The post-pandemic “great resignation” shows no signs of faltering. A whopping two million Australians are planning to leave their jobs in 2023!
The primary cause? Excessive stress levels and tiredness resulting in poor mental and physical health.
It’s evident that, as an employer, your focus should be on establishing a work environment that supports and nurtures your team members’ well-being. Therefore, it’s time to start promoting wellness in the workplace. Otherwise, you risk losing valuable employees who can find this incentive elsewhere.
Here, we discuss the most effective methods for implementing workplace wellness to help you improve employee retention and boost overall results.
What is workplace wellness, and why is it important?
Workplace wellness refers to activities that support good employee health and positive behaviour. It may involve a variety of initiatives with the aim of promoting employees’ physical, mental, social, and financial well-being.
Promoting wellness in the workplace results in major benefits for your business:
- Better engagement ― When employees feel good, staying engaged and giving their full attention at work is much easier.
- Higher productivity ― Healthy and happy staff take fewer sick days and are vigilant to deliver high-quality performance.
- Improved loyalty ― People are likely to stay in a company that demonstrates genuine care for its employees.
Engaged, productive, and loyal employees feel proud to be part of the company and contribute to its success. Therefore, fostering wellness in the workplace is a highly effective way to boost employee retention and establish yourself as a prosperous and desirable employer.
Methods for adopting wellness in the workplace to improve employee retention
Here are some essential tips for creating a wellness culture within your organization.
Start with an employee survey
Physical, mental, financial, and social factors all impact your employees’ well-being. And lack of assistance in one area can negatively impact another. Those having financial difficulties, for instance, may experience a decline in mental well-being as well. So, it’s crucial to offer adequate support in all of these areas.
An excellent starting point is to construct a survey about various wellness topics. This can help you narrow down the themes your people find most useful. From there, you can monitor the organization’s pulse and provide additional assistance in all of the areas mentioned above.
Nurture open culture and flexibility
When implementing wellness in the workplace, it’s crucial to pursue actions in line with your people’s needs and values. And the best way to guarantee that is to foster a positive culture that encourages: open communication, work-life balance, comfortable workspace, and flexibility.
Speaking of flexibility, it’s one of the strategies that the “new normal” truly brought to life. It creates a trusting environment where people are encouraged to work remotely if preferred. This method also allows employees to have flexible work schedules that take into account personal engagements and goals.
Appreciate and reward staff
Employee appreciation is a crucial factor in maintaining workplace wellness and retaining employees. The reason is simple: to stay, people must feel valued and respected. Therefore, always strive to recognize your team’s efforts and accomplishments. Luckily, there are several ways you can reward your employees.
Here, opting for an award that employees will truly appreciate is crucial. Also, providing financial recognition for outstanding performances is a good practice since this can significantly benefit financial and overall employee wellness. In the long run, this method ensures a positive attitude, better performance, and increased employee retention.
Adopt physical wellness as “business as usual”
With the epidemic still vivid in our minds, people seek employment opportunities that will allow them to maintain their physical health. Set your company apart by providing more than annual health tests and gym discounts. Make physical wellness a “business as usual” activity your employees enjoy.
There are several ways to develop this mindset. For example, plan frequent team-building activities that promote physical activity and the adoption of healthy habits. Or, incorporate brief bursts of stretching into meetings. You can also organize walking competitions, encouraging staff to reach individual and team goals.
Address stress holistically
Excessive stress is often considered a normal aspect of business life. But it’s anything but normal! Stress is one of the most damaging challenges that employees face. When chronic, it can have dangerous effects on employees’ well-being. Insomnia, headaches, and a weak immune system are just a few of the health risks stress can cause.
The best method to promote mental wellness in the workplace is to provide numerous alternatives for employees to cope with stress. You can help employees acquire time management strategies to prevent stressful jumping from one task to another. Or, offer coaching sessions and creative breaks that’ll bring relaxation during busy work hours.
Start implementing wellness in the workplace
In 2023, people no longer want to work solely for a paycheck. To retain employees, you must meet their specific needs and desires.
In other words, you have to implement wellness in the workplace.
So, if you’re ready to provide exceptional workplace wellness and maintain a healthy, productive workforce ― contact us. We’re eager to assist you in creating a work environment that supports your employees and grows your business!