When employees feel that the company cares for their wellbeing, they feel happier and more engaged at work. Therefore, employee wellbeing should be the top priority in any organization.
What Is Employee Wellbeing?
Employees wellbeing encompasses all aspects of an employee’s life, like home life, mental and physical health, work environment and climate, duties, stress levels, and expectations, and how these things affect their overall health and happiness.
Companies must ensure that employee wellbeing is a top priority and that they feel valued. Also, leaders must consider the factors that they can control that are having a negative impact on their employees’ health and wellbeing.
Wellbeing in the workplace equals good physical, mental, financial, and family health.
58% of workers have suffered mental or physical stress in the last two years.
19% of workers said overworking added to their stress.
33% of workers stated that pressure added to their stress.
(Oak Engage Mental Health in the Workplace Report)
Why Should Leaders Look After Their Employees’ Wellbeing?
If employers want to increase productivity, reduce turnover, and boost creativity and innovation, they should strive to create a workplace that supports wellbeing.
Here’s what they can do:
- Offer flexible work arrangements.
- Maintain a positive life-work balance.
- Focus on productivity rather than on working hours.
- Encourage effective and open communication.
- Be clear about expectations and requirements.
- Get training in spotting signs of emotional distress.
- Periodically reassess daily operations and practices.
- Value personal time and discourage the “always on” mentality.
- Organize activities that promote social connections.
- Promote mental health awareness.
- Reward employee achievements and performance.
- Support professional development.
Creating a Supportive Workplace
It all starts from the top down. Giving leaders the right resources empowers them to create a supportive workplace. Once they have all the necessary tools, leaders should perform a health check on their company culture. The idea is to identify areas that need improving, i.e. toxicity in the environment, and implement changes to remedy that.
Also, leaders should engage with their employees at a more personal level by asking feedback and listening to their suggestions so they can customize wellbeing initiatives. By the same token, leaders must realize that employees have specific needs that should be addressed.
What Happens When Leaders Ignore Workplace Wellbeing?
The consequences of ignoring employees’ wellbeing can be onerous for the company. When employees are unhappy, any or all of these things may happen:
-
- Disengagement. Dissatisfied employees generally perform poorly, which impacts their team’s productivity and morale.
- High turnover. Disengaged employees leave the company, which causes extra expenses to the company and may even cause reputational damage.
- Presenteeism. An unhealthy workplace environment may drive employees to work when ill or unwell, which hurts their productivity.
- Leaveism. Employees work through sick days or annual leave because of an unmanageable workload.
- Lower productivity.
Professional Development Helps Foster Employee Wellbeing in the Workplace
Investing in professional development has a positive impact on employee wellbeing and the success of the organization. Among the benefits of upskilling employees are performance improvement, higher productivity, and job satisfaction. Besides, professional development creates career advancement opportunities, reduces stress, fosters intellectual growth, and increases job satisfaction.
Promote your staff’s wellbeing and increase their productivity and engagement with our technology-based language training courses. Give us a call today!
