A Holistic Approach to Employee Wellbeing
Employee wellbeing is more than just physical (a description of the different wellbeing factors that organisations should consider. A healthy and engaged workforce is key to improved corporate performance – and recognition of this is seeing employee wellness rise rapidly up the business agenda.
Here are five keys steps to developing holistic employee wellbeing programmes:
1. Establish a clear strategy
Businesses should have a clear strategy that sets out the objectives of wellbeing initiatives and aligns them to corporate business goals.
A company may want to influence and control absence or benefit costs, for example, improve employee engagement or improve productivity. Existing health-related business data may highlight where health risks lie and help to steer the strategy for addressing them.
2. Foster a culture of health
A culture of health, wellbeing and open engagement with employees should be embedded within the company.
A supportive workplace environment should be underpinned with effective two-way communication with employees to drive change. This involves listening to staff to discover their health concerns and the barriers they face to leading healthier lives. Regular employee-centric communications around wellbeing issues should be established, using tools such as social media to increase engagement.
3. Recognise and support mental ill health
A sympathetic environment should be established that enables issues to be identified and tackled before they develop. Empathy training can help foster a greater understanding of how to interact with colleagues in a sensitive manner to promote mutual understanding. Training might also include guidance for management on how to identify when employees are struggling, how to recognise early signs of stress, changes in behaviour or performance, the links between minor illnesses and emotional problems and how best to approach and support staff.
Employees should be provided with access to continuous support, with solutions ranging from counselling to emotional resilience and mindfulness training.
4. Manage the workplace environment
The workplace environment can have a considerable impact on employees’ physical and mental health – and wellbeing programmes should be adapted to meet these challenges, along with differing workforce demographics.
Business and health data should help programmes to become more targeted to address known issues.
If the environment is a stressful one, for example, organisations should consider whether employees are thriving or struggling to cope? If they’re struggling, workplace triggers for stress should be identified and appropriate adjustments made. These might include adjusting working hours or giving employees the necessary training and tools to carry out their job functions.
Employee demographics should also be taken into account. Over the next decade there will be 3.7 million more workers aged between 50 and state pension age – and so wellness programmes may, for example, have to cater for a multi-generational workforce.
5. Promote human-centric health
Businesses should increasingly be looking to engage with, and promote, human-centric health – a concept that puts individual employee needs at the heart of wellbeing programmes. Employees will invariably behave in different ways, and make decisions in different ways, in relation to their personal health.
Giving consideration to the health and lifestyle decisions they take, and the psychological motivations underpinning them – the science of behavioural economics – can help employers to influence and positively impact them.
The success of the wellbeing programme should then be measured so it impacts can continue to support the business case and value investment. It’s important the strategy provides clear direction, defining not only the objectives but also the wellbeing programme’s delivery mechanisms, ownership and responsibilities.
In the wake of the virus, we continue to hear some popular wellbeing messages, namely that leaders must first focus on their own wellbeing. At In Bloom, we are helping leaders have a better understanding as to what their wellbeing looks like, holistically. We do this with in partnership with the Global Leadership Wellbeing Survey. This is the first step of our Leadership Wellbeing Coaching journey.