Consider for a moment, the findings of research conducted by Deloittes that states that for every £1 invested into Employee Wellbeing, you will receive a £5 return – that’s a pretty impressive return on investment.

When you take the time to show your people you care – in a variety of ways – they are going to be happier and healthier, more engaged in their jobs, and more productive. The bonus is that when your staff are happy and well, this typically leads to better customer service, too. And who doesn’t want that? Here are a few of our low-cost ideas to boost your employee wellbeing and productivity this Summer;

Give more than is expected. 

• Think outside the standard wage and benefits perk box you provide to your employees. Observe them at work (whether that’s in the office or at home) and see what you can do to improve their work environment and make it a more welcoming and pleasant place to be. It could simply be a nice houseplant to go on their desk or a lovely picture frame for them to put one of their favourite family or pet photos on their desk!
• Ask your employees how they are, and really listen. Having someone who asks them how they are and wants to hear the answer is very impactful and shows you acre.
• Talk to them about what their career goals are and discuss ways that you can help them achieve to achieve them.
• If your company has the budget, you could reward outstanding performance with extra perks such as gift cards, dinner at a local restaurant, or a surprise paid day off. It needn’t be expensive, and the small gestures are often the most impactful.
• If cost really is an inhibitor here, why not consider ad hoc personally handwritten thank you notes. They are highly valued by staff and a really lovely touch.

Get the welcome mat out. 

• Make sure that new employees feel welcomed. Have an existing staff member mentor the newbies, until they find their feet, and ensure that they get a full and thorough induction process.

Work in the Cloud. 

• Working from home has become the norm, but have you decided what your new “back to business” looks like yet?Many people love to work from home, but it hasn’t worked for everyone, so get talking to your team about what they would like to do as we start to have restrictions lifted. Taking their point of view into consideration will be really valued.
• By putting as much of your company’s shared content in the cloud as possible, it allows you to work more flexibly and creatively with anyone working from home.
• This will also show your staff that you trust them to work well, even when you’re not looking over their shoulders. From a productivity point of view this is a win-win (as the recent lock downs have shown us), because making your systems available remotely means work does not have to grind to a halt should another lockdown, or any other disaster, make working from the office impossible again.

Safety and Wellness. 

• Offering access to health-based time off for wellbeing appointments such as massage/chiropractors/physiotherapy etc all help when people are sitting and working at desks all day long.
• Alternatively, you could arrange for a masseur to come into the office or visit people at their desks at home.
• Company sponsored flu jabs – the flu season will be here again before we know it, plus we are also expecting Covid booster jabs in the autumn. These can be helpful, particularly for those companies that don’t offer healthcare to their employees.
• Incentives keep employees productive. Productive employees help a company succeed. And the double win here is that some health and safety incentives even lower the costs of keeping your employees employed – think of the sheer number of employee sick days that get taken by the dreaded corona or flu virus…..so a company sponsored flu vaccination might seem like great business sense in this context.

Be on your employees’ side. 

• It is always important to have your employees’ backs, even if an issue has something to do with a customer. The customer is not always right. Show the members of your team that you respect and care about them by defending them when needed. And yes, sometimes that may mean losing a customer.

In summary

So, we know that healthy, happy workers lead to healthy, happy and successful organisations and you should get your £5 return on investment for every £1 spent.  If you want to increase productivity and boost your profits this year, employee wellbeing needs to be at the top of your agenda.

We’ve just launched our new Employee Wellbeing Audit, which is designed to help businesses create their own Wellbeing Strategy which we can then help you to implement. We review all your relevant policies and people practices that relate to employee wellbeing right from the start of the employee journey with you to their exit.

We then provide you with a detailed report and using a simple traffic light system. So for areas where you are failing to meet your legal obligations as an employer in relation to your employee wellbeing is RED. AMBER for areas which you could improve your policies or practices in relation to employee wellbeing, and GREEN for areas where you are doing just fine.

The normal price of the Audit is £1500, however if you book an Employee Wellbeing Audit with us in August or September, it’s just £1200, that’s a 20% saving!

If you want to book your Employee Wellbeing Audit, then you can book in here; Meraki HR Wellbeing Audit

If you’d like to discuss whether the Employee Wellbeing Audit is the right option for your business, then book a chat with Emma here; Book a 30 minute call with Emma