If you’re an employer, here’s something to chew over:
- The first half of 2022 saw an attrition rate of 20.3% in India, a significant increase after the two-year Covid pandemic-induced lockdown
- During the past year, 80% of the Indian workforce reported mental health issues costing organizations Rs. 1.1 lakh crore.
- At least 29% of the workforce took unplanned or planned leaves to manage stress related to work
Yes, unhappy and overwhelmed employees are expensive. However, employee health services continue to focus only on group health insurance. Health insurance is just the tip of the iceberg in supporting employee health and well-being. So now, the question is what can you do about it and what are ways you can improve employee well-being?
Let's look at what is employee health and well-being, their importance in the workplace, and the benefits of promoting health and well-being at work.
What Is Employee Health And Well-Being?
Employee health and well-being include more than just physical health. It also includes mental, emotional, and social health in the workplace. Many things affect these factors like work environment, work-life balance, stress levels, healthcare access, and more.
Why Does Employee Health And Well-Being Matter At Work?
Well-being is a measure of how you feel about yourself and your life. The better you feel about yourself, the more satisfied you are. When your workforce feels good about their health and well-being, they are more satisfied with themselves.
Promoting employee health and well-being has a significant impact on reducing stress, preventing burnout, and improving overall mental and physical health. This leads to increased productivity, job satisfaction, and employee retention. It also improves overall outlook and attitude towards work.
A healthy and supportive work environment also helps reduce healthcare costs, improve the employer brand, and attract top talent.
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Top 5 Benefits Of Promoting Employee Health And Wellbeing At Work
In any organization, employees play an extremely crucial role. And promoting employee health and well-being benefits both employees and employers. Let’s look at the top five benefits:
1. Helps employees be more proactive
Providing quality healthcare is about keeping people healthy and caring for them when sick. But today’s healthcare system is focused only on sick care. And finding trustworthy, empathetic, and sound medical advice is still hard to come by.
Here’s where Loop comes in. Our app allows you to chat with a medical advisor. From answering your simple queries to helping you book lab tests and explaining the tests, our medical advisors take the place of your family doctors. They will help you in your healthcare journey to better health outcomes.
Besides helping employees take control of their well-being, it also shows your company culture strongly supports employee wellness.
2. Save valuable time
People get sick by sleeping, breathing, or eating, and once in a way, you need to consult a doctor. Whether it’s for treating a condition or for a regular health check-up, caring for your health is a necessary part of life. Here’s where teleconsults on Loop’s app play a significant role.
- Convenient access to healthcare - With telehealth, employees can consult with Loop’s in-house healthcare professionals anytime, anywhere. This is a benefit for employees who live in remote areas or have limited access to healthcare facilities.
- Cost-effective healthcare - Consulting online is more cost-effective than in-person consultations. With Loop, you get free consultations as opposed to paying anywhere close to Rs. 500 to 1000 for in-person or online consults.
- Reduced absenteeism - Consulting doctors online reduces the need to take time off from work for medical appointments. This leads to fewer instances of absenteeism and improved productivity.
- Improved health outcomes - Telehealth consultations play a vital role in preventive care. It helps lead to earlier detection and treatment of health issues, as employees can consult frequently and easily. This way, you can prevent health conditions from worsening and improve employee health.
- Employee satisfaction - Telehealth consultations as part of an employee wellness program boosts satisfaction and loyalty. Employees appreciate access to convenient and affordable healthcare. Resulting in improving their overall job satisfaction.
- Saving time - Online consultations can take place anytime, anywhere, saving valuable time without affecting your working hours. The Loop app also helps you save time from looking for a good doctor.
3. Improve employee health behaviors
What is employee health’s core? It’s a change in behavior. With the right support, tools, skills, motivation, and education, you can change your behavior. Employee wellbeing programs help you adopt and maintain healthy behaviors for the long term.
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Workplace well-being programs provide health education and awareness sessions. This helps employees understand the impact of their lifestyle choices and encourages them to adopt healthy behaviors.
A good employee wellness program ensures employees continually participate, adopt, and maintain healthy behaviors in the years to come. You eat healthier foods, exercise more often, drink more water, can control stress, can talk about mental health, and more.
Such a program provides employees with access to resources, such as healthy food options, fitness facilities, and wellness coaching. These resources make it easier for you to adopt healthy behaviors. Healthy behaviors lead to fewer chronic diseases and lower health risks. This helps employees reduce overall health costs.
4. Reduced healthcare costs
Loop’s employee wellness programs can help employees reduce healthcare costs in several ways:
- Preventive care - Loop’s well-being program often emphasizes preventive care, such as regular health screenings and immunizations. By identifying health issues early, employees can avoid costly and serious health problems in the future. With continuous, frequent care, you’re assured of better health outcomes.
- Healthier behaviors - Wellness programs encourage healthier behaviors, such as physical activity, healthy eating, and stress management. By adopting healthier habits, you can reduce the risk of chronic conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, which lowers healthcare costs.
- Chronic disease management - Wellness programs provide resources and support for disease management. This can help employees better manage their conditions, leading to fewer hospitalizations and medical procedures. One such program with Loop is the diabetes management program.
- Reduced absenteeism - When you adopt healthier behaviors, you are less likely to miss work due to illness. This causes reduced absenteeism, which can result in cost savings for both you and your organization.
5. Better health outcomes
For employees, better health outcomes positively impact the quality of life, job satisfaction, and productivity. Employers can benefit from reduced healthcare costs, improved morale, and reduced turnover rates.
Employee wellness programs can help improve better health outcomes in several ways:
- Disease prevention - Employee wellness programs offer resources and support for disease prevention, such as regular health screenings, immunizations, and education on healthy lifestyle habits. By identifying health risks early and encouraging healthy behaviors, employees can prevent chronic conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
- Chronic disease management - For employees with chronic conditions, wellness programs provide resources and support for disease management. This includes care coordination, health coaching, and self-management programs. By managing your conditions effectively, you can improve your health outcomes and quality of life.
- Stress management - Workplace stress negatively impacts employee health outcomes, leading to anxiety and/or depression. Your employee wellness program ensures you tend to this through mindfulness training, yoga, or meditation. By reducing stress, you can improve your overall quality of life.
- Healthier work environment - Employee wellness programs also help create a healthier work environment, leading to improved health outcomes.
How Does Loop Help Create A Successful Employee Health And Well-Being Program?
Effective workplace wellness programs seek to improve the overall well-being of employees. Loop’s program emphasizes different dimensions of well-being such as emotional, social, mental, physical, intellectual, and more. We focus on three pillars of care:
- Driving better health outcomes, not just caring for the sick
- Preventing diseases, not just treating them
- Building trust by providing empathetic medical care
Loop is transforming corporate healthcare by keeping employees healthy while caring for them when sick through a combination of health insurance, primary care, and wellness services. So employees are assured of better health and companies benefit from better productivity.
At Loop, we understand the importance of your business objectives and the need for significant returns on any investment. Talk to our experts to partner with us, provide comprehensive support to your employees, and experience tangible results that positively impact your employees and your bottom line.
