Wellbeing and the workplace go hand in hand, yet it’s one of the most overlooked aspects of company culture.
Across sectors, organisations are placing the majority of their focus on productivity and progress, overlooking employee wellbeing. But, a happy, healthy employee will perform better and in turn, help to make the business stronger.
But, despite being a forgotten aspect of company policy, there is a raft of modern organisations across the globe thriving by prioritising employee wellbeing in the workplace.
Here we look at the importance of workplace wellbeing and how you can help improve employee wellness within your organisation.
Why is employee wellbeing important?
In the digital age especially, wellbeing throughout the workplace is vital.
Studies suggest that the workplace wellness programmes offer a healthy return on investment (ROI). Moreover, 87% of workers state that they strongly consider health and wellbeing offerings when looking at prospective employers.
The professional world is stressful and given the significant amount of time we spend at work, it’s clear that wellbeing is essential to the vast majority of today’s employees, regardless of niche or sector.
Speaking on the importance of workplace wellbeing, Lalaine Ong, Orbium’s Senior Analyst, believes professional wellness should always be a top priority:
“Employees’ welfare comes first. Everything else follows. Promoting employee health and wellbeing contributes greatly to a person’s overall engagement with the business.
Not only does wellbeing make employees happy at work, but it also helps increase employee productivity.”
Wellbeing in the workplace is essential and comes with its share of business-boosting benefits:
- Improved employee engagement and productivity
- The reduction of absenteeism rates
- A wider sense of community throughout the organisation
- Improved employee health and happiness
- Better organisational adaptability and cohesion.
The likes of Asana and Google are leading the way with their wellness policies, offering the likes of confidential on-site support for personal issues, napping rooms, nutritious organic meals, and free gym memberships. And, it’s these ideas that are having an incredibly positive impact on employee health and retention rates.
At Orbium, we value employee wellbeing above all else. It’s something that has empowered us to evolve and progress as a business, one employee at a time.
“Employees who are holistically well can be more focused and driven at work. They can contribute to a healthier and more productive work environment.” — Lourdes Santiago, Grad Assoc AP, Orbium
How to increase wellbeing in the workplace
We’ve established the importance and benefits of wellbeing in the workplace. To get your business on the right track regarding employee wellbeing, here are some concepts and ideas for your consideration.
Introduce breakout areas
Open work spaces foster collaboration and communication—they also offer ample opportunity to create breakout areas.
By offering your employees flexibility in terms of their working hours, you will create harmony by allowing them to maximise their productivity in a way that suits their personal needs. Moreover, by providing comfortable, vibrant spaces to rest, ideate, converse or even nap, you will improve employee engagement, exponentially.
Encourage mindfulness
Mindfulness is an activity that allows a person to be completely present and in the moment. The art of mindfulness helps to centre the mind, reduce stress, and enliven the senses, free from external distractions.
This meditative activity has a host of physical and mental benefits and by taking the time to encourage your employees to practice it (allow everyone ‘mindfulness time’, run workshops, and provide relevant literature), you will improve attention spans while fostering a happy, healthy workplace environment.
Providing subsidies on gym memberships or exercise classes are equally effective ways of promoting wellbeing in the workplace.
Provide learning & development opportunities
Generation or age aside, people thrive on acquiring new knowledge and developing their skills.
By developing a learning and development programme that empowers your employees to challenge their minds and attain new skills or certification, you will see a vast improvement in workplace wellbeing and thus, productivity. As such, learning and development should feature on your wellness priority list.
Break down social barriers
As a pack species, we as humans thrive in tribes. To promote an ecosystem of wellbeing throughout the workplace, breaking down social barriers is essential.
If you encourage cross-departmental collaboration, offer ‘job swap’ days, and provide regular, relaxed social events and workshops, you will create a culture of wellbeing throughout your organisation.
Sideny Chen, Grad Assoc AP at Orbium agrees with this notion:
“In any organisation or team, morale plays a major role in the productivity of its employees or members. The monthly office events that Orbium holds help with this and give employees a chance to release some steam.
More varied activities can help keep the events interesting and something to look forward to each time.”
Wellbeing shouldn’t be considered a luxury or an afterthought—to thrive in today’s ultra-competitive business world and look after your employees the right way—wellness must become the beating heart of your entire organisation.
