To improve employee wellbeing, you really have to know what makes staff tick–both in positive and negative ways.
Staff burnout and lack of engagement are (unfortunately) commonplace now more than ever.
For instance, recent research shows that 75% of employees have dealt with burnout at some point – with 40% of them stating it’s gotten worse in recent years.
It takes dedicated employers to reverse these issues.
To improve employee health and wellbeing, consider the following strategies:
- Conduct employee surveys
- Encourage work-life and workload-balance
- Foster career development
- Offer Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)
- Prioritize employee mental health
- Support diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Carve out time to focus on company culture
Continue reading as we'll expand on each strategy further in the blog post.
What is Employee Wellbeing?
Employee wellbeing refers to the overall state of health, happiness, and satisfaction of employees within an organization.
It encompasses various aspects of an employee's life, both inside and outside the workplace, and is influenced by factors such as physical health, mental well-being, work-life balance, job satisfaction, and engagement.
What Makes Up Employee Wellbeing?
Employee wellbeing is composed of various factors that contribute to someone's overall health, happiness, and satisfaction in the workplace.
While the specific components may vary across job types and industries, here are some key elements that makeup employee wellbeing.
Components of employee wellbeing often include:
- 💪 Physical health: Encouraging employees to adopt healthy lifestyles, providing access to healthcare resources, promoting regular exercise, and offering wellness programs.
- 🧠 Mental well-being: Supporting employees' mental health by creating a positive work environment, reducing stress levels, offering mental health resources, and promoting work-life balance.
- 😥 Emotional support: Recognizing and addressing the emotional needs of employees, fostering a supportive and inclusive workplace culture, and providing access to counseling or employee assistance programs.
- ⚖️ Work-life balance: Supporting employees in managing their personal and professional lives, promoting flexible work arrangements, and encouraging time off and vacation.
- 💼 Job satisfaction and engagement: Providing meaningful work, opportunities for growth and development, recognizing achievements, and promoting a positive work culture that fosters motivation and engagement.
- 💸 Financial wellness: Offering financial education, resources, and support to help employees manage their personal finances, plan for the future, and reduce financial stress.
Strategies to Increase Employee Wellbeing
Improving employee wellbeing has become increasingly important in the modern workplace as organizations recognize the benefits of investing in the health and happiness of their employees.
When employees are well supported, they tend to be more productive, engaged, and motivated, leading to improved performance and business outcomes.
We recommend implementing the below strategies to increase employee wellbeing in your workplace.
1. Conduct Employee Surveys
Employee surveys allow organizations to gather feedback directly from employees, giving them a voice to express their concerns, challenges, and needs.
They are a great channel for team members to raise specific issues or concerns related to their wellbeing.
Whether it's work-related stress, lack of resources, or inadequate support, employees can highlight these concerns through survey responses.
Our employee survey company finds that by asking specific questions about various aspects of wellbeing, such as work-life balance, job satisfaction, and support systems, organizations can gain insights into areas that require improvement.
And yes, there’s more where that came from.
Watch our video on additional employee survey benefits:
It's important to note that conducting surveys is just the first step.
To truly improve employee wellbeing, organizations must be committed to acting on the feedback received, implementing meaningful changes, and regularly reassessing and adapting their strategies based on the evolving needs of their workforce.
💡 The Key Takeaway: To improve employee health and wellbeing, staff surveys are the step that needs to be taken. Through them, leadership will be able to pinpoint key areas of improvement. Once identified, steps can be taken to implement new systems that can promote employee wellness.
Recommended Reading: Using a Third-Party for Employee Surveys [Costs, Process, Benefits]
2. Encourage Work-Life and Workload-Balance
In today’s technology-centric world, more and more organizations are offering flexible work arrangements, such as remote work options, flexible scheduling, or compressed work weeks.
In cases where remote or hybrid work is not possible, encourage employees to take breaks and vacations to recharge or other organizational strategies to promote work-life balance.
Beyond that, when improving employee wellbeing, organizations should focus on workload balance as well.
In other words, ensure workloads are reasonable and manageable for employees.
Managers should host weekly meetings with each team member to encourage prioritization, effective time management, and provide resources or support to manage workloads appropriately.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Regular check-ins with employees can help with prioritization and workload management. This ensures a good balance between work and life responsibilities.
3. Foster Career Development
Offer opportunities for employees to develop their skills and advance their careers.
Provide training, mentorship programs, and clear pathways for growth within the organization. This promotes a sense of purpose, satisfaction, and personal growth.
In the same sentiment, it is important to recognize and reward these achievements.
Ways to acknowledge and reward employees for their contributions include:
- Employee recognition programs
- Regularly commending employees' efforts when they do a task outside of their role
- Providing opportunities for them to celebrate their successes
💡 The Key Takeaway: To improve employee wellbeing, organizations should offer opportunities for career development, provide training and mentorship programs, and establish clear pathways for growth
4. Offer Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)
Organizations should consider providing confidential resources and counseling services to support employees' mental and emotional well-being.
EAPs can help employees cope with personal or work-related challenges, stress, and other difficulties they may encounter.
Another like-minded strategy is to train and support managers to be effective leaders who prioritize employee wellbeing.
For instance, consider providing training in areas such as communication, conflict resolution, and emotional intelligence.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Increasing employee wellbeing starts from the top. Train managers to be effective leaders who prioritize employee wellness through communication, conflict resolution, and emotional intelligence training.
5. Prioritize Employee Mental Health
Additional employee wellbeing initiatives should focus on mental health in the workplace.
Recently, a study found that 9 in 10 businesses provide at least one form of wellness outreach for staff.
Consider implementing these mindful strategies:
- Meditation sessions
- Group sharing activities
- Advice/talks from local wellness professionals
If this is a little uncomfortable for you, that’s normal.
However, implementing these strategies to improve job satisfaction even per quarter could have a positive impact on employee wellbeing.
What’s more, employees will begin to recognize work as a safe space where they are open to leadership.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Ways to improve employee wellbeing can be found in mindfulness initiatives–this can be anything from brief meditation practices to guest speakers.
6. Support Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is a crucial strategy for improving employee wellbeing and creating a positive work environment.
By actively fostering a diverse workforce individuals from various will feel recognized and appreciated.
This should go beyond valuing all races, genders, and sexual orientations, but also valuing what diversity brings to the organization.
Each team member has diverse perspectives, experiences, and ideas that should all be taken into consideration.
Our employee survey company would also recommend establishing metrics and mechanisms to measure progress and hold the organization accountable for DEI initiatives.
This can be achieved by regularly assessing the representation, engagement, and satisfaction of employees from diverse backgrounds through DEI surveys.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Foster a diverse and inclusive workplace where all employees feel respected, valued, and supported. Address biases, promote equal opportunities, and create a sense of belonging for everyone.
7. Carve Out Time to Focus on Company Culture
Another way employers can help improve employee wellbeing is to incorporate some fun into the office – whether that’s remote or virtual.
In fact, our workplace wellness survey found that a good work culture outweighs having a bad manager for 53% of the U.S. workforce.
Carve out some time each week, or bi-monthly, to host happy hours at the office (or on Zoom), where employees can step away from work duties for a bit and unwind.
Playing a few games or simply chatting with one another are good ways to relieve stress and go back to work projects feeling a little refreshed.
💡 The Key Takeaway: A great way to improve employee wellbeing just having fun. Incorporating office parties and semi-regular gaming or happy hours take the stress out of work and allow for a nice break.
Recommended Reading: How to Improve Workplace Culture for Better Long-Term Employment
Final Thoughts
By prioritizing and improving employee wellbeing, organizations can create a positive and supportive work environment that contributes to the overall success and happiness of their employees.
As discussed in this article, organizations can promote employee wellbeing through a range of initiatives and policies, such as:
- Wellness programs
- Employee benefits
- Flexible work arrangements
- Mental health support
- Professional development opportunities
- Promoting a healthy work-life balance
Although the greatest way to measure and understand your employee's specific needs for increasing their wellbeing is through surveys.
Custom employee surveys will pinpoint specific areas of improvement your organization must focus on to improve morale, team engagement, and the overall workplace.
Improve Employee Wellbeing With Our Employee Survey Company
Did we convince you that in order to have a great company, you need to improve employee wellbeing? We hope so. Any company can benefit from the strategies we’ve mentioned in this post.
Drive Research is a market research company based in New York. Our team has years of experience in employee surveys and can craft one according to your specific business needs.
Want to know more about our market research services? We want you to! Talk to us through any of the ways below.
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Lark Allen
As a Content Marketing Specialist, Lark has a strong background and passion for creative, professional, and journalistic writing. She is also a self-proclaimed music freak and 90s enthusiast.
Learn more about Lark, here.
