Holistic approach in the workplace

Why your business should take a holistic approach to employee wellbeing

We can all agree that supporting your employees wellbeing is a no-brainer.

First and foremost, its your duty of care, as an employer, to look after your employees and ensure they have access to tools that help them lead happy and healthy lives. But employee wellbeing is also a key factor that influences employee engagement. Your employees overall health and wellbeing can impact their productivity, performance, motivation, loyalty and also effect their levels of absence and even presenteeism at work.

In fact, 60% of employees say theyd feel more motivated and more likely to recommend their organisation as a good place to work if their employer took action to support mental wellbeing. On top of that, a recent CIPD survey found that the top three benefits of employers increasing their focus on employee wellbeing was:

• Better employee morale and engagement
• A healthier and more inclusive culture
• Lower sickness absence

Theres no question that businesses should support employee wellbeing, but whats the best approach?

A holistic approach to employee wellbeing

When we think about employee wellbeing, the first things that tend to spring to mind are mental, physical and financial wellbeing. While these three areas are of course important, there are in fact many other elements to wellbeing that should be considered when you map out or evaluate your current approach.

Some say that there are eight dimensions to wellbeing, others argue that there are five. While there really isnt a correct answer, the key point to remember is that wellbeing encapsulates a number of different areas. Just take a look at the diagram below as an example.

As you can see, this diagram displays a number of different wellbeing areas ranging from career wellbeing to social wellbeing and environmental wellbeing to cultural wellbeing. Taking a holistic approach and therefore considering the bigger picture of wellbeing, its clear that an employee wellbeing programme should connect with as many areas of wellbeing as possible. Lets take a quick look at a few areas in more detail to provide some examples of how your business can do this.

Social wellbeing

Social wellbeing has actually been getting a lot more attention recently, especially now that more employees are working remotely. The pandemic has been an isolating experience and many businesses, ours included, have taken steps to ensure their people feel connected, are able to communicate easily with their colleagues and therefore maintain their social wellbeing.

Peer-to-peer recognition is a really useful tool here, as well as having an employee hub because everyone in your business can connect with each other, celebrate great work and keep up with whats going on. Organising events and providing other opportunities for your employees to socialise with each other is also really important. People like to feel that they belong somewhere, and this is no different in the workplace. Does your current wellbeing approach consider this?

Career wellbeing

Career wellbeing isnt just about job satisfaction, its about how an individual feels about their job on a day-to-day basis as well as the future career prospects they have. If an employee has the opportunity to advance their career and their employer actively helps them grow and pursue their aspirations, then their career wellbeing is being supported.

According to research conducted by Gallup, people with high career wellbeing are more than twice as likely to be thriving in their lives overall. This is why investing in learning and development is crucial because employees can develop their skills which will then enhance their career prospects. Its also really valuable to give employees regular opportunities to talk about their goals with managers and work together to come up with a plan on how to achieve them.

So, as you can see, providing employee wellbeing support is about far more than just the mental, physical and financial side of things. Its all about looking at the bigger picture and taking a holistic approach. That way, youre more likely to make a lasting impact on your employees lives and help them get to a place of optimal wellbeing.

Our health and wellbeing solution, the zone, is a comprehensive suite of tools that support employees in a number of ways. From an online mindfulness course to a 24/7 GP Helpline, a money advice service to online fitness videos, there are plenty of resources and services to choose from. If youd like to find out more, simply book a demo today and someone from our team will be in touch to provide more detail and show you the platform up close.

Get a useful insight on how to approach employee wellbeing in our webinar Webinar #3: How to approach employee wellbeing during the pandemic and beyond