Besides eating and sleeping, most of our daily lives revolve around work. But not exactly in that order. Some will skip meals and lose sleep to complete job duties, causing professionals to not prioritize their wellbeing. The physical and mental health of many employees is in danger due to the fast-food lifestyle and sleep-deprived acceptance. Americans all across the U.S. will put their job and work performance above all else. Thus, money comes before health in this nation and leads to countless Americans having to have side hustles on top of their full time jobs, like trying to sell on Amazon FBA today.
Although, for some, money is a sign of success, for others, it is how they are barely getting by. If they miss one day of work, it could cause them to be short on their rent money. That’s why living a healthy lifestyle and juggling a work/life balance is a full-on challenge. If it were easy, we would all be doing it. But, since it is not, having the support of their employers can help employees incorporate healthy habits to reinforce the importance of their wellbeing.
What Negatively Affects the Wellbeing of Your Employees?
When an employee is unable to sleep, gaining weight, and having increased medical problems, they are unable to bring you their A-game.
Their business environment is likely contributing to the burnout or the absence of some employees. Why shouldn’t businesses turn it around and instead contribute to their health?
Here are some common issues plaguing the health of employees:
- Job dissatisfaction
- Workplace injury
- Heavy workloads
- Unrealistic deadlines
- Unsafe work environment
- Uncertainty
- No trust, honesty, fairness, or accountability
- Lack of support
- No respect for others’ ideas, values, and beliefs
- Stress
- Discrimination
- No collaboration
- Bullying
- Too many meetings
- Workplace conflicts
- Dysfunction
- Poor communication
- Lack of training or tools
- Lack of company policies, processes, and procedures
- Micro-managers
- Poor quality equipment
Although these are only some of the main factors that affect work performance, pay attention to what is happening in your workplace.
20 Ways Your Business Can Improve Employee Wellbeing
Start creating changes to your business with the information you gather from workers and through observations. Take the time to improve the health of employees and watch as they exceed company goals.
20 ways companies can improve employees’ health:
- Offer autonomy.
- Stress management frameworks.
- Inclusionary company culture.
- Physical comfort and safety.
- Workspace design.
- Collaborative competition.
- Remote access.
- Incorporate a wellbeing program.
- Salary increase.
- Non-monetary incentives.
- Relationship with colleagues.
- Relationship with leadership.
- Learning and development opportunities.
- Transparent processes, procedures, and policies within the company.
- Ability to move up in the company.
- Understanding of personal and family obligations
- Office temperature changes.
- Ability to listen to music.
- Flexible work/life schedules.
- Paid-time off.
Not all health efforts need to come after an ailment or issue. There are plenty of preventative measures a business can add to its work environment.
When striving to lower the causes of distress, hardship, and burnout, employers need to look at their environment and culture first. Do they push their employees so hard that it effects their life at home? Are they cultivating a culture of flexibility and autonomy rather than micro-management? The route many companies take is to add a wellbeing program to their business.
What is a Corporate Wellbeing Program?
Business owners, offering employees a corporate wellness plan can helps cultivate wellness. It encourages workers to improve their health and shows you are invested in their wellbeing.
Businesses who provide their employees with opportunities to improve their health do gain from it. Healthier workers are more aware, awake, and alert. This creates an increase in productivity and boosts employee engagement. The goal is to help and prevent illness and simply promote health. Remember to not only think about improving employee’s physical health but their mental and emotional wellbeing, too. If you are considering adding a wellbeing program to your business like boost employee engagement here are some of the benefits to review.
Below are some ways companies can add a corporate wellbeing program:
- On-site fitness centers
- Employee assistance programs
- Naps
- Transit options
- Yoga classes
- Healthy lunch and snacks in the breakroom
- Publish a workplace wellness newsletter
- Create standing desks option
- Create flexible work hours
- Offer one remote working day each week
- Stress management courses
- Health and Nutrition class
- Wearable fitness tracker technology and platform
- Create a positive and inclusive work culture
Remember to not only think about improving employee’s physical health but their mental and emotional wellbeing, too. If you are considering adding a wellbeing program to your business, here are some of the benefits to review.
Why Businesses Should Incorporate a Wellbeing Plan?
A corporate wellbeing plan does have a return on investment (ROI). What you put into the wellbeing of employees, does pay off.
Here are some of the benefits of having a corporate wellbeing program at your business:
- Builds better teams.
- Lower healthcare costs.
- Reduced absenteeism.
- Reduce stress.
- Building a culture of health.
When you work towards improving your employees’ life, you also change the wellbeing of their behavior. How a person feels influences their mood, attitude, morale, and motivation.
You are not only enhancing their quality of life but your business’ quality. Of course, a wellness plan at your organization may not be the answer. You might prefer only adding one or two ways to help your workers become healthier. It depends on your company size, industry, and business model. But some action is far better than no action.
Improving the health of employees needs to become more than talks around the water cooler if companies want to attract – and keep – top employees. All companies need to create a wellness business strategy and put it into action and make wellbeing the heart of the company.
The key to a wellness program at work is that it becomes a business priority. Organizations must commit to the plan, and it should start at the top. This may require making changes to the work environment and team dynamics to create a climate where employees’ wellbeing and your business can thrive.
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