Wellbeing helps you succeed at work and in life.
Corporate wellbeing helps you succeed at work and in life, yet it is a sorely misunderstood function by most. The biggest misperception is that people equate it to the wellness perks that promote health related behaviors.
Supporting healthy behaviors is an important part of wellbeing but most companies leave it up to the individual employees to develop their own self-care practices. It’s clear no one wants someone from their company dictating what to eat or how and when to exercise.
“Healthy” means different things to different people and it is rarely defined in relation to a specific diet or the exercise guidelines. We learned that from our initial research into what healthy means.
How is wellbeing defined?
I developed an appreciation for the full breath of the function when I started a corporate wellness certification earlier this year. The definition alone sheds some light on the breadth.
Wellbeing is the ability to function optimally in a given environment.
What is required to support optimal performance differs slightly from organization to organization because the type of work and related risks are often different. With that said, there are currently thirteen factors that contribute to optimal performance in the workplace.
Thirteen factors supporting health and wellbeing in the workplace
1/ Organizational Culture
2/ Psychological Demands
3/ Balance
4/ Civility & Respect
5/ Psychological Protection
6/ Growth & Development
7/ Clear Leadership & Expectations
8/ Recognition & Reward
9/ Protection of Physical Safety
10/ Psychological & Social Support
11/ Engagement
12/ Involvement and Influence
13/ Workload Management
Are your company’s wellbeing efforts working?
The quickest way to know whether your company’s wellbeing programs are working, is to look at why people leave your organization. It may be culture fit, skill deficit, poor workload management, excessive stress, inappropriate workplace behavior, inadequate compensation or simply a better opportunity. A good exit interview will help to uncover the reasons.
According to a FlexJobs survey, toxic corporate culture is number one with 63% followed by salary 59%, poor management 56% and fourth is a lack of healthy work-life balance.
If the issues aren’t addressed timely, the company suffers financially. The financial penalty is reflected in recruiting costs, presenteeism, absenteeism and healthcare costs. If you have a management role, it’s worth getting to the root cause and addressing the issues.
What’s the long term solution?
There is no silver bullet for enabling optimal performance. Leading edge companies are allocating the resources needed to develop a culture of continuous improvement, offering training and education benefits, providing career paths that allow people to advance at their own pace and empowering employees to live healthy balanced lives.
It takes a lot of work and comes at a cost but the benefits typically outweigh the cost. For instance, think about the cost of recruiting for companies on a top 25 list versus those that don’t make the list. The top 25 will pull in the best candidates and as a result, get the best fit for their organization at a fraction of the cost.
Be part of the solution
We can all be part of the solution. The best thing you can do to is use your wellness stipend to enhance your self-care practices, use your healthcare benefits to maintain good health, participate in the programs offered to enhance your skillset and lastly, complete your company’s surveys so that you get more of what you want and need to succeed at work and in life.
As an added bonus, you’ll also help to reduce your healthcare costs. Everyone shares in the cost of healthcare whether it’s paid through taxes, premiums, service costs and/or drug costs. Healthcare is an all for one and one for all equation.
