Health and Wellness is being seen more and more as a top priority today than ever before. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, employees are recognizing the importance of their own well-being and how it affects their daily lives, including their jobs. This realization has changed how employees value work and the workplace and has led employers to shift their perspective on how employees should be viewed and supported.
Having healthy, happy employees garners greater efficiency, and better services and end-products. Your organization cannot operate at your desired productivity if your employee base struggles with engagement, absenteeism, and fatigue. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2023 Report, “Because their [employees’] engagement needs are not being fully met, they’re putting time but not energy or passion into their work.”
It has been shown that employee productivity and effectiveness are directly proportional to their level of health and wellness. But what is health and wellness? Robyn Povich, owner of Mindfulness with Robyn, states she views it as “Health equals the body, Wellness equals the mind.” Organizations can benefit from placing a higher value on employee well-being. Better health means more money in the bank.
Making changes that positively impact your culture
Businesses have always recognized the importance of health and wellness to a degree, offering various versions of employee benefits and paid-time-off packages. As long as workers were content with their benefits and had a reasonable amount of PTO, the investment into employees’ health and well-being was considered fulfilled.
However, post-COVID has “changed the way we have to accommodate our staff,” according to Annie Lucero, HR Director at Mark Thomas, an engineering and architectural firm based out of San Jose, California. It is “not as much about the work as it is about the people doing the work.” This shift has opened the door for an abundance of programs, initiatives, and workshops that can be implemented into company policy.
At Mark Thomas, the HR team does monthly check-ins with business leaders, have done away with performance reviews, created an in-house mentorship program, and continues to conduct exit surveys. Lucero and her team has “individualized the path.” They focus more on the individual and their needs rather than their workforce as a whole.
Some of the specific programs they implemented have really changed the way their employees view their leadership and company culture. Investing in monthly challenges focusing on things like improved sleep, creating teams for spartan races, and regularly sending out learning newsletters focusing on topics such as heart month and suicide prevention, have all shaped the company’s culture and perspectives on the value of the employee.
What more can organizations do?
Not all of today’s businesses have become as accommodating and understanding as Mark Thomas, though many are on the right track. Organizations can start by teaching their leadership about the importance of health and wellness and the impact it has on employee performance. If management understands the value of what a healthy mind and body can do for their employees, and supports efforts to enhance these areas, their organizations can truly thrive. According to the Gallup report, “Seventy percent (70%) of team engagement is attributable to the manager.”
Buy-in starts with education. Health and Wellness coaches like Povich and Alexa Vella, owner of Good Livin’, an integrated health coaching organization, can help lead workshops and programs on a variety of topics. Vella described an extensive list of what companies can do for their employees. With programs like “physical fitness classes, emotional intelligence coaching, financial workshops, [and] social mentorship programs,” companies have no lack of available assistance.
From Povich’s mindfulness coaching to Vella’s nutrition education, corporate wellness programs can immensely impact an organization’s leadership, as well as their entire workforce.
In a recent HR Advisors Group survey, respondents also mentioned a variety of programs to address the issues important to their employees. High-level approaches these organizations are taking include rewarding steps and nutrition tracking, offering guided meditation, and/or providing financial literacy and retirement planning programs. Other organizations are improving office amenities, promoting work-life balance, providing fitness options, and introducing new programs to support both employees’ physical and mental health.
There can be certain setbacks initially when implementing programs like these, from budget constraints to cultural resistance. However, with proper commitment from leadership, these roadblocks can be overcome.
While the financial aspects of these programs may seem daunting, it’s important to recognize that an initial investment can pay off in future extensive growth. As stated above, a healthier worker can lead to higher efficiency, which leads to greater productivity and performance, which leads to better products and services, which leads to more profitability.
Promoting better mental health through communication
Mental health has had a stigma around it ever since human beings have recognized and categorized it. However, it is silly or unfair to stigmatize something that all humans equally experience. What is so scary about talking about mental health? We all have ills, stressors, and anxieties about all sorts of things. We are all together on this. We all feel the same emotions. So why not talk about it?
Promoting open communication, conducting regular check-ins, and simply asking the question, “How are you feeling?” are just some of the simple steps that companies can take to start opening up and destigmatizing the social norms surrounding mental health.
With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, we will be talking more about mental health and wellness. Stay tuned for “Let’s Talk About It” later this month.
Support your people so they can perform at their best
People are the essential backbone of all organizations. Supporting and lifting up your employees both personally and professionally can lead to dramatic changes in company culture, product, and profit. With better education, support, and investment, organizations today can be better prepared to champion employee health and well-being at their workplace.
