Employee wellness has been a growing topic of importance nowadays. In any organization, employee wellness is critical. So, what does employee wellness mean?
Employee wellness is the state of an employee’s physical and mental health and happiness. The culture of the corporate business environment gives pressure and no work-life balance on its employees; that is why the idea of employee wellness has arisen nowadays.
The necessity of employee wellness is vital in any workplace and organization because, without the proper physical and mental well-being of an individual employee, the organization can not reach its goals.
Without employee wellness, there can be no productivity and good performance in the workplace, which directly affects the organization’s success and intent. So employee wellness is primarily focused on mental well-being, improving employees’ quality of life, getting proper health care facilities, and promoting healthy lifestyles and attitudes.
Importance of Employee Wellness
Following are the reasons why employee wellness is important in an organization.
1. Improve health status
Most organizations’ jobs require long hours of sitting and performing the job. Being inactive and sitting for an extended period without any physical activity directly affects our health and can cause heart risks, low metabolism, less energy, body pain, etc.
So, employee wellness is essential to improve their health status and reduce the risk of health problems. That means fewer sick days, less absenteeism, and more productivity in the workplace.
2. Lessen workplace stress and anxiety
There are lots of cases related to workplace stress and anxiety nowadays. For example, continuous working and sitting around for a long duration can cause stress and anxiety, depression, mood swings, fatigue, and physical problems.
Burnouts in the workplace can be real and exhausting. So employee wellness programs such as meditation, mental recreational activities, and yoga should be encouraged to reactivate employees’ mental well-being.
3. Low absenteeism rate
The more days employees take sick leaves, the more fatal it is to their growth rate. Encouraging and implementing employee wellness ensure the employees are in good health, both physically and mentally, and decreases the absenteeism rate in an organization.
4. Increased productivity and positivity
When an organization prioritizes employees’ well-being, their engagement and activity level are automatically fostered. Happy and healthy employees are one of the main catalysts to facilitate an organization’s growth rate.
5. Saving healthcare costs
Healthcare costs are increasing day by day, which has left employees pondering whether to invest in healthcare and medical appointments. Enrolling employees in employee health and wellness programs can help reduce health expenses to a considerable amount and create a healthy outlook on life.
6 Ways to improve employee wellness
There are several ways employee wellness can be maintained in a workplace. The stress, challenges, and hurdles in the workplace are not good for their physical and mental well-being; that is why any workplace should enforce employee wellness.
Here are the top 6 ways to improve employee wellness in the workplace.
1. Encourage preventive healthcare
How often have we heard the phrase “Prevention is better than cure”? Well, it applies in the organization workplace too. One of the top ways to improve employee wellness is to have preventive healthcare solutions in the company.
Even if some organizations have wellness programs, they focus only when health issues emerge among the employees. So there should be proper preventive healthcare measures adopted such as flu, covid vaccinations during flu season, or taking group health insurance.
2. Taking more steps daily
The corporate culture has led to employees doing most of the work sitting, leading to a sedentary working style, leading to many health problems such as high cholesterol, obesity, spine injury, heart diseases, etc. So, employee wellness can be improved if the employees are encouraged to get more physical throughout the day.
Whether it is cycling, taking more steps than the elevator, or moving throughout the day in the workplace, it can break the sedentary workstyle of the employees. In addition, fitness programs such as yoga, Zumba, and martial arts can be introduced occasionally.
3. Flexible working time
How many times have we heard the phrase “work-life balance”? But with the exhausting working from typical 9 to 5 jobs, employees feel the real burnout from working continuously.
Employees can take shifts and breaks that suit them. The covid pandemic has forced many employees to work from home, which has made their working hours quite flexible. Even amidst the office working duration, short breaks should be encouraged.
Employee wellness comes from keeping the employees healthy and happy, and to achieve this, taking care of their needs is a must.
4. Making good lifestyle choices
Another way to establish employee wellness is by educating the employees to make proper lifestyle choices. An individual’s lifestyle determines their fitness in terms of physical and mental health.
Thus, employee well-being training and making healthy choices in eating, exercising, and meditating can be occasionally set up in the office clubs. It will create a happy and healthy workforce strengthening bonds between the employees.
5. Establish or reinforce an employee health and wellness program
Another way to reinforce employees’ well-being and cut off the employees’ sick days is by providing them with wellness programs and training. It can help by boosting their productivity, motivation to work, and good employee morale.
Employees’ wellness programs can include fitness activities, smoking cessation programs, mental health activities, yoga clubs, social activities, lunch and healthy snacks, paramedical services, and other employee assistance programs.
6. Encouraging feedback sessions
Having regular team sessions and communicating about work habits can release and share the work-related stress and get feedback from the employees. In addition, encouraging employees to share their personal stories among other colleagues will benefit their mental wellness as they get support.
So, regular feedback sessions and open line communication should be maintained to encourage the employees not to feel burnout and exhaustion during work time.
This will help foster healthy relationships between the employees, taking their wellness into the perfect place.
Conclusion
Workplace employee wellness is an important topic that is growing its headlines nowadays. Employees aren’t meant to work continuously; their health also should be taken care of while prospecting the organization’s business.
For that, organizations can introduce various programs and enforce activities and programs to keep the health of their employees. With this article, I hope you have a clear view of the importance of employee wellness and how to improve employee wellness in a workplace.