Posted 06 Nov 2025
Keep Britain Working
Great idea, but how do we do it?
Written by Jacqui Wallis, CEO at Genius Within
Key Themes From the Keep Britain Working Report
On the whole, I found much in the Keep Britain Working report that surfaced the themes we hear about at Genius Within daily. It doesn’t shy away from admitting the difficulties, and it talks about a shared responsibility between the Government, the employer and the employee. There are some stark facts peppered liberally throughout:
- 1 in 5 people of a working age being out of work right now and trend going in the wrong direction;
- more than 800,000 more people out of work now than in 2019;
- the cost to an employer of £120 per day in profit from sickness;
- the cost to individuals who find themselves excluded from the workplace, being an eye-watering £1m worse off over their lifetime vs being employed.
Whilst some may be surprised at the depth of the challenge that these numbers belie, for those of us who work in this sector, those statistics are our reality. They are woven into the stories from the thousands of individuals and employers that we speak to, every day, through our work at Genius Within.
The Case for Change
What is so right about the report is that the case for change could not be stronger.
There is much to absorb from this review, but one of the strongest points, for me, is the repeated problem of waiting for support. By the time someone asks for support, often they are already in dire need, and their health is likely to already be negatively impacted. It is a fact borne out in research by Birkbeck’s Research Centre for Neurodiversity at Work in both research papers commissioned by Neurodiversity in Business and in the Business Disability Forum’s “Great Big Workplace Adjustment Survey”. It can take an incredibly long time for someone to recover once they are unwell, and as this report outlines, they might never recover and find themselves outside of the workplace long-term. As our founder Dr Nancy Doyle says, “we all lose, when human potential is squandered”.
We believe pathways that offer support quickly, pre-emptively, and easily are the key to turning around poor outcomes for both employers and employees. As the report says, this is a shared responsibility. Individuals can’t do this alone, and certainly many neurodivergent individuals already work hard at accommodating their workplace’s need, which isn’t always reciprocated. It makes sense that there needs to be more balance here. As an organisation led by Occupational Psychologists, you won’t be surprised to know that we understand what is needed, we have done it many times before and we have the proof.
As part of this, we know that Occupational Health has a great role to play and alongside that we believe there needs to be a wider conversation around business-as-usual practices that promote “stay-in-work” and “return-to-work” plans as standard, not by exception. Prevention is better than cure, and equipping managers and teams is central to being able to close the “fear culture” that the report highlights is crucial in creating those healthy workplaces.
Indeed, as the UK’s largest provider of specialist coaching for neurodivergent individuals, we know that coaching is the only adjustment which has been demonstrated to improve performance for Neurodivergent individuals, over time, (both by managers and employees alike), when deployed by qualified, supervised, experienced workplace coaches.
Using that experience and knowledge, we have built our own platform, the Genius Finder Pro® to be able provide on demand instant support with adjustment recommendations matched to every individual’s need, at scale, to any organisation of any size, at any moment.
We hope that the government recognises this report and plays their part in making this happen (guaranteeing investment into programs like, Access to Work, for example, over the suggested timetable of 3 to 7 years) and the building of the Workplace Health Intelligence Unit (WHIU).
Genius Within have applied to be a Vanguard organisation, but we are already delivering thousands of hours of work packages – built to deliver the outcomes outlined in the report. We have been doing it since 2011, and over the last 14 years, thousands of businesses have worked with us on their journey to create healthy and safe working environments.
Practical Steps Organisations Can Make Today
In terms of practical steps businesses might be able to take immediately, these are our top 6 areas of best practice for any organisation, (with a note on which of our services might best help):
- Preparedness – do you have the right policies, processes, pathways in place that allow support to flow easily through your business and find those that need it. (Genius Within support: Consultancy)
- Insight – understand your workforce’s needs – both at an individual level, but collectively at a team, department and corporate level. This allows for the organisations to prepare what will provide the most appropriate support for their workforce to thrive. (Genius Within support: Genius Finder Pro®, Consultancy)
- Make it Safe to Share – overcome fear, uncertainty and doubt of what is “allowed”. Managers are essential to making these recommendations work well, but they are fearful of what they can do, often bourn of a lack of knowledge and difficulties with internal processes that unlock this. Deploy Genius Finder Pro® to a pilot group, (e.g., a business unit or high absence team) to surface common barriers and quick win strategies; brief senior leaders with the aggregated dashboard. (Genius Within support: Manager Training, Manager Coaching, e-Learning, Genius Finder Pro®, e-Learning programs for Manager skills)
- Supportive Structures for early support – Up-skill and support Managers, build easy internal “early help” pathways that both Managers and staff can follow. Create an internal referral route so employees can access Workplace Strategy Coaching within 2 weeks of emerging difficulty; use a light touch Stay-in-Work template or utilise the Action plan from with the Genius Finder Pro® platform. Support skills-based learning through specialist training programs like Manager eLearning supported by live Workshops. (Genius Within support: Coaching, Co-coaching, Consultancy, HR Training, Building toolkits, Genius Finder Pro®)
- Anticipate need – and agree what adjustments are possible in advance –research tells us that the many of the most effective adjustments are free of charge – but waiting for permission to put adjustment in place can be the most damaging aspect of the process. Ensure what is possible is clear and easy to understand and meets your Equality Act duties. (Genius Within support: Coaching, Workplace Needs Assessment, Complex Case review, Coaching, e-Learning, Genius Finder Pro®)
- Analysis – Start a simple dashboard: for example measuring time to first support, % with a Stay-in-Work plan, RTW within 6 weeks, retention at 6/12 months, and manager rated performance change (Genius Within report 61% average improvement after 4 coaching sessions is a useful benchmark). (Genius Within support: Consultancy, Genius Finder Pro® – aggregated company dashboards.)
If you would like any support from Genius Within or want to know more about what we offer, please email me jacqui@geniuswithin.org or contact any of our team on clientservices@geniuswithin.org
