Why develop an employee wellbeing strategy?
Enhancing employee wellbeing in the workplace is a crucial step towards looking after your people and improving organisational performance.
One way to ensure employee wellbeing is prioritised is through the development of an employee wellbeing strategy which can be continuously developed in order to cultivate a healthy workplace.
An employee wellbeing strategy will focus on the financial, physical and psychological wellbeing of your workforce. It should consider immediate support, as well as more long term positive and preventative approaches to help people to thrive at work.
A well considered and implemented employee wellbeing strategy is proven to increase employee engagement leading to increased organisational performance.
Importantly, an employee wellbeing strategy will be unique to each organisation, its people and its needs. In this guide, we provide useful information on what organisations can focus on in their strategies. We look at how to improve employee engagement through your wellbeing strategy, and how to measure the efficacy of initiatives to seek continuous improvement.
What types of wellbeing should your strategy address?
An organisation’s employee wellbeing strategy should be holistic and address psychological, physical and financial wellbeing. Mental Health at Work suggests that the below areas of wellbeing should be considered when developing short and long-term employee wellbeing initiatives:
Psychological / Social
- Positive emotions (mental health)
- Engagement – the right work environment to be engaged
- Relationships
- Meaning – spiritual and purpose
- Accomplishment
Physical
- Sleep
- Nutrition
- Exercise
Financial
- Budgeting/ planning
- Redundancy support
- Retirement planning
- Debt management
Why is an employee wellbeing strategy so important?
The CIPD states: ‘for businesses, attracting the right talent is essential, but making sure people are happy, healthy and engaged is fundamental to sustainable business performance’.
It makes sound business sense to promote and invest in the wellbeing agenda of your organisation, which will lead to increasingly resilient, engaged and productive employees. As a result, an employee wellbeing strategy will have a positive impact on organisational performance.
Unfortunately, wellbeing strategies are not always given the attention and investment they deserve in organisations due to a number of factors.
It could be that organisations do not understand the true value of promoting wellbeing in the workplace and the impact this could have on employees and performance. Or, you may not be aware of what initiatives are available. Another issue is that businesses may struggle to prove the worth of wellbeing strategies as they are notoriously difficult to measure and evaluate.
These obstacles can be overcome. We can position employee wellbeing as an intrinsic part of our overall business strategies and reap the rewards of a highly engaged workforce.
Wellbeing initiatives to include in your employee wellbeing strategy
The initiatives that you choose to implement will be unique to your own organisation’s needs and resources, as well as those of your employees. Some areas to consider are listed below.
Health Promotion
This could involve initiatives supporting employee mental and physical health, as well as physical safety, such as:
- Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP)
- Occupational health support
- Health promotion training
- Safe working practices
- Training line managers in having difficult conversations
A Good Working Environment
- Tailored physical working environments to suit roles and individuals
- Effective line management (training)
- Reviewing job design, workload and job satisfaction
- Flexible working
- Non-financial recognition
Values
- Clear mission and objectives to set out purpose
- Volunteering opportunities
- Organisational values and guiding principles
- Diversity and inclusion
- Valuing difference
- Corporate social responsibility
Positive Relationships
- Ensuring dignity and respect
- Promoting employee voice
- Management style
- Teamwork
- Effective communication
Personal Growth
- Mentoring and coaching
- Resilience training
- Training on aspects of financial wellbeing
- Performance development plans
- Regular feedback from management
Key considerations for an effective wellbeing strategy
You don’t need to include all of the above in your workplace wellbeing strategy but it’s a good start to consider how you might address these in light of the size and financial position of your business.
When you come to addressing each item, it’s important not to try to address all areas of wellbeing at the same time. Consider, instead, choosing specific areas of wellbeing to focus on. Give one or two areas your full attention and investment at a time to ensure maximum impact.
It is also important to undertake the following.
1. Consider your business objectives for introducing an employee wellbeing strategy
Is it to: reduce absenteeism; increase productivity and engagement; or show employees that they are valued? This will help to inform your strategy.
2. Identify areas of focus for your employee wellbeing strategy by seeking ideas from employees
You can achieve this through a survey or focus group sessions. Some employers research their wellbeing at work strategies as part of a wider employee engagement survey.
3. Engage employees in all stages of the development of the strategy
Continue to engage employees in the journey of developing the strategy and in evaluating its effectiveness.
4. Integrate the employee wellbeing strategy into your organisation
Integrate the wellbeing strategy into the culture and overall strategy of the organisation.
5. Bring your leaders onboard
Ensure leadership and management buy-in to the strategy; they should be acting as role models in the organisation.
6. Enlist wellbeing champions
Identify wellbeing champions to engage colleagues in the strategy and initiatives.
7. Identify your wellbeing priorities
Consider short, medium- and long-term which align with your organisation’s overall strategies and business plans.
How to engage employees in your wellbeing strategy
It is important to engage employees in developing the wellbeing strategy and identify the areas that most require investment and focus. Keep in mind that you will also need to consider how to retain your employees’ engagement as the strategy is rolled out in the medium and long term.
Branding
As with all strategies, effective branding is essential. Consider how to make the presentation and resources associated with the wellbeing strategy eye-catching, exciting and fun, to generate interest around the initiatives and get people talking.
Effective scheduling
If you have a workforce working on shift patterns, ensure that there is a variety of wellbeing activities on offer across all schedules.
Reflect national trends
As your wellbeing strategy evolves, you could link particular national awareness days, such as World Mental Health Day and Mental Health Awareness Week, to the initiatives you are running, and adapt your offering to emerging health issues.
The role of line managers
Line managers should act as role models in engaging with initiatives offered through the employee wellbeing strategy. They can engage their teams in conversations around the strategy, encouraging their participation and feedback.
This will be beneficial for line managers in the long term as they start to see improvements in the health and wellbeing of their team. As an added bonus, this will positively impact on their team’s productivity.
Seek feedback
Continue to seek feedback from employees on your employee wellbeing strategy through informal forums, surveys or employee focus groups. This will ensure the offering remains valid and adapts with the changing needs and priorities of the business and your workforce.
How to measure the success of an employee wellbeing strategy
Evaluating the efficacy of your organisation’s employee wellbeing strategy is important to demonstrate to your leadership team its value. This will also ensure it is correctly targeted to your employees’ specific needs. However, it can be difficult to decide how best to do this due to the qualitative and often subjective nature of the impact and results.
What improvements are you looking for?
When deciding on how you will measure the success of your organisation’s wellbeing strategy, it’s important to consider what you are trying to achieve through implementing the strategy. You may seek to make improvements on the below measurables:
- Workforce productivity
- Reducing the absence rate
- Staff retention and, therefore, reducing the rate of staff turnover
- Employee engagement and satisfaction
Methods of measuring wellbeing
Identifying the specific ways these are measured will be dependent on your organisation and the resources you have available. Some suggestions include rolling out an engagement survey across all staff. By running these on a quarterly basis you can measure improvement and ensure the strategy is effective.
Read our guide: How to conduct an employee engagement survey
You could also use your HR system to measure employee absence rates and plot these on a graph to demonstrate the strategy’s impact over time.
Find out more: HR Software and Information Systems
Ideally, taking a measurement before you implement the wellbeing strategy and again, after a reasonable period of time following its implementation, will provide you with a useful comparison to demonstrate how well you have achieved your objectives.
Investing in wellbeing
Remember that an employee wellbeing strategy will not have an impact on your organisation’s bottom line over night; it will be a gradual improvement over the long term. However, a wellbeing strategy is a crucial and worthwhile investment, particularly at a time when health concerns have come to the forefront of our minds.
Advice from our Policy and Process Manager
“Wellbeing has been on the agenda for some time now, and with good reason too. Research suggests that where employers place importance on employee wellbeing, they have a healthier and more inclusive culture, improved work-life balance, better morale and engagement, and in return, better productivity.
But wellbeing shouldn’t just be a ‘nice to have’ – it should be front and centre of the business strategy, integrated into every area of the business. There’s nothing worse than having a ‘tick-box’ policy.
And in order to embed it in all areas of the business, everyone must take responsibility:
- HR/People teams must ensure wellbeing becomes an every day narrative, supporting senior leaders to see wellbeing as a priority given the benefits it brings. They have a key role in upholding the values of a healthy workplace, promoting the workplace benefits and offerings that support wellbeing, all whilst guiding line managers to implement policies and initiatives with compassion and consistency.
- Senior leaders must lead by example and prioritise their own wellbeing and boundaries. Others will see this and reflect similar practices. But senior leaders can also influence the prioritisation and decision-making in areas of wellbeing, so they really are key players in this area.
- Line managers are crucial to ensuring wellbeing is embedded into the business – they are the ones managing the workforce day-to-day, and so are in a privileged position of being able to spot early warning signs of mental or physical health conditions. They can promote open, compassionate dialogue to ensure employees receive the support they need at different stages of their lives.
- Employees can help to guide the wellbeing agenda by sharing what is most important to them as a group, whilst also taking responsibility for looking after their own health and wellbeing. They are the ‘temperature check’ that line managers and senior leaders need to listen to, to help shape a positive culture.
There is no ‘off the shelf’ approach to employee wellbeing – every organisation’s wellbeing strategy will look slightly different, to reflect the unique needs of the workforce they support. But they should always seek to be as holistic and inclusive as possible. We shouldn’t just think of archetypal family set-ups – what about LGBTQ+ communities, those with step-children, those undergoing fertility treatment, those with eldercare responsibilities, transnational families, intergenerational households, or perhaps those going through surrogacy or adoption.
We also need to shift the narrative away from work and personal life being separate entities – what happens at home affects work, and vice versa. It’s a fact. And it’s time that we started shaping our wellbeing policies and initiatives to recognise this. Only then we will really get the best out of our teams.“
Lisa Alexander, Policy and Process Manager
How Fitzgerald can help
Our team of people and culture experts can partner with you to create a wellbeing strategy tailored for your organisation, as well as taking ownership of driving and implementing initiatives so your wellbeing strategy takes traction. Contact us today on 0330 223 5253 or office@fitzgeraldhr.co.uk.
