If you don't have happy, healthy employees, you don't have much of a business. Yes, when you improve wellness it can boost your business!
It has been shown time and time again that employees who are well are much more productive, creative, and loyal than those who are unwell or unhappy with their lot, which is hardly a surprise.
So, as well as being the right thing to do, it makes total sense that you should invest a not-insignificant amount of time, money, and effort into the wellness of your employees.
The more you can improve their wellbeing, the more they will give back to your business, and any measures you implement will soon pay for themselves.
Okay, but how exactly do you improve employee wellness in your business? Here are a few key places to start:
The more you can improve their wellbeing, the more they will give back to your business, and any measures you implement will soon pay for themselves. #wellness Click To Tweet
1. Show Them You Care
One of the easiest ways to improve the mental and emotional wellbeing of your employees is to show them that they are more than just a cog in a machine. Employees like to feel valued. When they feel valued, their job becomes more than just something they are forced to do in order to earn money.
It becomes a vocation, it becomes a satisfying and important part of their life and this will almost certainly help to boost their productivity, lower their stress, and lead to fewer sick days.
But, how exactly do you show your staff that you care?
Listening to them is a good place to start. Truly take notice of their suggestions, problems, and even their personal life and implement changes based on what they are telling you. If they feel truly listened to, they will know that their wellbeing is important to you, and that can only be a good thing.
2. Reward Them
Rewarding employees for their hard work is another way of showing them that you care, but it is more than that - it is a way of boosting their confidence.
Employees who are confident are far less likely to succumb to the stresses and strains of daily working life than those who are second-guessing every decision and worrying about whether they can do the job right.
So, whether you buy them pizza every Friday to reward their effort during the week or pay them an annual bonus for getting that project in on time and budget, always look for ways to reward your employees.
3. Use Positive Language to Improve Wellness
This is often a lot more difficult to do than it sounds, but if you, and all of your team, can make a real effort to use positive, rather than negative language in your business interactions, it will make a world of difference to the mental wellbeing of your employees.
Affirming language has been shown to lead to more successful outcomes, and it tends not to upset people or make them feel like they are failing. So by couching all of your languages in positive terms, even when you're talking about more negative aspects of your business, you can kill two birds with one stone. Hence, this will boost employee wellbeing while also building a far stronger business.
4. Introduce a Mindfulness Practice
Mindfulness isn't just for Buddhist monks or hippie-dippy types, these days more and more often, mindfulness is being used in corporate settings and it has been helping to transform the lives of frazzled employees everywhere.
What is mindfulness? It's the process of focusing your body and mind firmly in the present moment no matter what you are doing. How does it help?
By placing the emphasis squarely on the now, mindfulness can stop employees from ruminating on past mistakes or worrying about future outcomes that may or may not ever come to pass, It gives them the headspace they need to truly focus on the task at hand.
This results not only in better working outcomes, greater productivity, and more focus but also in better mental health, which is really important right now.
5. Keep Them Safe
Employee safety is an aspect of running a business that is often overlooked above and beyond ensuring that the legal requirements of the company are adhered to.
However, it really shouldn't be because employees who feel safe and secure in the workplace are likely to be happier and more productive.
That's why you cannot understate, for example, the importance of installing cell phone signal boosters in parking structures, so that employees can call for help should they need it. Nor, why you should neglect to set up security cameras around the perimeter of the building, amongst other things. The safer your employees feel, the better it will be for you all.
6. Offer a Great Healthcare Package
If you're serious about improving the wellbeing of your employees, you really do need to offer them a decent healthcare package.
The last thing you want is for your employees to be coming into work every day getting sicker and sicker just because they can't afford to have their medical problems sorted in a timely manner.
Not only will this cost you more in lost productivity and poorer work outcomes, not to mention sick days, but it will also not show your company in the best light, nor will it encourage the very best candidates to come and work for you.
7. Be Generous with Time Off
Speaking of sick days, if you really want to improve employee wellbeing, you should aim to not be one of those companies that go in hard on anyone who needs to take a sick day or who actively encourages people to come in no matter how sick.
After all, it can totally sink employee morale, and for what?
Sick employees are hardly going to do their best work, and if they're contagious, they could even end up passing it on and taking out more of your team.
I learned this hard way many years ago when I worked in the corporate world. One day, I got very sick (from Lyme disease) at the event of a fancy business meeting that my manager had to drive an hour to bring me home and then drive another hour back to the event. I felt so bad for wasting other people's time that day. From that day on if I felt sick, I called out sick. (Even if I ran out of paid sick time.)
If, on the other hand, you're generous with your sickness policy, you'll earn more respect, your employees will feel happier working for you.
And as a result, they'll be more loyal to your company, less likely to fake sickness when they feel like a day off, and much more likely to recommend you as an employee to others. What's not to like?
8. Encourage Exercise to Improve Wellness
Fit employees are productive employees. Hence, fit employees take fewer sick days. And, fit employees tend to be more focused and creative. That's why it makes perfect sense for you, as a business owner, to do everything you can to encourage your employees to exercise regularly and stay fit.
There are a number of ways you can do this from offering subsidized gym memberships or classes to paying for a personal trainer to come into the office twice a week and put them through their paces.
If you set up fitness challenges, chances are you'll appeal to their competitive nature and increase participation but if an employee doesn't want to take part, don't pressure them because that could cause more harm than good.
9. Let Them Work from Home More Often
Working from home isn't for everyone, but some people love it, and not only does it boost their mental happiness, but it also enables them to be more productive.
Then, there are people who would mostly prefer to work in the office. But for whom it would occasionally suit to work from home, perhaps because of childcare issues or similar, who will much appreciate the option.
Homeworkers have been shown to be just as, if not more, productive than those who attend the workplace, so really, if you can offer remote working as an option, even occasionally, you have nothing to lose by doing so.
10. Support Team Building
Team building activities may make a lot of people rill their eyes, and a lot of people dread them, but that's usually because they take no account of what employees would actually like to do together,
If you focus on the personalities of your team and choose a team building activity that won't fill them with dread, they can be a really great way of fostering meaningful relationships between staff. Thus allowing them to have a good time together.
This is important because it fosters friendship and understanding. This friendship helps to stamp out bullying and other upsetting practices that could harm wellbeing in the workplace.
It also helps staff to identify strengths and weaknesses so they can better support each other through each working day.
11. Keep Improving to Improve Wellness
Implementing the above ideas is a great way to improve your employee wellness, but it is not the whole answer, and by continuously monitoring employee wellbeing, you will be able to identify ever more ways of helping them to be the happiest, healthiest versions of themselves they can be while working for you.
As an employer, you have a duty to your staff, and your work is never done. So don't get complacent or let things slide.
Make employee wellbeing a priority and do everything you can to keep it that way now and forever. Your employees and your business will thank you for it.
Your Turn
How are you improving your wellness for your business? Do you take care of your health? And does it differ as you are working from home more?
I'd love to know more in the comments below about how you improve wellness for yourself and your team.
