Employee wellbeing is essential to the smooth running of any organisation. Without it, your business can suffer a lack of productivity, damaging team morale, and a generally unhappy working atmosphere – not to mention an increase in absences.
But, what is employee wellbeing?
Employee wellbeing is the state of employees’ mental and physical health as a result of dynamics within, and sometimes outside, the workplace. The term has become ever more popular in the last few years in response to increased transparency of mental health issues and major incidents such as the pandemic.
Why is it important?
Employee wellbeing is a personal, moral, and business pursuit, with adequate employee wellbeing strategies mutually beneficial for workers and organisations. Investing in employee wellbeing can increase resilience, better employee engagement, reduced sickness absence and higher performance and productivity.
To ensure your employees remain motivated, we look at short and long-term ways you can improve employee wellbeing in your organisation.
Ten ideas to improve wellbeing at work
1. Encourage flexible and hybrid working
Now more than ever, employees know their worth and how they want to work. Work-life balance is no longer a buzzword for the lucky few, and with candidates looking for flexibility and hybrid options as part of their standard job searches now, this is a top priority to get in place. Naturally, there are industries where it just isn’t possible to be as flexible as others, but doing what you can to accommodate staff while aligning with what the business needs is a sure-fire way to improve staff wellbeing and increase retention within your organisation.
2. Invest in personal development and training that staff want
There is a recurring theme in this article: consult with your employees. Ask them what they want so you can make mutually beneficial decisions to honour them. Personal development and training are critical for most employees, helping them climb the career ladder and giving them the confidence, skills and knowledge they need to do their job. And new hires want this too, with 70% of employed adults from our research saying that they consider long-term development opportunities available within the company when applying for a role. Consistent learning helps to build a well-rounded employee who engages with your organisation and plays a pivotal role in onboarding and nurturing new employees. Training provision doesn’t mean that you have a massive programme of L&D in your organisation, but ensure what you do have is relevant, required, and wanted by the people taking it.
3. Meet regularly to recognise successes
Everyone needs a pat on the back for a job well done, and that’s totally ok. No matter how small, recognising wins is a confidence booster for everyone and separates general appreciation for good work from more structured incentive programmes. Meeting regularly, ideally weekly, with as much or as little grandeur as you like, can make employees feel seen, heard and appreciated with consistent motivational uplift.
Your incentive programmes have their place for higher value and longer-term successes; your weekly meets can be words of praise or a coffee on the house – a little can go a long way. However you choose to do it, just make sure you actually follow through. It will make a big difference in team morale and drive.
4. Include employees in company decisions
When meeting regularly, give employees the chance to have ideas and opinions heard. Rather than the odd super formal meeting to relay decisions made without input from people on the ground, show transparency – that you want the business to grow and to work together.
Polls, surveys, Q&A sessions and brainstorming sessions can encourage and nurture incredible ideas for your business and are also a great way to see how your employees are feeling and progressing. If you are looking to promote from within, this is an excellent way to see who could be a good fit for the role.
5. Design your working space with wellbeing in mind
No one is suggesting that every business can have a complete refit; we’re realistic! But there are a lot of simple, relatively inexpensive changes you can make that will help to boost employee health and wellbeing while you consider more major works if you need them:
Plants and natural spaces – in offices especially – are an excellent example of this, and better still, you can even hire them so you can try out different options. If you have garden space or balcony, make a team effort of sprucing it up to be a pleasant place to work, eat lunch, or take a phone call. An easy team-building and workspace win in your employee wellbeing strategy.
Seating arrangements can make a huge difference – if you don’t HAVE to box everyone in, why do it? And a bean bag isn’t the only alternative. You can invest in work-pods for privacy and time-out sessions, create outside working spaces (ensuring WI-FI and connections work), sociable spaces, and hot desks that support hybrid and flexible working. Employees shouldn’t feel ostracised to the broom cupboard because they work from home three days a week…
Working with what you have – perhaps there is just no room in the budget right now to invest in new seating and decor. But, you may still be able to work with your existing space; moving seating and tables to be more sociable and collaborative can make an instant and significant difference. And if you can stretch to having some quiet spots where employees can take a minute, it will be helpful and appreciated.
If you are in the market for a major change, consider hiring the expertise of a design consultant who can tap into what you and your employees want (because you have included them and asked!) to create a real haven at work.
6. Boost team relationships
Sometimes, the key to a happy team is whether they get along.
To encourage good working relationships, implement more team-building exercises, informal meetings, and lunches and evenings out to bring the group together.
Not only will this support a more fun and friendly atmosphere, but some of the best ideas and opinions can come from a relaxed atmosphere. After all, some team members wouldn’t usually get the opportunity to interact beyond brief small-talk in the lift, so this is a great way to engage everyone in your employee wellbeing initiative.
7. Dedicate more time to mindfulness
Your employees may cope better with stressful situations by incorporating a few simple techniques into their day-to-day. To ensure they’re not overworking and to help alleviate burnout, consider encouraging the following mindfulness boosting exercises:
- Meditating for a few minutes before work
- Focusing on one task at a time
- Switching off from digital devices a few times a day (lunch, at the very least)
- Spending at least five minutes a day doing absolutely nothing (outside of working hours, of course)
By encouraging employees to take time out and become aware of themselves and their surroundings, it’s more likely that they’ll be able to keep any negativity in check. In addition, there are meditation apps and content that you could share with employees or even partner with as part of a broader initiative, such as Headspace, Calm and Ginger.
With mental health more transparent but increasingly more of an issue for so many, time out in some way is vital to keep on top of things. Mindfulness can reduce stress, lower blood pressure, improve relationships with co-workers, and improve productivity and employee wellbeing as a result.
8. Make occupational health a top priority
Every job comes with occupational hazards, but some can be easily overlooked.
For example, if your profession involves spending a lot of time seated, excessive slouching can have a severe negative impact on the body and mind. Similarly, if the job consists of a lot of standing, walking, or lifting, failing to follow the correct procedures for each task (or employees taking on more than they should) can cause long term health issues.
Because of this, it’s absolutely vital to make sure all of your employees have the correct health and safety measures in place. It can be as simple as ensuring the right sized ladder is readily available for a task or encouraging employees to use back support on their chairs if they sit down all day.
Whatever industry you’re in, improving the occupational health and posture of employees can decrease depression and tiredness, reduce injury and generally improve function and productivity safely.
9. Encourage healthy choices
From planning healthy lunches and staying hydrated to encouraging stretching and exercising as regularly as possible, promoting a healthy lifestyle in (and out) of the office is a key element in improving staff wellbeing.
Consider implementing health-promoting freebies like free fruit, nutritious breakfasts, cycle to work programmes, or subsidised gym memberships to ensure your employees are always at their most productive (and aren’t tempted to skip lunch). In addition, provide opportunities to get up and move away from desks to avoid fatigue and eye strain. And encouraging them to take their breaks together can also have a positive effect on team morale.
Job dependant, you can even have monthly sessions where wellbeing professionals come in to work with your employees – yoga sessions, meditation workshops, nutrition know-how – there is a wealth of possibilities out there. And the benefits are many – again, ask employees what they would like to do. Doing this shows you value their input, care about their health and wellbeing, and gives perhaps the more introverted employee the opportunity to try something they otherwise would shy away from outside of work.
10. Investigate issues to find solutions
Sometimes negative employee wellbeing is caused by underlying problems not always apparent without further digging.
For example, if your business is experiencing a high level of absence, you need to get to the root of the problem. While it may be for genuine reasons, it can equally be because employees aren’t happy at work – overworking, poor work-life balance, unsuitable working conditions, people problems, the list goes on.
Investigate (being careful not to interrogate) to find out what may be causing a lack of motivation, poor standard of work, or negative attitude, by offering one-to-one sessions and small group meetings where appropriate – essentially an opportunity to speak. It may work better for you to have an anonymous satisfaction survey for employees to speak up in confidence.
Transparency but also comfort and confidentiality where needed are essential to help ensure employees feel involved in their own wellbeing at work and their issues aren’t being ignored.
