Do you really need to expend efforts on employee wellbeing or is this just another trend that has caught everyone’s eye? If you’ve often been caught in this dilemma, here are some statistics that may help you understand the importance of employee health and wellness.
Recently, a survey conducted revealed that over a quarter of Indian employees are experiencing mental health issues of late. Another similar study showed that employee stress has become a major issue with over 65% of companies citing this as a concern.
In addition to this, statistics show engaged and happy employees are 21% more likely to be productive and companies with a well-oriented workforce are 22% more likely to be profitable.
This is the reason having a workplace wellness strategy is extremely important, and companies across the globe are now pining hard at it. Let’s understand how you can design a robust employee wellness plan for your business.
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Why Should You Create An Employee Wellbeing Strategy?
An employee wellbeing strategy can be looked at as a plan of action to address employee health and wellness and eventually create a happy and holistically positive working environment.
Happier employees equal engaged employees. And as mentioned above, employee engagement is a key factor in increasing workplace productivity and revenues. Hence, it’s crucial for organizations to focus on employee wellbeing.
Furthermore, employee wellness can positively impact other areas of work as well. Happier employees can help bring down turnover costs and build a good brand image.
Creating an employee wellbeing strategy is also important since there’s no one size that can fit all. The wellness goals of one company will differ from another. It is wise to tailor an employee wellbeing plan that is most suited for your organization.
Now you know the why, let’s move on to the what and understand the key factors of workplace wellness and how you can create the best workplace health and wellbeing strategy.
What Are The 5 Pillars Of Workplace Wellbeing?
While designing an employee wellbeing strategy, it is important to understand what exactly makes up workplace wellbeing. Broadly, the 5 pillars are as follows.
1. Mental wellbeing
Post the Covid-19 pandemic, employees have often raised concerns about mental health. A lot of them today suffer from high stress and this impacts their productivity and general state of being.
To ensure that employees can enjoy maximum mental wellbeing at work, companies should work on creating a supportive environment. One of the best ways to do this is via mental health counseling sessions or by devising an employee assistance program.
At Loop, we provide mental health consults at any time of the day/night at zero cost to enable optimum mental wellbeing of members. Click here to know more.
2. Physical wellbeing
Physical and mental wellbeing go hand in hand and one can profoundly impact the other. Further, poor physical health can lead to absenteeism and an increase in downtime.
To avoid this, you can support physical wellbeing at work through a range of interesting wellbeing initiatives.
Some strategies to support physical wellbeing at the workplace include smoking cessation programs, cycle-to-work events, charity marathons, outdoor team outings such as hiking, and more.
3. Financial wellbeing
While one of the key factors to accept a job offer is money, a paycheck alone may not ensure that employees feel financially secure. Employers need to understand how they can facilitate financial wellbeing for their staff optimally.
A good way to do this is by running surveys and conducting market analysis on fair pay. It is essential to offer competitive pay and supplement it with bonus payouts, and lucrative monetary rewards.
You can consider providing financial literacy tools, which can help your workforce enhance their monetary positions. This includes sessions on debt consolidation, prudent spending habits, and more.
4. Social wellbeing
With the growing demands for work from home, we often ignore social wellbeing. It is just as important and must be a pivotal part of every organization’s wellbeing agenda.
To this effect, employers should think about creating an atmosphere of collaboration and knowledge sharing at work. It’s essential to encourage employees to work in teams as opposed to working in silos.
While creating social wellbeing programmes, employers should also include offsite, team lunches, and opportunities that will help team members socialize and connect beyond work.
5. Digital wellbeing
Given the times of today, technology has become an integral part of our lives. While organizations have tech-enabled processes, the focus has never really been on the use of technology with the purpose of easing lives.
That’s why it is important to have the right technology in place and also to train employees on how to use it adequately. Organizations can conduct training sessions to help employees with the benefits of using technology.
This is especially important in the case of remote work settings. Not being able to use technology to one’s advantage can cause stress, and it is therefore essential to factor in digital wellbeing while brainstorming workplace wellbeing strategies.
5 Easy Steps To Design A Workplace Wellbeing Strategy
While the above provides a well-rounded understanding of the importance of employee health and wellbeing, it’s time to think about practical means to design a plan around it.
Here are 5 easy steps that can help you design an effective workplace wellbeing strategy.
1. Create a wellbeing framework
The first step when it comes to chalking out a workplace wellness plan is to deliberate on the goals and objectives that you wish to achieve with it. Think about the tangible results or changes that you want and devise strategies based on that.
In other words, it is essential to create a blueprint of workplace wellness and brainstorm on the various ways you can implement it. Also, think about the challenges and budgetary constraints that you may face and find workarounds for it.
2. Solicit employee feedback and suggestions
With the primary goal being the health and safety of employees, not hearing them out is one of the biggest mistakes in designing a wellness strategy. Organizations need to understand the issues that employees face and what their expectations from employers truly are.
It’s only after knowing where the gaps are that companies can address them. Roll out anonymous survey forms to learn about the challenges that employees face. Further, seek suggestions from your team on how you can support their wellness.
3. Get management approvals and support
A robust wellness plan requires budgets. At the same time, strategies supporting wellbeing may often call for changes at the policy level. So it’s important to run your plans by leadership and get their approval.
Create a detailed report on the benefits of implementing wellness strategies and seek feedback from senior leaders. At this point, also think about making broad announcements at the wider level and have the management onboard.
4. Partner with wellbeing experts
When designing wellbeing strategies, it is helpful to consult with experts at the planning stage. Consult and collaborate with doctors, psychologists, and trusted human resource professionals to understand, evaluate, and implement your plan.
Further, tie up with the right companies for providing health and wellbeing offerings to employees. For instance, get onboard the right health insurance providers and wellbeing experts, who can educate your workforce at regular intervals and help you run your workplace wellness plan smoothly.
5. Conduct regular assessments and analysis
While designing workplace strategies, always remember that what works today may not necessarily work in the long term. That’s why it is important to re-evaluate your strategies and re-invent them as and when necessary.
Conducting regular assessments will give you insights into your employees and if the new wellness initiatives support their goals. Note down their responses and suggestions and conduct qualitative and quantitative analysis to better your workplace strategies.
Learn more about ways to improve employee wellbeing at the workplace.
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