. According to associate professor Jana Bowden, retail leaders must make their employees’ mental health and wellbeing a priority. “Retailers need to equip themselves with the skills to be able to support their employees so that their staff cannot only survive, but thrive,” she said. “Reaching out to employees regularly, anticipating shifts in their needs, tailoring programs to support staff as we progress through the pandemic and beyond is vital.” Bowden said these seemingly small positive initiatives can go a long way to preventing staff from leaving the workforce – and retention has a positive effect on the bottom line. “Being proactive about supporting employee health and wellbeing is low hanging fruit – getting it right is easy and it pays dividends,” she said.  Bowden added that recent research has shown that four in 10 retailers lost staff because of a failure to properly support them, from frontline staff to management. “Covid has exacerbated this trend with over 66 per cent of workers in retail reporting mental health conditions in 2020 alone,” she said. How Uniqlo put its people first during Covid Fast Retailing, parent company of Uniqlo, has also made the safety and security of their employees a top priority since Covid. “During the temporary closure of our stores at the height of the pandemic, we ensured store staff were compensated fairly and in line with government recommendations,” Fast Retailing founder and CEO Tadashi Yanai told Inside Retail. “We put in place virtual training to keep store staff engaged during the downtime. Constant communication was maintained to ensure staff are kept up to date on the evolving situation and guidelines, and to check on their physical and emotional wellness. Additionally, support was given to overseas staff who had to urgently secure accommodation locally, or staff who had to urgently secure approval and flights to return home.” Yanai added that open communication and transparency help to create an environment that allows staff to feel more involved and engaged within the business. “As a global retailer, we are in a unique position to use our business to change lives as we remain focused on growth and development in unity with the society and community that we operate in,” he said. “We recognise the importance of investing in our employees, and empowering them to be part of the decision-making process with our Global One and Zen-in Keiei (which means ‘everyone is a manager’) management principles.”