There is much more to managing wellbeing at work than simply knowing what makes employees happy. Employees today are coping with a vast range of physical, psychological and social factors, all of which can have a huge impact on their performance. What can an employer do to help?
Driving healthy behaviours and providing support when needed
Wellbeing is not just about avoiding illness. When employees are in better physical and psychological shape, they have better levels of commitment and performance, as well as better health.
On the other side, unhealthy behaviours, such as inactivity, smoking, or a poor diet, drain energy and performance from a business. And there may be more serious concerns in store. According to 2015 figures from charity Cancer Research, 40% of lifestyle-related cancer diagnoses can be avoided through adopting healthy behaviours.
So employers may be dealing with employees who are not ill but who are not truly well either. A proactive approach woven into the fabric of a health and wellbeing strategy, can help employees identify and address issues before they become serious.
Integrating services to achieve a wellbeing strategy
Through understanding an organisation’s health risks and developing a strategy to address business goals, employers can guide employees to a healthier life, speed their access to support and help them maintain their physical and mental health.
A well-developed programme may combine: healthcare cover, that includes clinically led healthcare pathways; a proactive health approach; employee assistance programmes; occupational health services and virtual private GP services.
These elements contribute to a faster, smoother, more holistic support by: empowering employees and line managers to be proactive with their health; increasing their awareness and understanding of the issues; and focusing equally on attainable psychological and physical health, with support at every step.
Employees with good psychological and physical wellbeing have higher levels of commitment and performance than those of less healthy staff. Healthy workers are engaged workers, and engaged workers are more productive.
Clinically led healthcare pathways get employees back to health, and back to work, faster
Despite an employer’s best efforts to promote wellness, illness and injury will inevitable affect some employees. When an employee needs help with, for example, a musculoskeletal problem, mental health concern or cancer diagnosis, they need support, now. But NHS waiting lists can be long, so how can employers speed things in a cost-effective way, while having confidence they are getting the right route to treatment?
In addition to private healthcare cover, leading healthcare providers offer clinically led healthcare pathways to help with these key business health risks. These pathway services get employees to the most appropriate care fast, without needing to see their GP first. When employees can access treatment earlier, they are back at work sooner or may not need to take time off in the first place.
Healthy, happy, fit employees promote a productive business
But do these strategies work? According to Axa PPP Healthcare’s Health and wellbeing survey, published in XX 2016, over two-thirds of businesses that had invested in a health and wellbeing strategy said it was having a positive impact on their workforce and business.
And in Australian studies, such as The stock performance of C. Everett Koop Award winners compared with the Standard and Poor's 500 Index by Ron Z Goetzel et al, and Linking workplace health promotion best practices and organisational financial performance: Tracking market performance of companies with highest scores on the Hero scorecard by J Grossmeier etc al, both published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in January 2016, there was a clear link between health and wellbeing programmes and huge increases in market value.
For a business, it is vital to build measurement into a strategy from the outset, so it can target investment effectively in future. It is also helpful to establish a flexible programme that can be tailored to business needs as the organisation grows, depending on the results it is seeing.
An integrated health and wellbeing strategy goes further than just duty of care.
It aims to help employees get and stay physically and mentally fit to work. In turn, this supports business objectives, helping employees to live life well, while reducing employee absence and maximising productivity.
Byline to come
