Last week I did a speaking stint on the same platform as a couple of Towers Watson consultants who were talking about their latest health and wellbeing research.
As I sat and listened to their presentation it struck me how leading UK HR and benefits managers are really ‘getting’ employee health and wellbeing as a business tool.
Like it or hate it, the language of wellbeing is transforming itself into jargon that can cause light-bulb moments in the minds of financial directors, CEOs, and senior line managers.
There has been a long-established correlation between employee engagement and an employer showing it cares for employee wellbeing. On top of that, CEOs and FDs understand the link between employee engagement and organisational performance. So now more join-the-dots moments are occuring between all these factors.
Building mental resilience among staff is becoming a core part of established strategy among a few leading best-practise companies as a way to ward off stress (work-based or personal) and to, therefore, boost productivity.
As I said above, you might not like a use of hard business language that appears to turn employees into units of productivity - but if the end result is to see more of the hard-working employees in our organisations being truly cared for body, mind and soul, then surely that can only be a good thing?
I wished you all a blessed Easter and a fabulous long weekend (with time to restore your mental resilience).
Debi O’Donovan, Editor, Employee Benefits
Twitter: @DebiODonovan
