When I am fit, healthy, and well rested, I feel good and make good business decisions. But the savvy business owners and leaders among you have already realised that! Looking after your people as a business owner is a human, ethical and moral responsibility — and it’s good for business too! Higher staff engagement means fewer absences, lower staff turnover and far better business results. Well-being is very much on the agenda this year, so our article here examines the importance of looking after your employees and the impact it can have on your business.
If you take a look around at many businesses and their priorities this year, you’re likely to find that many leaders are finally identifying that improving wellbeing amongst their staff is high on their agenda this year – particularly with everything that has happened in the last 15 months!
However, the cynic in me wonders whether these leaders are just paying lip service to the trend, as the savvy business owners and leaders among you have already realised that looking after your people as a business owner is a human, ethical and moral responsibility — and it’s good for business too! Higher staff engagement means fewer absences, lower staff turnover and far better business results. While most business leaders know this, they don’t always know how to do this!
It’s fairly easy to roll out some quick wins, like introducing healthier options in the staff kitchen or being sent to employees homes and fridges, organising lunchtime walks or online yoga or fitness classes to do as a team, and it’s true that these things can be successful. But if you want to make meaningful changes that will have long-term benefits, you need to think about how you can update your overall business strategies and create a wellbeing strategy and improve your company culture for the better.
So, let’s take a look at some of the areas that you need to be addressing within your business to improve employee wellbeing.
Focus on prevention rather than cure
Poor health and wellbeing isn’t something that can be effectively managed by sticking an Elastoplast over the problem. If you’re serious about creating a healthier and happier workforce, then you need to start right at the very beginning. How can you help your workers to reduce the risk of common illnesses, ailments, and conditions?
There are many options here, though it’s worth noting that it’s often about taking a long-term view, rather than just dipping your toes into some quick-fix tactics. You may be able to organise annual wellness visits, for example, and give staff the option to be screened for things like breast, skin or testicular cancer and vaccinated against flu or of course Covid in the very near future.
Engage via education
You can roll out provisions that will make it easier for your staff to eat well, get their five-a-day, exercise more, and so on. But if you want to make long-lasting changes that are truly embraced, you’re going to have to go much deeper.
It’s important your staff understand what you’re doing, and what the benefits are likely to be for themselves as an individual and for the business and its future potential if they are healthy physically and mentally. The only answer here is education. Inform your staff, get them involved, and ensure they have a vested interest in the success of your wellbeing initiatives and how it will impact their lives for the better. Consider, for example, whether your staff know what their BMI is, and how they can make better decisions about food when they are in the supermarket.
Recognise that it’s not just an HR issue
You might think that employee wellbeing is just the concern of the HR team. If you don’t have an in-house HR team, you might think the only option is to bring in some external expertise. It’s true that some external help could make a big difference for you, but it’s vital you also look at the bigger picture.
Wellbeing concerns everyone in your workforce, from the business owners through to the new temporary recruit. It’s also an issue that needs to be tackled by each business team or function. When it comes down to it, every leader, manager and employee will have to play their role.
You may need marketing and communications support to ensure the messages are well received. The finance team will have a vested interest in ensuring that projects are delivered within budgetary constraints. If you want to maximise your chances of success, you’re going to have to consider wellbeing as a business-wide issue.
Overall business strategy can be a hard thing to do, especially when existing ways of doing things are already engrained into company culture. Sometimes though, it’s worth going the extra mile.
Summary
If well-being is something that you want to get on your agenda, then you may want to consider asking us to conduct our Wellbeing Audit for you. We can conduct our Wellbeing Audit either remotely or in person, whichever you prefer. We will review everything that you currently do in terms of wellbeing, as well as look at all the related systems and processes you have in place that link to employee wellbeing such as your culture and values, employee performance review process, pay, rewards and perks, and your office set up/home office set up.
We then provide you with a comprehensive traffic light report which will identify where you are not meeting employment legislation or best practice standards in relation of employee wellbeing these areas will be RED, areas which you could improve upon from a wellbeing perspective which will ensure you can attract and retain the best people for your business will be AMBER and GREEN will indicate the areas where you are doing just fine. We then meet with you to discuss our findings and help you to come up with your very own Wellbeing strategy for your business.
If you’d like to book your Employee Wellbeing Audit in July or August for the special introductory price of just £2.500, (that’s a 15% saving on the price from 1st September onwards) just drop us a line @hello@www.merakihr.com or you can arrange a call with us to discuss the Wellbeing Audit or Book your Audit here:
