Employee wellbeing is not just a hype trend. Is well known that when employees’ wellbeing is thriving, company directly benefits. Employees take fewer sick days, deliver higher performance, and have lower rates of burnout and turnover. Employee wellbeing Is of paramount importance for work productivity. Employee wellbeing is also important criteria that people use to choose a job and whether to stay at a job.
But what exactly is meant by employee wellbeing?
It isn’t just physical fitness or eating well. It is more than enabling employees to enjoy the vastness of the sky and the depths of the sea. It’s about how people’s lives are thriving. Wellbeing encompasses all the things that are important to each of us and how we experience our lives.
There are 7 key areas of wellbeing:
- Career wellbeing – Work and growth according to potential and interests.
- Social wellbeing –Supportive relationships with family, friends, and co-workers.
- Financial wellbeing – Managing the finance well.
- Environmental wellbeing – How environment positively affects wellbeing.
- Physical wellbeing – Healthy habits and routines for energy to act.
- Mental wellbeing – Coping well with daily life situations and challenges.
- Spiritual wellbeing – Finding meaning and purpose of life.
Where to start in building employee wellbeing?
To ensure the wellbeing for employees we must start at the basics. We must reconsider our attitude towards them. Are they regarded as a resource or capital as the name HRM or HCM suggests or as persons with their own needs, goals and desires. For human cantered, personal approach we must introduce HXM (Human experience or employee experience management). That means that we must tailor accordingly all processes in employee lifecycle to ensure good experience.
How to ensure employee wellbeing?
In above processes of employee lifecycle, we must cover the 7 areas of wellbeing. The most important seems to be career wellbeing and as the employer we can do the most and must address it first.
Career wellbeing
- Put the right people on the right positions. Look beneath the surface. Psychometric tests can help identify employee’s potential and strengths in the processes of recruitment and career development. Hence, we will assure they will like the work they do. The work alone will inspire their inner motivation By using a strengths-based strategy we will be able to create a culture of high development to design good employee experience, from attraction to performance.
- Human centred leadership that puts people first. Develop managers to be coaches. Move the manager mindset from being a boss to being a coach who develops employee performance and has regular coaching conversations to provide meaningful feedback. Being human-cantered shapes our communication style, our mindset, and our sense of trust. Don’t tolerate abusive managers. Remove managers who make employees’ lives miserable.
- Provide growth opportunities with learning, upskilling and career development processes with mentoring and succession planning programs. For individuals to feel satisfied with where they are in their careers, it’s important they have access to the right tools and opportunities to progress and reach their professional goals. Discuss with them their possible career path and Include wellbeing in conversations about career development.
- Balance the level of challenge. Having skills that far outweigh the current challenges you are facing at work can lead to feelings of un-accomplishment. It can be frustrating if an individual wants to feel engaged and satisfied but the tasks they are being assigned aren’t stimulating enough. Alternatively, feelings of anxiety and burnout can stem from too much challenge and an insufficient skill set to complete it.
- Recognise and reward employees. Being recognised and rewarded is an essential element of employee career wellbeing. Reaffirming that they’re doing a good job gives employees a sense of fulfilment, builds their confidence, and therefore helps them feel more engaged at work. It’s also important to encourage peer-to-peer recognition and give employees the opportunity to show their respect and appreciation of their colleagues. Not only will this motivate employees to work towards their goals and spot certain values in the workplace, but also forge positive relationships and create a sense of belonging.
Social wellbeing
Financial wellbeing
Environmental wellbeing
Physical wellbeing
Mental wellbeing
Spiritual wellbeing
Benefits of employee wellbeing
I have stated some measures and programmes that companies can take as they rethink the way they do business. All these themes are important in helping build a better workforce for the future. Companies that focus on these themes will be better positioned to attract and retain top talent. Programs like that are proven to reduce staff turnover, Improve productivity and efficiency, boost business connectivity and performance, reduce absenteeism. When people are in a state of wellbeing at work, they’re able to develop their potential, be productive and creative, build positive relationships with others, better cope with stress, and make meaningful contributions. They also help create better places to work and help companies make the world a better place in general.
