7 Ways to Improve Employee Wellbeing
Organizations aren’t built upon bricks and mortar, business plans, and funding. They are built upon employees. However, these employees can’t just be talented. Your employees must be happy, healthy, and motivated to deliver the best results and drive success. This is where employee well-being becomes so important. Promoting employee well-being can prevent stress and create the positive work environment needed to perform and thrive.
Seeing that you will spend 90,000 hours of your life at work on average, improving the overall experience and making it a more enjoyable place is important. Having successful employee well-being initiatives focusing on support, progression, and mental and physical health won’t eliminate stress and dissatisfaction but will create a healthy, nurturing culture. Do you want to improve your employees’ well-being? Follow our top seven tips.
1. Focus on Career Development
A lot of employee well-being comes from job satisfaction. One of the key elements of job satisfaction is progression — by helping your employees develop and work towards their career goals. According to this study by LinkedIn, 94% of employees said they would stay at their company longer if more focus were on their career development.
One of the main reasons many employees don’t feel they are developing in an organization is the limited amount of time allocated for training and development. There is now an excellent opportunity for managers to set aside more time for training sessions and organize periodic personal development plans (PDP) to see how employees are progressing.
2. Provide an Employee Assistance Program
Employee assistance programs (EAP) are one of the latest developments at work. They provide confidential counseling to employees regarding any personal or professional problems impacting their well-being. EAP offers a level of support that employers might not think about or can afford otherwise. The goal is to help employees manage the effects of any stress, anxiety, and depression.
3. Prioritize Physical Health
Physical health is a key factor in overall employee well-being. People are generally pretty open to the idea of getting fit, taking on health challenges, and living a healthier lifestyle, so how can you encourage this change?
First of all, companies should provide employees with adequate amounts of paid sick leave to recover fully from any illnesses or health issues they are struggling with. Companies can also encourage employees to incorporate more healthy habits into their lives by inviting nutritionists to give educational talks or encouraging friendly fitness challenges. Whether counting steps per month or the amount of weight lost, these challenges and goals will build a supportive culture and a healthier group.
4. Arrange Regular Social Events
Research has shown that social interaction is one of the best predictors of reduced stress and happiness. This is definitely the case for employee well-being, where healthy inter-office relationships are hugely important. One way to foster this healthy employee relationship is by organizing regular social events and meetups.
Whether it is a weekend getaway for the entire team or virtual Friday evening drinks (for remote and hybrid organizations), these team-building activities make the whole workplace experience and company culture more enjoyable.
5. Recognize Good Work
Paying attention to the work employees carry out is important. It gives you the chance to provide them with constructive feedback and recognize and praise any good work that has been done. By recognizing the excellent work carried out by employees, you will also boost well-being and maintain motivation. One of the simplest ways to give employees greater recognition is by introducing reward systems like employee of the month/year.
6. Provide Workload Support
The major work-related stressors that employees face generally come from their workload. However, ensuring employees feel supported, speaking up about their inability to complete specific tasks, and actively reassigning the work they are unable to do will all help boost employee well-being. To do this, managers should frequently check in with employees and constantly review their workloads to ensure tasks are evenly distributed.
7. Ensure Employee Safety
Since the global pandemic, employee safety has become more important than ever. If employees don’t feel safe or adequately protected by the health and safety measures, it can cause enormous stress and anxiety. By using Covid-19 solutions to develop an effective and safe way of working, employees will feel prioritized and return to the office without concern for their health and well-being.