There are two aspects to employee wellbeing: the reactive and the proactive.
Reactive is about dealing with absence or currently presenting issues. We’ve already talked about much of this area.
The proactive side of wellbeing is about promoting health and wellbeing at work, both as a way to reduce sickness absence, but also looking at the holistic health of your employees. Wellbeing is one of those areas that has gained in prominence in the last few years. Like most things HR, there are the fully signed up, Executive team bought-in, strategic priority-type wellbeing programmes. Then there are the much more basic, free fruit in the canteen-type of wellbeing activities. Don’t get us wrong, there is nothing wrong with free fruit, if that is all your budget stretches too.
First things first. If you want to launch some wellbeing activities, you will have cynics to deal with. Who don’t see the relevance, and think that this is some fluffy HR stuff and don’t get the business or strategic angle. It might seem logical to a HR professional that if employees are healthy and well, then they will also be more engaged and productive, but you might need more than that to get a programme up and running. When it comes to the business case, your best bet for calculating some elusive return on investment is your absence data. Whilst the impact upon how an employee feels about health and wellbeing initiatives is a little harder to calculate, most organisations will have hard data on absence in all its many forms.
Before you do anything around planning for wellbeing initiatives, you first need to understand where you are now, and where you are going. What are the desired outcomes from any organisational focus on wellbeing?
So once you have done the how, you will need to come to the what. Frankly, there is absolutely loads you can do within a wellbeing programme. Health seminars, stop smoking help, health screening, Employee Assistance Programmes, health cash plans, health advice and promotion…. Typical topics include resilience, managing stress and change, nutrition, weight loss, exercise, energy, or even topics like debt and financial wellbeing. Some organisations run challenges on everything from steps per day to hydration. Then there is the option of aligning your activities to national campaigns on everything from heart disease to diabetes.
The list goes on. What you choose to do will come down to your budget and your own particular needs. What we will say, is that HR should be doing it. We live in a society where people are living longer, but they are also living with a whole range of serious health conditions. Dementia, obesity, heart disease, diabetes. These medical and lifestyle conditions are increasing, and they will be impacting your organisation both in terms of the obvious sickness absence, but the less obvious area of productivity and efficiency. So make it part of your people strategy, somewhere.
Recommendations on wellbeing:
• Link it to your current challenges. What does your absence data tell you is driving your absence or health issues, and make sure that your wellbeing activities will support these challenges.
• Look at your current costs of absence as a starter for your business case. What is it costing you per employee, per department? What does it cost you not only in sick pay but in all the other costs too like paying overtime for cover?
• Decide on your definition of wellbeing; how wide are you going to take it? Is this about being reactive to current problems, or do you want to move into preventative health? Are you going to include mental health, financial health, education on health? Let your business aims help you set your framework.
• Look at the art of the wellbeing possible through your flexible benefits programme if you have one.
• Don’t overlook the benefits of an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). Whilst take up is often low, for those employees that use it, it can be a lifeline. If you shop around, they don’t have to be overly expensive. The counselling aspect alone will often provide help to your employees much more quickly than they can access it anywhere else.
• Measure your results. Take up is a good one to start with, albeit a little blunt, as it doesn’t actually tell you if those attending actually make any changes. But monitor your absence trends prior and post, as well as taking actual feedback from those who attended.
• Test stuff, especially wellbeing is entirely new to your organisation. Offer a range of activities and identify what people are interested in.
• Recognise that some people won’t want to get into this conversation at work and therefore won’t want to participate. That is just fine.
• If you are using third parties, perhaps for health screening or the like, make sure that employees are aware that this data is between them and the health professional. Because the cynics will otherwise think that it is all being reported back to HR.
Role of Human Resource In Organization. Human Resource Management.Practical guide to Human Resource. Human Resource Definition.Human Resource certification.Human Resource employment
Role of Human Resource In Organization. Human Resource Management.Practical guide to Human Resource. Human Resource Definition.Human Resource certification.Human Resource employment
Role of Human Resource In Organization. Human Resource Management.Practical guide to Human Resource. Human Resource Definition.Human Resource certification.Human Resource employment
Role of Human Resource In Organization. Human Resource Management.Practical guide to Human Resource. Human Resource Definition.Human Resource certification.Human Resource employment
Role of Human Resource In Organization. Human Resource Management.Practical guide to Human Resource. Human Resource Definition.Human Resource certification.Human Resource employment
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