Why Employee Wellness is Important

Employee wellbeing refers to how a person’s job affects their health and happiness and is crucial to business success. It impacts productivity, employee retention rates and affects workplace culture. Employees are at the center of any business and when an organisation emphasises wellness, their teams are likely to be happier and experience less stress.

Since the pandemic, employee wellness has become more important than ever, with 822,000 workers experiencing work-related stress in 2020/2021, a much higher figure than pre-coronavirus statistics. We are a stressed nation, and businesses need to prioritise the mental and physical wellbeing of their employees for business success, growth and stability.

There are many business benefits to implementing employee wellness programmes:

Rates of presenteeism are starting to increase. Presenteeism refers to poor employee productivity; they’re at work, but they’re not working. Poor mental health, poor physical health or an injury can contribute to this, which can result in employee burnout. When employees aren’t functioning to their potential, more mistakes are made, wasting company time and money.

 A healthy workforce is generally a more productive workforce, because employees are more rested and motivated to complete their work. Investing in employee wellness initiatives can help prevent presenteeism.

When companies are actively helping to improve their employee’s mental and physical health, they are less likely to need time off for illness. Encouraging a healthy lifestyle can also have long term health benefits for team members, increasing long term employee retention rates. Furthermore, reduced rates of absenteeism result in cost savings for companies, increasing the ROI for employee wellness programmes.

If employees feel valued and appreciated, their happiness levels will be higher, which echos throughout a work environment. When you offer your employees a wellness program you are telling them that you respect them, and truly care about them, leading to greater job satisfaction. In addition to this, wellness programmes often add an element of fun and variety into the work day, increasing enthusiasm, which has a positive effect on productivity levels.

Encouraging your whole office to take part in various wellness activities can help employees feel more connected to your business, and to each other. These strengthened relationships create a more positive workplace culture, so employees look forward to coming to work. In effect, this then increases worker’s loyalty to the business, increasing the likelihood that staff members will stay with the company longer. 

Prospective employees aren’t just looking at the salary of your job, they’re looking for value. Investing in an employee benefits scheme can help attract talent due to the benefits they will receive upon taking the job.

In conclusion, an effective wellness programme can help vastly improve the lives of your employees, which has a number of positive effects on your business. It’s a win-win situation! Employees feel valued, supported and healthy, and your business saves money on reduced rates of illness, improved productivity and an improved workplace culture.

Here at Aspect IT, we are dedicating every Wednesday afternoon to improving our employee’s wellbeing. With April being Stress Awareness Month, there’s never been a better time to implement an employee wellness programme into your workplace, you won’t regret it!