A Complete Guide for an Employee Wellbeing Strategy

Workplace wellness for organizations has long been an issue. It’s been called a waste of time and money in the past. However, there can be a change. We’re seeing how putting a focus on an employee well-being strategy can help to prevent burnout and stress.

As more companies recognize the value of employee health, we’re seeing how it can assist to reverse employee burnout and reduce stress, attrition, and absenteeism, according to research.

It is feasible to measure and act on workplace well-being, and it is critical. Employee absenteeism, sick leaves, productivity, and retention data can all be used to assess the wellbeing of your workforce. Furthermore, with the help of employee feedback tools like Culture Amp, businesses may improve their staff engagement.

If you don’t have a formal employee wellbeing program in place and aren’t sure where to begin, this article can walk you through the process of creating one.

Recognize the Importance of Employee Wellbeing Strategy in Your Company

To various people, well-being might mean different things. However, for some, it’s about the overall experience, happiness, and contentment of people at work, and it encompasses a variety of topics. It has a direct impact on the company’s success, affecting morale, staffing, and production.

Others see it as a sharp focus on mental health in the workplace, with counseling and mental health support readily available. Some businesses promote physical health through initiatives such as healthy eating and physical activity. In reality, no one definition exists, yet it encompasses several of these features.

A crucial aspect of employee health is how a workplace and an employee’s employment affects them personally. Many organizations begin their workplace wellbeing strategy with initiatives to minimize stress and workload in the workplace.

Why You Should Consider Developing an Employee Wellbeing Strategy

Boosting employee well-being in the workplace is an important step in caring for your employees and improving organizational performance.

One way to ensure that employee well-being is prioritized is to design an employee well-being strategy that can be updated on a regular basis in order to foster a healthy work environment.

Your workforce’s financial, physical, and mental well-being would be the emphasis of an employee wellbeing strategy. It should take into account both urgent assistance and longer-term positive and preventative actions to help people succeed at work.

Employee wellbeing strategies that are effectively thought out and implemented have been shown to boost employee engagement, which leads to improved organizational performance.

Furthermore, each organization, its people, and its needs must have its own employee purchase program. We provide helpful information on what organizations can focus on in their strategies in this guide. Additionally, we look at how to boost employee engagement with a wellness strategy, as well as how to track the effectiveness of initiatives for ongoing improvement.

Employee Wellbeing Strategy in a Hybrid Work Environment

Employee well-being has progressed beyond simply promoting physical health. We’ve noticed a stronger focus on supporting employees holistically, including emotionally, financially, socially (including relationship development and human interaction skills), and physically, especially since the start of the virus. This involves taking into account the setting in which employees operate, whether at home, at the office, or other locations.

Many businesses are now assessing their position and reimagining what their long-term wellness strategy with many employee wellbeing programs and workplace wellbeing initiatives should look like. When it comes to developing an effective wellbeing strategy, there are numerous obstacles to overcome. Employees are becoming more separated and unconnected physically. The lines between home and work are becoming increasingly blurred. The long-term emotional, mental, and physical effects of working in a hybrid office space are becoming clear.

A strong workplace wellbeing strategy, on the other hand, can ensure a resilient, happy, and healthy workforce, which leads to higher productivity and cost savings due to less absenteeism and attrition. Furthermore, the improved company reputation that results might aid in attracting and retaining top employees.

When it comes to planning and implementing a meaningful workplace wellbeing strategy, it’s important to realize that there’s no such thing as a “one size fits all” approach. The following are some of our top recommendations for developing a successful wellness strategy for your company:

• Identify employee and business-specific needs using a data-driven approach.
• Determine what works and what may be improved.
• Utilize data to develop a business case for change by modeling where you are now vs where you want to be.
• Engage a broader range of stakeholders to agree on your goals, and design your strategy using a data-driven technique.
• Measure the return on investment on a regular basis using data-driven measures.
• Develop an employee recognition survey

The Challenges that Your Company May Encounter

The four obstacles to developing a successful employee wellbeing strategy are discussed here.

Not Proactive, but Reactive

A reactive approach to employee wellbeing strategy focuses on reacting to events that have already occurred. Example, you may have seen that many of your employees are beginning to show indications of stress, so you create a more flexible vacation policy. Reactive techniques, on the other hand, frequently fail because staff may grow burned out and depart during the time it takes to implement a strategy. Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are extremely important and still relevant in the workplace, but they also represent a reactive approach in that they are primarily designed for employees to use after they have had a big problem.

Solution

Preventing difficulties is the aim of a proactive approach to employee wellbeing strategy. Examine job design and workload, for instance, to reduce stress or provide developmental counseling. While no one can forecast the future, knowing your company’s path and the factors of wellbeing may help you construct a strategy that develops strong physical, social, mental, and emotional states in your employees from the start.

Bolt-on Programs

“We have gym memberships,” some businesses claim. “Workplace wellness takes place on Thursdays at 5 p.m. when we give a yoga class,” for example. This isn’t a comprehensive approach to employee happiness. Products like gym memberships and in-office yoga sessions are fantastic, but all offerings and programs must be integrated into the firm’s culture and employee cycle in order to build an environment of wellbeing.

Solution

Well-being should have a role in how you think and act, how you structure your workforce, and how you feel about your employees from recruitment to exit. Many businesses regard stand-alone efforts like yoga sessions or fruit bowls as being part of their overall employee wellbeing program plan.

Making It All About the Numbers

While redistributing gym memberships may appear to be a good idea, hasty remedies to corporate wellness might contribute to employee stress. When programs like these are implemented on their own, the risk of developing fit workaholics — people who are physically active and keen on getting things done but are at risk of stress, leading to high absenteeism and turnover, as well as reduced customer service — exists.

Solution

Align productivity-driven programs with real concern for people’s emotional well-being, resulting in holistic advantages for both the firm and the individual.

Cultural Standards that Are Anti-Wellbeing

Some businesses offer holistic employee wellbeing programs that address physical, emotional, mental, and societal well-being, but they lack the cultural support needed to be successful. During new employee orientation, for example, a corporation may mention that everyone benefits from a flexible work schedule. When a new employee leaves at 5:30 p.m., their coworker gives them a hard look. Even though they were technically enabled to have a flexible schedule, the individual sits down and complies with the cultural practice of working late.

Solution

All employees must exhibit and promote cultural norms that encourage well-being strategies. Leadership is critical in modeling desired behaviors and ensuring that new programs are adopted.

Using a Wellbeing Strategy During the Coronavirus Pandemic

In view of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, which has had a severe impact on individuals, putting employee well-being at the top of the priority list is very vital.

Workers have been more anxious as a result of the epidemic due to a variety of issues. Employees, for instance, are worried about their personal well-being as well as the well-being of their family members and friends. They are also worried about the safety of their workplace environment, their job stability, the future of their company, and the country’s economic long-term effect.

Your employees’ mental, physical, and economic well-being may have all been affected in different ways. Now is a wonderful moment to emphasize the importance of wellness programs and make sure that a strategy is developed and communicated to employees so that they feel appreciated and supported. This may be done by providing some employee benefit trends to your employees.