Top 5 things businesses can do to encourage employee wellness

By: 

Support

   December 27, 2021
Top 5 things businesses can do to encourage employee wellness - 12 - Corporate Employee Health & Wellness Blog

"Leadership is the ability to facilitate movement in the needed direction and have people feel good about it." - Tom Smith (Bestselling Author and Co-Founder, Partners In Leadership) Stress is that evil word that can get between an employee and their best work. Even your top employees are likely struggling with some sort of stress in their lives. While some work pressures are unavoidable, continuous unhappiness, dissatisfaction, and disengagement take a toll on employees’ productivity and efficiency. According to WHO, depression and anxiety disorders cost the global economy approximately US$ 1 trillion per year in lost productivity. Employee wellness programs are designed to encourage and support a comprehensive approach to employee wellness by fostering a healthy workplace culture. A workplace culture sets the tone for its employees. A supportive work environment, where managers reinforce a sound wellness strategy, can keep employees motivated and engaged. Some benefits of employee wellness are: it attracts talented workers, reduces absenteeism significantly, enhances decision-making and productivity of employees, improves employee morale and there is a significant reduction in turnover. Below mentioned are the 4 things that businesses can do to encourage employee wellness: - 1. Have a robust wellbeing plan for your organization- Simply saying "we need an employee wellbeing strategy" and mindlessly creating it won't end well. Instead, consider reasons why you’re looking to implement a workplace wellbeing strategy, what your employees want and need from such a strategy, what gaps and opportunities for improvement exist if you already have a workplace wellbeing strategy or use some wellbeing support tools, so on and so forth. 2. Leadership involvement- A successful health promotion program starts with a commitment from company leaders, and its continued success depends on ongoing support at all levels of the organization. Leaders at companies with successful programs establish a healthy work environment by integrating health into the organization’s overall vision and purpose. 3. Communication- Boosting engagement in wellness can only be achieved when workers own the program, understand how they and the company benefit, and are given a meaningful voice in its ongoing operation. Conduct regular surveys or focus groups to determine which aspects of health and wellness are important to employees, and which initiatives are not a good use of time. 4. Minimize Mental Health Stigma-When your company creates a workplace that values and promotes mental health services, it can encourage employees to get the help they need. Few initiatives that can help detach the stigma around mental health are; - update and distribute mental health resources, host monthly/weekly counselling sessions and talk about mental health openly in the workplace. 5. Incentivize active participation- There is strong evidence that proper incentives drive participation rates, keep employees engaged and motivated to begin efforts to achieve self-determined health goals. The main goal of providing incentives and wellness programs to employees is that it will help employees adopt and maintain healthy behaviours. Employee wellness programs are powerful tools that can bring a difference in the physical and mental spheres of employees and their ability to contribute to the organization. The organizations must understand what elements are necessary for the long-term success of a wellness program and how to carry out the activities to achieve the desired target. As Anne M Mulchay (former chairman & CEO, Xerox Corporation) says, “Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee is more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.” To know more about things businesses can do to encourage employee wellness offered by Wellness Associates, click on the link below:

Latest