When people think of wellbeing, they often focus on physical health. However, true wellbeing is multidimensional. It covers mental, social, emotional, and career aspects.
Employee wellbeing plays a crucial role in boosting productivity, engagement, and organizational success in the workplace. In fact, a study revealed that 69% of finance employees have experienced severe workplace stress—the highest rate among all industries. This highlights the critical need for comprehensive workplace wellbeing programs.
Let’s explore employee wellbeing in more detail and why it should be a top priority for every organization.
What Is Employee Wellbeing?
Employee wellbeing refers to the holistic state of an employee’s health inside and outside the workplace. It takes into account different factors like job satisfaction, work-life balance, stress levels, work environment, etc., and correlates it to employee performance at work.
Implementing effective strategies is key to ensuring the success of wellbeing initiatives. A Deloitte survey of 1,274 U.S. workers revealed that 68% did not fully utilize their organization’s wellbeing resources due to barriers like time-consuming processes, confusing instructions, or cumbersome access. This highlights the importance of designing accessible and straightforward wellbeing programs.
Elements of Employee Wellbeing
Typically, employee wellbeing includes the following elements:
- Physical Wellbeing: This refers to the employee’s overall physical health. It includes fitness, nutrition, sleep, and access to healthcare. Physical wellbeing impacts productivity, engagement, and resilience.
- Emotional Wellbeing: This involves the emotional health of the employee. It addresses the employees’ stress levels, anxiety, burnout, and other emotional challenges they face. The objective is to maintain a positive and stable mental state to drive engagement and productivity.
- Social Wellbeing: This is about the quality of at-work relationships. After all, the employee doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It encompasses the interpersonal relationships with peers, colleagues, managers, and the workplace community. Strong social connections improve job satisfaction, aid talent acquisition, and promote collaboration.
- Career Wellbeing: This relates to job satisfaction, professional growth, and feeling of purpose in one’s role within an organization. It has strong links to employee retention, engagement, and motivation as it offers the reward of career progression opportunities.
- Psychological Safety: Employees should feel safe to voice their thoughts and opinions, take risks, and make mistakes without the fear of punishment. Such freedom and flexibility nurture creativity, instill trust, and set up transparent communication in the workplace.
- Work-Life Balance: It attempts to strike a balance between work responsibilities and personal life. A healthy work-life balance improves job satisfaction, supports talent retention, and prevents burnout.
- Environmental Wellbeing: This covers the physical work environment and connects it to employee health and productivity. A safe and comfortable workspace makes it possible for employees to stay productive.
- Connection: Employees who fit into the company culture possess a sense of belonging and purpose. This makes them feel like their work contributes to the larger objective, and boosts engagement, commitment, and job satisfaction levels.
Importance of Employee Wellbeing
In the post-COVID age of quiet quitting and Great Resignation, the employee wellbeing program serves as a glue that keeps high-performing employees hooked.
To better understand its significance, let’s explore how workplace wellbeing positively impacts employee engagement and overall organizational success:
Enhanced Engagement
Employees who feel physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially supported at their workplace will also be heavily involved. It stems from the confidence that the organization cares about them, which kindles a sense of commitment.
This belief pushes them to go above and beyond as they deliver more than their basic job responsibilities. Such motivation, enthusiasm, and dedication accelerate goal-achievement. The seamless goal attainment further drives engagement, thus, completing a positive feedback loop.
Reduced Absenteeism
Poor physical and mental health results in frequent absenteeism. For perspective, consider this—absenteeism due to mental health issues alone has jumped by 300% between 2017 and 2023!
This disrupts workflow and hampers overall employee productivity. At the same time, it puts the remaining team under undue stress to mitigate the impact of the employees’ unplanned absence.
Employee wellbeing initiatives offer requisite support to employees dealing with health concerns or mental exhaustion to maintain business continuity. This allows them to stay in the pink of their health and reduce sick leaves.
Improved Performance and Productivity
Employees in good mental and physical health will naturally perform better. A comfortable and conducive work environment will allow them to focus longer.
The social element of employee wellbeing allows them to work effortlessly as a team and collaborate more efficiently. In simpler words, a multidimensional focus on employee wellbeing unlocks peak productivity.
Better Work Culture
Prioritizing employee wellbeing fosters a positive and employee-centric work culture. It makes the employees feel valued and respected. This connects them deeply to the company’s values and mission.
Such strengthening of work culture is a shot in the arm to open communication, teamwork, and trust. The resulting cohesiveness allows leaders and employees to thrive on personal and professional fronts.
Job Satisfaction and Morale
The company’s attitude towards its employees strongly impacts workforce morale. And so, when your employees feel physically fit, mentally at ease, financially secure, and recognized for their contributions, their enthusiasm and satisfaction with their job will touch new heights.
At the same time, companies encouraging work-life balance, providing mental health support, managing workloads, offering flexibility, and providing mental health support are bound to witness an increase in employee morale.
Improved Organizational Performance
To appreciate the role of workplace employee wellbeing, one must understand how its absence impacts business.
According to Gallup, here’s the cost of poor employee wellbeing:
- 75% of medical costs provisioned due to preventable health issues
- $20 million of lost opportunities per 10,000 workers
- $322 billion of turnover and lost productivity across the world
- 15-20% of total payroll in voluntary employee churn costs
These are losses of high magnitude! On the other hand, employee wellbeing programs offer high engagement, talent acquisition and retention, low absenteeism, improved productivity, and so much more, which will trickle into organizational performance.
Talent Acquisition and Retention
Focusing on employee wellbeing in HRM is a talent magnet. We’ve already seen how candidates prioritize companies with an effective employee wellbeing program.
Once you’ve captured top-quality talent, it is only a matter of making them feel involved, recognizing their efforts, and offering opportunities for professional growth to keep them around longer. A thriving and supportive workplace means the employee is less likely to seek opportunities elsewhere! It’s a proven formula for talent acquisition and retention.
Creativity and Innovation
Employees who get the opportunity to work in a stress-free, supportive, and psychologically safe environment are more likely to take initiative and think outside the box.
They feel comfortable while brainstorming new ideas, experimenting with different approaches, and collaborating on innovative solutions to further business objectives. On the other hand, stress and burnout stifle creativity and dampen any drive a person would have to think creatively.
Collaboration and Teamwork
Toxic workplaces where competition and stress overshadow wellbeing create rifts between teams and hinder collaboration.
In contrast, a focus on employee-wellbeing cultivates stronger interpersonal relationships and teamwork in the workplace. The social support and emotional wellbeing allows employees to communicate more meaningfully and effectively, resolve conflicts better, and work collaboratively.
Most employee wellbeing initiatives promote wellness through team-building activities, collaborative brainstorming, and supportive leadership, creating an environment of cooperation and mutual respect.
Safety and Compliance
Stressed, overworked, and exhausted employees are more prone to accidents and errors. In some cases, these mistakes can quickly turn costly.
On the other hand, various Acts of the Government of India also limit work hours to 8-9 hours per day as labor welfare measures. The law also emphasizes work-life balance, fair compensation, and employee wellbeing.
As such, caring about your employee’s wellbeing isn’t just the right thing to do but is also legally mandated. Prioritizing employee wellbeing is the first step for a safe and compliant workplace.
Employer Branding
When companies offer wellness programs, 89% of employees feel more engaged and happy with their jobs. This makes them more likely to recommend the company to others, helping to build and promote the employer’s brand.
A strong employer brand enhanced by employee referrals attracts top talent. At the same time, the employee wellbeing program itself is a beacon of trust as it indicates that the organization is serious about caring for its employees. This twofold advantage offers companies a competitive edge in the talent market.
Customer Satisfaction
Happy employees make happy customers. A highly engaged and attentive workforce, especially in customer-facing teams, is more in tune with the customer. This allows them to deliver top-notch services and gain customer trust in return. Rich customer experiences, when delivered consistently improve company brand, customer loyalty, and business success!
How to Improve Employee Wellbeing?
Now that it’s evident how employee wellbeing affects businesses, let’s move on to the more pressing issue—how does one implement it?
Here are a few actionable tips to improve workplace employee wellbeing:
Enhance the Employee Experience
A rich and frictionless employee experience improves wellbeing by creating a sense of belonging and purpose.
Platforms like PeopleStrong offer AI-powered HR solutions to streamline processes like onboarding, performance management, and employee engagement to make work more fulfilling. These solutions also let you track various metrics and identify problem areas that affect employee wellbeing. Investing in such digital tools is the quickest way to build an employee-centric workplace revolving around wellbeing.
Offer Remote/Flexible Work
Offering employees remote or flexible work options helps them strike an optimum work-life balance. It also reduces stress and burnout.
Flexible work arrangements allow employees to discharge their personal responsibilities without spilling into their professional sphere, and vice versa.
A great way to extend this would be through hybrid work policies, co-working spaces, and access to digital tools. This must be bolstered with a push towards autonomy and an OKR-based performance review.
Grant Access to Wellness Resources
Whether you offer gym memberships or include mental health in employee health insurance, there are several ways to make your employee wellness program more comprehensive.
Therapy sessions, virtual fitness classes, wellness retreats, guided meditation, upskilling opportunities, and budgeting workshops are just a few ways to support your employees’ wellbeing.
Invest in Employee Development
Career growth opportunities and a culture of continuous learning contribute to employee well-being by increasing job satisfaction and motivation.
Grant your employees learning opportunities through mentorship programs, training, leadership development courses, and other upskilling opportunities to climb the corporate ladder. In return, you will get a long-term commitment from some of your best employees.
Create a Positive Workplace Environment
Promote employee wellbeing at workplace from external sources. Start by making your employees feel heard and valued by involving them in the wellness program restructuring/creation.
Kickstart employee recognition programs to celebrate your employees. Invest in ergonomic furniture for a more functional yet comfortable workspace. Such simple employee wellbeing initiatives will have a resounding impact on how your workforce perceives you as an employer.
Wrapping Up
Employee wellbeing is no longer a “nice-to-have” feature. It is of strategic importance, helping businesses create a productive, engaged, and loyal workforce.
The goal is to extend well-rounded wellbeing to build a positive work environment that lets employees thrive. In response, you get higher retention, improved productivity, strong company culture, and compliance.
With technology taking the forefront of employee wellbeing, consider investing in HRMS solutions, such as those offered by PeopleStrong to strengthen your organization. The AI-powered HR solutions enrich the employee experience and strengthen your employer brand. We help you develop a wellbeing-centric culture to improve business outcomes.
Speak with our experts to know more!
FAQs
How does employee wellbeing impact organizational performance?
Improved employee wellbeing leads to higher engagement, reduced absenteeism, better productivity, and stronger talent retention. It also helps create a positive work culture and improves customer satisfaction.
How can organizations improve employee wellbeing?
Companies can improve employee wellbeing by offering remote or flexible work, providing access to wellness resources, investing in employee development, creating positive workplace environments, and enhancing the overall employee experience.
How Can Organizations Overcome Barriers to Employee Wellbeing Programs?
Many employees don’t take advantage of wellbeing programs because they’re hard to access or poorly communicated.
Organizations can overcome these barriers by simplifying processes, making wellness resources easy to find, and offering personalized solutions. Creating a feedback loop and listening to employee suggestions on improving wellbeing initiatives can also increase participation and program success.
