Having initiatives in place to encourage good mental health and stress management enables a healthy workplace. People are more likely to be productive when they feel supported, and productivity leads to a successful business.
Health and wellbeing practices tend to sit within the remit of HRs responsibilities, however buy-in across the organisation is required to adopt a holistic approach to wellbeing. Without a total buy-in initiatives can often fail.
The benefits of recognising good wellbeing practices, include:
- Improved employee engagement
- Reduced employee turnover
- Good company brand
- Reduced sickness absence
- Reduced conflict / disputes in the workplace
- Safe working environment with reduced stress
Where do you start, when designing the wellbeing strategy?
Understanding how the workplace impacts employees wellbeing is a good start when implementing this strategy. Areas to consider include:
- The demands in the role relating to workload, work patterns and the work environment
- The control that the individual has, including their influence in how the job is carried out
- The support provided by the business, including management and colleagues
- How the business supports relationships and responds to unacceptable behaviour
- Understanding the role and what is expected of the employee
- How the business manages change
(Source HSE – The Management Standards)
When considering your wellbeing practices it is vital to encourage engagement across the business, to gain an understanding from your people. Arranging meetings to gather feedback will provide valuable insight. You may already have data recorded in your business, from existing processes.
How do you record employee wellbeing?
Data held within the business can provide the information you need to understand the levels of engagement. HR departments have a number of processes within the employee lifecycle that can drill down on the detail. The processes used to obtain data includes:
- Sickness absence reports
- Feedback from staff engagement survey
- Employee turnover numbers
- Exit interview feedback
In summary, creating a ‘Wellbeing Strategy’ is going to require buy-in from the whole business, including senior management. The strategy will include ‘how you work’ and links in with the values of the business.
If you are looking to implement a ‘Wellbeing Strategy’ and need some additional support, reach out to our HR Consultants on 0345 6460406 or email enquiries@nockoldshr.co.uk