In the modern era, employee wellbeing has become one of the greatest issues limiting businesses and workers. Improving this can substantially improve business success and fortunately there are a variety of methods you could employ. All methods fall under the overarching branch of ‘corporate wellness‘.
What is Employee Wellbeing
Before we get into how to improve employee wellbeing we need to define what this phrase actually means. It can be broken down into various components. At Thriive, we believe the most important factor is mental and physical health. As you may be able to guess, this refers to the actual health markers within your staff and improving them. However, there are other significant elements. Educating your staff on lifestyle, training them to improve at their job, retreats for them to regroup, working conditions, opportunities, finding ways to engage your workforce. All of these contribute to improved employee wellbeing.
So how can we improve it?
Similarly to the variety of elements involved in employee wellbeing, there is a whole host of options to improve it.
- Physical Health Initiatives. Whether it is on an app, a gym or at the office, there are various ways to incorporate exercise in your staff’s daily routine.
- Mental Health Initiatives. Again, this can be done in a variety of ways. There is meditation, yoga, therapy, mental health breaks at work.
- Workshops. Workshops can be used to train your staff to improve their understanding of their job or to educate them on a healthier lifestyle. Both contribute to improving wellbeing.
- Days out. Organising events to engage or educate your employees is a great way to incorporate corporate wellness.
- Challenges. While we believe that challenges are not a successful solution in isolation, they can be effective with a strong corporate wellness solution alongside. It can help keep workers engaged and improve office morale.
What are the benefits?
Improving employee wellbeing creates a wide range of positive benefits for your business and staff.
- Reduced absenteeism– Improving mental and physical health reduces sick days by an estimated 80%.
- Improves productivity– Studies show a better office culture and improved mental health significantly improves productivity.
- Better trained staff– Oddly enough if you train your staff more they become better at their job.
- Reduced staff turnover– When employees feel their bosses invest in their wellbeing they are far less likely to leave, creating a sustainable staff turnover.
- Increased revenue– Aetna estimated it increased revenue by £3000 per employee when they started a wellness programme.
- Better quality candidates– When advertising jobs, more people will want to apply because of your employee wellbeing reputation which leads to better quality candidates.
Hopefully this article has illuminated how to improve employee wellbeing and why it is so important. Thriive has its own employee wellbeing initiative on our app which aims to improve mental and physical health. Find out more here.
