When it comes to employee satisfaction, environment has become one of the most important factors that employers need to focus on, especially post-pandemic. But what exactly are both job-seekers and current employees looking for in their workplace environment (hint: it’s wellness in the workplace, but we’ll talk about how to promote that in this article)?
Recent research conducted by Gartner shows that today’s employees and job-seekers are looking for the freedom and control over both the type of work they’re doing, when they’re doing the work and where they’re doing the work.
Today’s employees value flexibility and ability to manage their personal needs while also achieving needs and goals of the business. This research recommends that employers should intentionally design and nurture their company culture with a human-centric approach.
One of the most important factors that play into an employee’s capability to balance their personal needs along with their responsibilities at work is being proactive about managing their personal health and well-being. Employers can’t be sure that all employees will do everything they need to manage their personal well-being. What they can do is design programs and provide resources that will engage and motivate employees to do it on their own.
Wellness can never be approached with a “one-size-fits-all” solution. Everyone has personal needs, interests, and abilities that are unique to them and this is an important thing to keep in mind when promoting wellness in your workplace.
One of the best ways to determine the needs, interests and capabilities of individual employees is by simply asking. Employee wellness surveys, or pulse surveys are a great way to gather this data. Ideally, you want employees to be as honest as possible in order to know how they really feel about certain aspects of wellness, so anonymity is key.
The level of excitement, receptiveness and open-mindedness to incorporating elements of wellness into your workplace’s day-to-day structure and overall culture will vary from organization to organization. The more innovative and forward-thinking your organization is, it’s likely the people in it hold the same values and mindset. Organizations with employees that are generally less informed or familiar with the concept of wellness and how it relates to the workplace may be more difficult to get on board with the idea.
This is why you should be thoughtful about the way you approach not just the structure of your wellness program or initiatives, but you should be empathetic to the way you approach employees with the new concept. It’s also why asking for their input and feelings about the concept before creating the structure or program is so important as well. Employees will be more receptive to and willing to engage in a program they feel they helped create or had a say in.
As Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practices become more prominent in today’s modern workplace, some key factors to consider about members of your team when incorporating wellness initiatives or programs into the workplace might include:
Wellness, in all of its various forms, can often be overlooked and undervalued when it comes to where employers choose to spend the company’s dollars.
Unhealthy behaviors, health risks and chronic illnesses can all add up to cost companies millions of dollars each year. Wellness has always been an important component of a high-functioning organization, but only recently have employers started seriously investing in employee wellness.
Physical wellness has been recognized by U.S. corporations for over a century, more increasingly since the 1980’s. Mental wellness has been more recognized as an important and respected area of wellness, but there are actually 7 areas of wellness that factor into our overall well-being. Although not all areas of wellness are tended to in the workplace, all seven areas can affect our performance at work.
According to the Corporate Wellness Market Size, Share, Trends & Analysis Report by Grand View Research, in 2020, the global corporate wellness market was valued at 52.8 billion dollars with employers on average seeing a 3:1 ROI.
Currently, 65% of employed Americans say that they feel satisfied with their jobs and just 20% say they feel passionate about their job (source: apollotechnical.com). A 2021 study by Lighthouse Research & Advisory reported that employers see slightly more benefits from investing in employee mental health than the people employed by the company receiving the benefits and support. When companies offer mental health benefits, both the employees and the employer reap the benefits of the investment.
The most common results wellness programs typically produce:
How employees benefit:
How employers benefit:
There are a wide variety of workplace wellness activities that employees can be participants in. Focusing on different types of wellness can help create a well-rounded culture of wellness at your organization. The National Center for Biotechnology (NCBI) Information acknowledges 7 main areas or “dimensions” of wellness:
When it comes to workplace wellness or worksite wellness, we could incorporate all seven of these areas into our wellness practices, but realistically, we want to focus on the areas most relevant and appropriate to the work environment. For areas that are more personal and less prominent in the workplace, we can be mindful and respectful of our peers’ unique feelings, needs and circumstances. A great way to acknowledge these areas of wellness is to offer an unbiased and inclusive resource library.
Physical and, more recently, mental (intellectual and emotional) wellness are the most common areas to focus on when it comes to employee wellness. Most commonly, these initiatives are facilitated through healthcare benefits like incentive programs and Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). EAPs have helped millions of employees through mental health issues since the 1930’s.
Many employers would consider spiritual and financial to be more personal areas of wellness that we may not want to emphasize in the workplace.
Social, occupational and environmental wellness are often overlooked when it comes to wellness in the workplace, but they are all still important areas that have a powerful impact on our overall well-being (including our performance at work).
As mentioned earlier in this article, pulse surveys are one of the most effective tools to gather accurate information about what employees want and need from a wellness program or work culture.
Learn more about pulse surveys and how to get the best use out of them here.
Put feelers out for who would be interested in owning certain roles and responsibilities pertaining to wellness in your workplace and see who takes a bite! A wellness committee can play an important role in keeping the people at your organization informed about wellness practices, answering wellness-related questions. Once you’ve got a wellness committee formed, check out this list of 19 easy activities for your wellness committee to do!
Starting a digital chat space or channel (or even getting creative, and starting an automated wellness WhatsApp chatbot) dedicated to discussing all things wellness is a great way to keep employees engaged with the company’s wellness initiatives and informed about wellness facts and best practices.
Sometimes teaching people why and how to do something is better than telling them what to do. Providing or presenting educational resources to employees about wellness best practices, facts, activities, routines, ideas, etc. can have a great impact on the success of your company’s wellness initiatives. This will also help create long-term behavioral change and sustain total well-being.
For more ideas on how to get creative with designing your wellness program, you can always browse our products and resource library.
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