What is employee health and wellbeing?
Employee health and wellbeing refers to the physical, mental, and emotional health of people who work in a company. Although it relates to employees, it is relevant to life both inside and outside of the workplace.
Based on unique insights from over 300 HR professionals and organisational leaders, The State of Employee Engagement 2021 report reveals HR’s biggest priorities right now, the challenges ahead for hybrid working, and uncovers the great employee engagement divide.
Why is employee health and wellbeing important?
Companies today are generally more aware of the importance of the health and wellbeing of their employees. This is largely because poor health and wellbeing in the workforce can greatly reduce productivity. It has also been shown that promoting health and wellbeing at work can have a wide range of additional benefits for employers.
People feel better in the workplace when their health and wellbeing are prioritised by employers. Happier and healthier employees are also both physically and mentally able to work and accomplish their tasks to the best of their abilities. Employees are also more likely to have a positive outlook on their work, which can lead to increased job satisfaction and improved staff morale.
Healthy employees take less unplanned time off. With this in mind, employers taking steps to improve the health and wellbeing of staff should see reductions in sickness and absenteeism. It is lot easier to plan and manage projects when health and wellbeing are prioritised because reliable staff are less likely to miss work.
Looking after employees’ health can also reduce staff turnover. There are a variety of reasons why employees wish to leave an employer. However, employees are far less likely to look for a new job when they are happy and enjoying their work. In this regard, promoting the health and wellbeing of employees can help improve employer brand. Companies that are seen as great places to work retain their employees for longer. They also have a better reputation when it comes to attracting new staff.
Find Out How WorkBuzz Can Help
What can employers do to promote employee health and wellbeing?
There is a difference between treating employees who are already unwell and preventing them from getting unwell. Health education is a great way to raise awareness of wellbeing in the workplace. Promoting health and wellbeing can bring a number of benefits. With this in mind, employers should raise awareness of the importance of topics such as physical and mental exercise as well as a healthy diet.
Promote healthy eating
Employers may wish to take active steps to promote health and wellbeing. For example, offering nutritious lunches or snacks at work. There are often opportunities to bring colleagues together for a particular sport or activity. Finding outlets that don’t involve work is great for team building and can lead to better relationships and workplace culture.
Promote exercise
Exercise is well known to have wide ranging benefits for health and wellbeing. Office staff may be encouraged to move around during the day, or offered subsidised gym memberships. If a particular job requires more physically demanding work, then making sure staff take rest breaks is important. It is also crucial to make sure that health and safety are prioritised at all times too.
Build workplace
The health and wellbeing of employees is directly affected by the relationships they have with their colleagues. In addition to the interpersonal factors, the type of tasks and management expectations can bring about issues for staff wellbeing. Mental and emotional wellbeing are as important as physical wellbeing. Unhappy staff are more likely to have unhealthy lifestyles.
Reduce stress
High stress environments can negatively impact employee health and wellbeing. Stress is one of the main factors that cause employees to quit their jobs. Promoting an inclusive work culture can help reduce stress and avoid many of the negative impacts associated with a toxic workplace. Ultimately, high stress environments are symptomatic of a toxic work culture. Employers need to establish ways to reduce stress in the workplace as it has far reaching benefits.
How can WorkBuzz help companies promote health and wellbeing in the workplace?
It is important for employers to take positive action to promote healthy lifestyles both inside and outside of work. WorkBuzz can help employers gain an understanding of how their employees feel about their health and wellbeing in the workplace. Asking employees about their experiences in a flexible, simple and confidential employee engagement platform allows employers to easily gather this information.
WorkBuzz have a ‘best practice’ question library that can be combined with any custom questions you feel are relevant for your workplace, to create a bespoke employee survey which focuses on employee health and wellbeing. Responses from the survey can then be turned into actionable insights and used to drive change in the areas that matter most to your employees. Benchmarking is also available so you can understand how you compare to similar organisations.
Keep your finger on the pulse in a rapidly changing world
What are you waiting for? See WorkBuzz in action.
Call our team on
