Wellness/Wellbeing & Health
What it is:
Corporate health and wellness have transformed beyond biometric screening and fitness tracking. By incorporating all elements of wellness (physical, emotional, social, financial, etc.) organizations can help their people lead healthy, connected, and engaged lives, both in and outside of work.
True employee wellness or wellbeing is feeling a sense of belonging, that you are connected with your peers and your organization. With an increasing use of technology in the workplace, in-person interactions are being replaced with messaging and texting apps, leading to less connection and more loneliness in the workplace.
Holistic wellbeing means caring about the employee has a whole: their physical but also social and emotional wellbeing. Harvard Business Review found 4 factors that build workplace wellness:
• fostering social connections
• showing empathy
• going out of your way to help someone
• encouraging people to talk to each other
How it impacts culture:
In addition to reducing healthcare/insurance costs and lowering employee absenteeism, a focus on employee wellness can decrease stress, improve productivity, and build inspiring workplace cultures. Virgin Pulse found 65% of companies with strategic, holistic wellbeing programs saw improvements in their company cultures, and the American Psychology Association found 89% of workers in companies that had great wellbeing efforts are more likely to recommend their company as a place to work.
When employees feel socially and emotionally well, they feel like they fit in and belong at their organization. There is more collaboration and engagement, and employees are able to do their best work.
“Wellbeing comes from one place, and one place only: a positive culture.”
—Emma Seppala and Kim Cameron, Harvard Business Review
How to do it well:
In order to improve employee wellness:
1) Focus on the bigger picture of wellbeing. Create efforts to improve the physical, social, and emotional wellbeing of your people. Provide tools to help employees prioritize their own wellbeing.
2) Prioritize connection. Fill your workplace with opportunities for employees to connect and interact. Provide time, on the clock, for socialization, networking, and fun.
3) Provide spaces to connect. Set aside communal spaces for impromptu conversations and meetings, while having more personal spaces for private conversations and business as needed.
Learn more about how to improve corporate culture with employee wellbeing.
