Employee Wellbeing: HR’s Guide to an Engaged and Adaptive Workforce
To address wellbeing, we first must identify what it is made up of and what aspects of it employers can contribute to in a positive way. Gallup identifies the five elements of wellbeing as:
Social - having meaningful relationships
Career - enjoying work that you feel stimulated by
Physical - having the energy to tackle challenges and pursue success
Community - enjoying where you live and the relationships you are able to create with the people in it
Financial - intelligent money management that eases the stress of uncertain times.
That is a pretty comprehensive list, but not all areas are something an employer can affect. For example, a person may simply be an introvert, making social wellbeing a challenge during a time where isolation is the norm for everyone. You can attempt to provide social gatherings or opportunities to develop new relationships, but you simply can’t make someone a more socially healthy person unless they want to participate in those things.
How to Engage Employees Around Wellbeing
Talking about wellbeing can be difficult. Many people don’t want to speak about things like mental health or their physical fitness openly and using technology to monitor it or flag unhealthy behaviors could be seen as intrusive.
To truly engage, the conversation has to take place between human beings in an environment where trust can be created. Managers should look to create a safe space for these conversations. Based on the McKinsey survey, only 30%of employees say they feel comfortable talking to their supervisor about mental health.
Wellbeing cannot be achieved if the workplace does not become more focused on the human condition and empower employees to prioritize their needs as highly as the needs of the business. And organizations cannot begin to understand their needs, specifically around their mental health, without engaging them in the right way. Developing the languages and cultural norms to do this will help individuals develop the skills needed to push those conversations forward.
HR teams might consider sending short weekly surveys intended to do little more than gauge how employees are feeling. This allows leaders focused on wellbeing to take the pulse of how everyone is doing—and potentially identify areas where improvement needed, teams that perhaps need a bit of guidance from leadership or individuals who may be struggling.
Building wellness into training can also help colleagues to provide each other with early intervention support if someone is experiencing psychological or emotional stress. It can also provide resources to help employees develop skills that will nurture their wellbeing and build their emotional flexibility.
A Thorough Wellbeing Benefits Structure
How you structure your wellbeing program will make all the difference in whether or not it proves to be effective. Essentially, it needs to promote healthy behaviors around the core elements of wellbeing both during and outside of work hours.
This traditionally meant providing opportunities for employees to socialize organically, such as fun events charity outings, happy hours, holiday gatherings and birthday lunches, but the pandemic has shown us that we can and must do these things in other ways and that should continue.
Physical wellness is more than offering a yoga hour and a discounted gym membership. Explore programs that allow employees to monitor their health in real time, exercise in different ways including during working hours and gain access to health and fitness professionals who can help them achieve personal fitness goals.
Expanding mental health access beyond the Employee Assistance Program is also a good idea. Some companies are beginning to use emerging technology, such as VR or AR, to create mental health exercises or protocols that help employees decompress while at work. As this becomes more common and the price barriers come down, it will become more of an expectation from employees than a benefit.
By providing a comprehensive suite of technology to assist employees in pursuing wellness, HR not only does the individual a service, but the business and the culture of the organization as a whole. Employee experience improves, engagement goes up and with it, so too will productivity, retention and business outcomes.
References:
https://www.hrexchangenetwork.com/employee-engagement/articles/employee-wellbeing-hrs-guide-to-an-engaged-and-adaptive-workforce