Workplace wellness is most certainly not a new concept. Corporate health programmes have been around for decades and as society moved towards healthier choices, more and more companies are talking about what they do to promote their employees’ health and wellbeing.
For employers looking to improve in this space, it can feel a little daunting. Just Googling workplace wellness will bring up a whole host of companies, programmes, startups and initiatives so it’s hard to know where to start. Not to mention the concerns smaller companies may have around the cost of implementing a workplace wellness programme.
However, workplace wellness should be seen as a ‘need-to-have’ and not a ‘nice-to-have’. The wellbeing of your employees should be one of your core values and a programme or initiative to facilitate that doesn’t need a load of bells and whistles. Wondering where to start?
As with all workplace practices, both good and bad, it trickles down from the top. For a company to truly promote workplace wellness and not simply throw the buzzword around, there needs to be genuine buy in at a senior level.
The leadership team in every company drives the culture and if senior managers, leaders and directors don’t appear to care about promoting workplace wellness, it’s not going to go well.
Aside from the fact that all leaders should care about their employees on a human level, they should also care on a business level. Healthy employees are more productive, more focused and more loyal, especially if they feel like their company cares about them.
In order to improve the wellbeing of your employees, you will need to talk to them in order to find out what improvements you can make. This can be done through one-to-one meetings with HR or via anonymous surveys if employees don’t want to be identified.
Collecting this data is the secret to finding out what your employees need. There is no point in implementing random wellbeing initiatives if it doesn’t actually address any of the concerns your employees might have.
Once leadership is onboard, the needs of the staff have been discussed and plans put in place, companies must ensure that their company culture is one of health and wellbeing. Once again, worrying about paying for programmes is not the first step.
Encouraging workplace wellness starts with open, honest communication between managers and employees and this will help everyone feel supported. Speaking openly about positive mental health, wellbeing and work-life balance may not seem like much, but it will help remove the stigma around these terms and make employees feel more comfortable.
Companies may also consider appointing ‘wellness champions’ within the business. This is not necessarily a committee that needs to get together and come up with strategies every month. It could be the equivalent of a health and safety officer, where colleagues can go to these wellness champions if they have any issues or concerns.They may simply need to be on hand.
This is where you may need to set aside a budget to bring a professional into your organisation. This professional would talk to your employees directly in order to give them the tools to manage their own wellbeing and stress levels at work.
One of the biggest steps towards improving workplace wellbeing is having a positive culture around it, but that doesn’t mean employees are completely immune from stress, anxiety or burnout. That’s why employees will still need practical advice around managing their own mental health. There are also online wellness workshops that are available to everyone.
Once you’ve implemented your workplace wellness strategy, the biggest trap you can fall into is checking off that box and forgetting about it. To make sure all your promises, meetings and support don’t sound like tokenism, it’s essential to keep communication open and constant.
The needs of your employees are likely to change and evolve over time so don’t just check in with them once at the beginning. Even if their needs don’t change much or if you’re convinced that you’ve successfully created a perfect culture of wellness, consistently communicating the importance of wellbeing to your employees will continue to nurture that culture and make your staff feel steadily supported. And a happy staff will strengthen your employer brand.
Find out more about building an effective employer branding strategy and how RECRUITERS can help your business.
By Gerard Doyle
Gerard is the Managing Director at RECRUITERS.
Pebbles photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash
