You are concerned about your organizational wellness. You realize the importance of taking care of your employees. Maybe you have even tried implementing corporate wellness programs – but still – employees seem OK at best and your overall productivity or morale is lacking.
Unhappy, disengaged employees, below-average productivity, low morale and a stagnant or suffering bottom line are all contributing to the closing down of too many small to mid-sized companies.
The biggest problem causing this is that companies are not looking at their employees holistically.
Why Well-Being vs Wellness Matters for Your Company to Succeed
Your company relies on humans. They are your foundation, and if your foundation is not strong, neither is your company. Unless you take a holistic approach, your employees won’t feel cared about or cared for as a person. They only feel like a resource.
Humans are complex. They need – you need – more than just physical and mental wellness to function optimally. The key is to look at your employees holistically and take care of all their parts – and we aren’t talking about body parts!
Think about it.
How Humans Are Complex
1. Life is complicated or challenging at times. We each have different needs depending on the day and our stage of life. When life is complicated, your employee gets distracted. If she has a health issue, she may miss work, causing an increase in absenteeism and a decrease in presenteeism. Absenteeism (or lack of presenteeism) costs your company money.
2. Distraction is inevitable. If your employee is feeling stressed and overwhelmed, he is distracted. An occasional “distraction” is healthy (intentional breaks to stretch or hydrate or say hello). But chronic distraction leads to a loss in focus and productivity.
3. Employees want a deeper connection than that of just working a job. They want to feel a part of something great. They want to feel like they are contributing. They want to feel cared about as a human and not just as a position filler for your company. When employees do not have this deeper connection or do not feel that their skill sets are being utilized, they become disengaged. Disengagement is another major contributor to productivity loss.
Absenteeism, continuous distraction and disengaged employees all reduce your company’s productivity. In the U.S., businesses suffer $84 billion in productivity loss annually, as discussed in this HR Digest article. You don’t have to be part of that statistic or one of the many businesses that has to close its doors.
BreakWell’s Unique 8-Pillar Approach to Your Company’s Well-Being
BreakWell was created because of disengaged, unhappy employees. Founder Tara Kraus explains, “When I am happy and engaged with my work, it doesn’t feel so much like work. It feels like I’m contributing to something meaningful. We have done a lot of research on what makes employees happy and engaged and built our approach to organizational “wellness” on these 8 pillars. It involves much more than wellness though, so we use the term organizational well-being!”
BreakWell’s strategy also takes into consideration your workforce growth, because as it grows,
your employees’ needs will change.
BreakWell’s 8 Pillars to Organizational Well-Being
- Physical Well-Being: eating well, exercising, getting enough sleep, and staying hydrated reduce your employee’s risk for chronic health conditions, she is less stressed, and she is more energetic. Example solutions: nutrition workshop, yoga classes, massage.
- Mental Well-Being: her ability to recognize and cope with the normal stressors of life to be able to work productively and meaningfully contribute to the world. Mental health impacts your employee’s ability to think, interact and focus. According to Forbes, 96% of CEOs say they are addressing mental health, but only 69% of employees agree. Example solutions: access to mental health professionals, online stress management sessions, positive mindset workshops.
- Emotional Well-Being: not as easily defined, but often described with the words “happiness, contentment, or the ability to understand and manage emotions.” This involves awareness of, processing, managing and expressing feelings in a healthy, productive way. It also involves building emotional strength and resilience. Example solutions: workshops on anxiety or identifying emotions, access to grief counseling.
- Social Well-Being: having meaningful relationships with co-workers, friends and family, so you also have a support system. This includes removing toxic gossip or exclusion from your workplace. In fact, Randstad USA discovered that 58% of employees leave their jobs because of office politics (whattobecome.com). Example solutions: authentic social experiences that promote inclusivity and engagement, networking exercises, public speaking workshops.
- Career Well-Being: personal enjoyment of work or a sense of alignment with values, goals or lifestyle – not just better compensation or enhanced work-life integration. Example solutions: talent assessment, talent planning and coaching, developmental training.
- Financial Well-Being: According to The 2022 Smartdollar Employee Benefits Survey, 45% of employees say financial anxiety impacts their productivity at work. Their long-term health is part of that concern. Example solutions: personalized financial planning, budgeting workshops.
- Safety: beyond meeting OSHA regulations, lifting with your knees and proper handling of hazardous materials, safety also includes a sense of psychological/mental safety and physical/environmental safety such as cleanliness and no violence. Example solutions: identifying and addressing unsafe behaviors, incentive programs promoting safe practices.
- Community: especially Millennials and Gen Zers want to work for a company that is actively involved in the community and contributing toward positive change. Example solutions: value assessments, social impact planning, volunteer opportunities.
Your employees’ and organizational wellness involves so much more than physical and mental health. And you can see how the 8 pillars can intertwine. Safety impacts mental health. Financial health impacts the ability to have good physical health. Social and community well-being impacts relationships. Everything impacts emotional well-being. And this just scratches the surface.
You can develop a program on your own that addresses these 8 pillars. But if you don’t find out what matters to your employees first, you are wasting time and money. If you are implementing it with already-stressed employees, you are only making matters worse. And it’s always helpful to have an unbiased, outside source to help create and implement a plan that addresses the big-picture problem as well as your employees’ collective concerns.
Would you like help creating an organizational well-being program that really works to improve your employees’ happiness and your company’s bottom line? Use this contact form to request your complimentary 20-minute call with BreakWell. We’ll discuss new, simple solutions to support your complex, human workforce.