Creating a Wellbeing Strategy

What is Employee Wellbeing? Wellbeing is essentially how someone feels about various aspects of their life – their home life, their health, their relationships with others, their job and other activities. It’s about whether they feel well and happy. When talking about employee wellbeing, think about it as the way employees’ duties, expectations, stress levels and working environments affect their overall health and happiness. What is Employee Wellbeing in the Workplace? Employee wellbeing relates to all aspects of working life, including the environment employees work in, the climate in the workplace and how a workforce feels about their day to day work. Wellbeing is a key factor determining an organisation's long-term success and effectiveness. According to the CIPD’s health and wellbeing report, HR managers identified within a survey that only 40% of UK businesses have a standalone employee wellbeing strategy. What’s more, mental health is responsible for 56% of long-term unplanned absences, making it the most common cause of long-term absence. Employee Wellbeing vs Engagement Employee Wellbeing involves several categories of wellness, which may include: Physical Health Emotional Health Psychological Well Being Social Relationships Financial Stability Essentially, employee wellbeing looks at employee experience at work from a holistic view and asks, “do they have what they need to do their best work?”. Looking at employee wellbeing in your workplace is important for reducing work related stress or instituting incentives for healthy living. Employee Engagement on the other hand, is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organisation and its goals. It has been proven to: Reduce staff turnover Improve productivity and efficiency Increase employee retention Deliver higher profits Boost business connectivity and performance Reduction in absenteeism The emotional commitment they have for their company means engaged employees actually care about the work they do. They don't work just for the pay, but work on behalf of the organisation's goals, ultimately creating more success for the company. Why is Employee Wellbeing Important? If you aren't taking a proactive approach towards workplace wellbeing, then your workforce is more likely to be unhappy, unmotivated and unproductive. You need to address this immediately. After all, we all spend most of our week in the workplace (sometimes up to 40+ hours a week). Creating employee wellbeing initiatives should be just as important as building your brand and developing your product. You need to think about your people - think about what you are going to do to improve their happiness in the workplace. It can truly make a difference and improve employee productivity across the whole organisation. The benefits of making wellbeing a top priority in the workplace are: Improved team focus Reduce of stress Increased job satisfaction Positivity among employees Improved general wellbeing Specific benefits to your organisation include: Higher performance levels Improved productivity Lower employee turnover Attract top talent Be seen as a fantastic place to work! By improving your employee health and wellbeing, you're not only giving them an environment in which they love to come to work every day, but you're helping to create a more motivated, engaged and high performing workforce. This ultimately creates higher organisational success.