Ajuda’s absolute guide to promoting health and wellbeing within a business.
Ultimately, encouraging health and wellbeing in the workplace can vary from simple changes and small investments to staff training and wellness programmes.
The main idea is to foster a supportive environment that advocates for communication, confidence and health. It is about enhancing social interactions, building personal skills, and valuing employees.
Why should businesses promote health and wellness?
Apart from the obvious benefits, there are many reasons why organisations should promote health and wellness.
Business advantages that come from promoting health and wellbeing in the workplace, include:
Increased productivity.
Enhanced staff decision-making capabilities.
Reduced risk of long-term health problems.
Fewer sick leave and absenteeism.
Reduced employee turnover.
Improved talent attraction.
Better company culture.
Increased ROI on training.
Healthy employees have better morale, motivation, and concentration. Quite simply, workers can make far better decisions when they are happy and healthy.
On average, healthy workplace environments are 15% more productive.
So, how do businesses create a healthy work environment?
There are numerous ways to promote health and wellbeing in the workplace, and each company will have their unique strategy.
However, here are some steps we think every organisation should take
Establish a workplace commitment.
Firstly, it is important to establish an agreed commitment.
From the management team to the employees, everyone needs to get on board and commit to achieving a healthy workplace environment.
Additionally, businesses should also seek to get everyone involved.
Allow employee voices to be heard. Do they have concerns? Can they identify areas that need improvement? Do they feel comfortable with the current work-life balance? Do workers feel like they can talk about their health problems to the management team?
Next, formulate a plan.
Take employee feedback onboard and identify key areas for improvement. Then, formulate a plan that addresses existing issues or problems.
For example, if employees identify that there are no healthy options in the cafeteria, then perhaps the plan can focus on this.
If employees report high levels of stress, then this area needs to be addressed.
If workers feel like they cannot talk about their mental health problems to the management team, then perhaps communication within the workplace needs to improve.
When creating your plan to promote health and wellbeing in the workplace, be sure to keep things relevant to your workers’ specific needs.
Take action.
Make changes that benefit your employees.
Give them the correct training and education to ensure success.
But remember, some changes will take time to take effect, and workplace culture cannot change overnight.
Overall, if businesses commit to making positive changes, and carefully plan their actions, then they should be able to successfully encourage health and wellbeing in the workplace.
What simple changes can businesses make?
Check out our previous article to find out 5 simple things businesses can do to improve health and wellbeing in the workplace.
To summarise, here are 5 changes we think businesses can make today:
– Promote a healthy diet.
– Encourage exercise.
– Show praise and recognition.
– Improve employee’s work-life balance.
– Educate employees on physical and mental health.