Best Strategies to Improve Your Employees’ Health and Well-Being

Shadi Hamdan

Employee wellness and business performance are connected in many ways. Employees who are healthy and happy create a thriving workplace, have higher levels of productivity and create a greater impact on the bottom-line than those who are not.

Investing time and resources in employees’ well-being not only improves their health and quality of life, it also reduces the overall cost of the company’s health care plan. Here’s how implementing a good wellness program can improve your workplace:

Increase employee engagement and productivity
Manage stress management and reduce debt reduction
Improve overall health
Lower injuries
Help avoid health complications
Boost morale
Improve attendance
Enhance communication and teamwork

How to improve employee well-being?

The good news is that employee well-being can be supported and developed. After researching the practices of Certified™ great workplaces and employee survey data, we know that six key practices are proving to help managers enhance employee well-being:

1. Measure employee well-being regularly

Employees’ needs are individualized and always evolving. This makes surveying, listening and measuring essential tools for understanding employees’ current experiences and tailoring strategies to support them.

2. Send powerful, simple signals that well-being matters

A crucial first step in acknowledging the emotional burdens employees may be facing is to let employees know their company and leaders care and that their organizations support them. This can be as simple as leaders modeling the behavior themselves.

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Find out how you can power your people analytics function and show the world you’re a great workplace with our Great Place to Work-Certification™ process.

3. Connect employees with human experts

Well-being needs personalization, making coaches, experts and counselors critical resources to guide employees in developing strategies and skills for their own situations, strengths and values.

This is particularly true for mental health, an area where the Best Workplaces are rapidly expanding their support.

5. Foster an environment of ongoing development and learning

Improve employees’ capacity to achieve better well-being with self-development courses, mentorship and open communication about professional goals and work-life harmony.

6. Empower people to shape their contribution

Allow employees some level of autonomy in their work while linking their role to the outcomes of the organization. This can help provide a sense of control and purpose – key elements in fostering a sense of well-being.

Many have attempted to repair poor employee well-being with band-aid fixes like meditation apps and smartwatches. But, like any problem in life, you must uncover the root cause – and fix it at that level – if you want a long-lasting solution.

Are your employees are experiencing well-being at work?

Get in touch with Great Place to Work to survey your employees and benchmark your company culture. With our Trust Index™ survey you can measure employee well-being at your workplace and identify clear areas of opportunity.