According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s Spring 2013 Employee outlook survey , 41% of employees are reporting excessive pressures at work on a regular and ongoing basis, while 43% feel they are not achieving the right balance between work and home life.
These figures are a cause for concern because evidence indicates that the balance we maintain between work and home life matters for health, wellbeing and performance. Expanding work hours means employees are sacrificing their family life, friendships, interests and, ultimately, their ability to perform well at work.
With employees spending upwards of 60% of their waking hours at work, it is no surprise that smart employers are seeing the correlation between health and productivity, with an impressive 69% of leading organisations making it a priority to bolster their health and wellbeing programme over the next one to two years, according to Towers Watson’s Health and productivity survey 2012/13 published in May.
The benefits of a sustained and ongoing focus on health and wellbeing at work can give a business the edge and help to increase employee health, productivity and morale, and reduce absenteeism.
Strategically integrated wellness programmes have six strong pillars that simultaneously support their success, regardless of the size of the organisation. Those include multi-level leadership inspiration, relevance, and quality evolution, team challenge, vehicles for showcasing benefits, and partnerships and communications.
Leanne Rigby is the founder of Feel Good – Fit For Business