Uncover strategies and advice for supporting health and wellbeing in the workplace you can use to build a productive and happy workforce. If your workforce isn’t healthy in mind and body, you could run the risk of increased staff absence, lower productivity, and even higher staff turnover. That’s why it’s vital to prioritise supporting your employees’ health and wellbeing. To do this, you’ll need to create a positive working environment of respect, support and community, alongside having a tangible health and wellbeing policy based on staff needs. This article walks you through providing effective wellbeing support for employees that complements wider organisational goals.

Wellbeing in the workplace

What do we mean by wellbeing in the workplace? It’s a broad term that encompasses physical, emotional and mental health, which is why it goes beyond standard health and safety measures. Wellbeing at work is impacted by our environment, the colleagues around us, and our sense of purpose in our career path – which all have implications for overall happiness and job satisfaction. Employers can do their bit not only to create safe environments for staff but to create a healthy culture where people are comfortable, happy, supported, engaged and able to perform their roles in a productive way.

Factors contributing to employee wellbeing

There are a whole range of factors that can influence an employee’s wellbeing at work that employers need to be aware of. According to The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), this includes:

• Health: This includes the mental and physical health, and safety of employees, and any health conditions that might affect their ability to do their jobs.
• Work: This encompasses the requirements of the job, the working environment, clear management, staff autonomy, ability for employees and the business to change and adapt, plus pay and reward.
• Values and principles: This area focuses on business leadership, ethical standards and diversity and inclusion. It can be particularly impactful on mental health at work.
• Collective and social: This is the need for positive relationships and communication across teams. Employees also need to feel heard and involved in decision-making, as well as feeling like a part of something bigger through team building and collaboration.
• Personal growth: Offering career development opportunities, fostering emotional connections with colleagues and a strategy of continued learning is essential to cover off this element.

Importance of health and wellbeing in the workplace

As well as being vital for the individual, employees’ health and wellbeing can have a major impact on an organisation’s success. Some of the key reasons why health and wellbeing matter so much at work include:

• Better employee satisfaction: First and foremost, employers have a duty to make sure their workers are not suffering from health problems in the workplace due to the working environment. Supporting health and wellbeing among the workforce will keep everybody happier on an individual level, which then contributes to much wider organisational benefits.
• Increased productivity: Workers who are healthy and happy are much more likely to be productive at work. They will feel more engaged in their work and committed to making a positive impact.
• Reduced staff absence: If your teams are constantly depleted due to sick leave, whether because of physical or mental health issues, then your organisation is going to be feeling the effects of this level of staff absence. A good health and wellbeing culture at work on the other hand can help to reduce staff days off.
• Better organisational culture: A workplace that takes health and wellbeing seriously will have an overall stronger culture, which will be recognised not only by current staff, but also by prospective candidates for open roles, clients, customers, and suppliers.

How to support the health and wellbeing of employees

Fostering an environment where the wellbeing of employees is a priority creates a positive, productive culture and helps to manage and prevent the stresses of working life. Here’s how to implement stronger health and wellbeing support at work.

Allow enough break to support mental health

Work-related stress might show itself in a range of ways, depending on the individual. Totaljobs research shows that one symptom of this is presenteeism. 43% of UK workers feel the need to work beyond their scheduled hours, in order to avoid looking as though they are ‘slacking’. Similarly, a quarter of UK workers feel pressured to work through their lunch break, which can quickly lead to burnout. Managers should highlight the importance of taking time out during the working day and encourage staff to leave work on time to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Encourage team building

It’s not just the job itself that can impact mental health. How they socialise and build relationships with colleagues also plays a huge role in how satisfied employees feel in their careers. According to the mental health charity Mind, loneliness and mental health are closely linked. Feeling overwhelmed with projects has implications. If someone feels they’re tackling a task without support from their wider team or line manager, or they feel their to-do list is unmanageable, this can leave them feeling isolated.

Implement an employee assistance programme

One powerful tool employers can use to support their employees in managing their mental health is an employee assistance programme (EAP). These are confidential support services that employees can use that often offer counselling and health service referrals which could be online, on the phone, or even in-person. They can provide an outlet for employees to discuss personal or work-related issues and help them to manage their mental health.

Measuring the impact of a wellbeing strategy

Employee engagement and job satisfaction are very much linked to the wellbeing of individuals. Often these can be difficult to measure in silos but by mapping out more tangible areas of focus, organisations can form targets as part of their wellbeing policy. Consider how you could track changes to things like:

• Sick days: Track trends throughout the year, to understand underlying causes of absenteeism.
• Staff retention: Compare average length of time working for the business across roles and departments, and make use of exit interviews for qualitative data.
• Employee satisfaction: Utilise an ‘NPS’-like score and ask staff to rank different areas of their job so HR teams can understand employee sentiment.
• Employee engagement: Identify what’s important to your teams and what steps you can take to boost involvement in socials, business incentives, or general involvement in the business.
• Productivity: Harder to measure, but remember quantity isn’t the same as quality; you can also consider introducing remote or flexible working to help staff manage their time in a way that works for them.

Overall, keeping clear KPIs in mind means you can map the success of a wellbeing programme, and insight can be gathered using HR business tools that track company-wide data, as well as internal employee surveys.