The health and wellbeing of your employees are vital. If your employees are sick or experiencing poor mental health, there will be knock-on effects for your business. As an employer, employee wellbeing should be a top priority for you, ensuring you do what you can to keep your employees healthy and happy. But what does this actually mean?
Without a firm strategy for maintaining health and wellbeing, you may not meet the needs of your employees effectively. Having firm policies in place shows your commitment to wellbeing as an employer, but also lets your employees know what’s available to them. If you want to take employee wellbeing seriously, you need to take action. Here are some of the ways you can show that health and wellbeing are at the top of your priorities list.
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Create a positive and supportive workplace
A positive work environment is essential to maintaining employee wellbeing. It can help people form effective working relationships, while also ensuring employees feel supported by their colleagues when they need it.
By focusing on developing employee relationships, you can help create an environment where people feel happy and confident at work. As an employer, be positive and encouraging and avoid creating a tense environment. Employees should feel able to discuss their issues without fear, and managers should be ready and willing to offer support when needed.
Work with employees to give them what they need
Some workplace wellbeing programs can feel lacking, and it’s usually because they don’t give employees what they really need. Consulting with your employees about what they need and how you can support them will help you create a wellbeing strategy that works.
Involving your employees in the process will help ensure they get the support they need, and means you won’t waste time and resources on policies that go nowhere towards improving the wellbeing of your staff.
Put policies in place to support work/life balance
Having a good work/life balance is essential for promoting wellbeing in the workplace. Employees that are stressed or spend too much time at work face burnout, and could even leave your company to work elsewhere.
There are a lot of ways you can support work/life balance, including providing flexible working, parent-friendly policies and switching your focus to productivity over hours worked. Monitor the situation on an ongoing basis to make sure workloads are kept to a reasonable level and ensure managers have regular catch-ups with their teams to monitor progress.
Provide support and services to help your employees
Employees should have access to different support and services that can help their health and wellbeing. Aside from providing healthcare, employees can also help through employee assistance programs and chaplain support to ensure they can get help when they need it – and not just for work issues. Employees should be able to access a range of services to help them get the support they need, and these should be widely promoted across your organization.
Providing training on mental health first aid can also be valuable to your workplace. It can help employees recognize issues in a colleague, while also helping them give the right support. Mental health is an important topic for all workplaces, and providing your employees with training can help empower them to discuss it confidently.
Help employees become more active
Encouraging your employees to become more active can help them become healthier and more productive, while also bringing benefits to your workplace.
There are different ways you can help employees become more active. Some companies encourage their employees to exercise at work, while others provide on-site fitness facilities or paid-for gym memberships to help give employees access to resources. While you can’t force someone to exercise, you can make it more accessible, while promoting the benefits of exercise across your workplace can also help people think twice about their habits. Encouraging employees to step away from their desks at lunch is another good way to give people a break and think about doing something active like going for a walk.
Putting employee wellbeing first is essential for maintaining a positive workplace. It shows you’re a responsible employer that cares about its people, and can help you avoid many of the issues caused by poor people policies. Health and wellbeing policies can help manage your staff effectively, ensuring better results for everyone. Take the time to assess health and wellbeing across your organization and create an action plan that will show you take employee wellbeing seriously.