The days when the employee-employer relationship starts and ends with a paycheck are long gone. In today’s world of busy schedules, sitting for extended durations and takeout meals between meetings, employee health and wellness in the workplace is more important than ever, irrespective of your businesses size.
Importance of wellness in the workplace is not something new. Back in 1943, in the Hierarchy of Needs triangle, Abraham Maslow perfectly illustrates this ideology.
In essence, the theory explains that as the basic needs are attained, it helps reach the tip of the triangle that’s more rewarding. Businesses that assist employees at the different stages will see a working environment that’s happier, thus increasing ROI.
A company’s success is heavily reliant on the performance of its employees, so it’s imperative for them to be in good mental and physical shape to perform their roles to the fullest.
Why Health And Wellness Is Important For Employees?
Health and wellness are important for employees because it’s an effective approach to health promotion and the holistic development of employees.
It helps employees perform better, boosts employee morale, enhances job satisfaction, prevents lost time due to illness, stress, or absenteeism, helps bring down turnover, and more. In all, it benefits both employees and employers.
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Think of employee wellness as any other investment - you put in time and money with the expectation of a more valuable outcome - here its employees' health, their families, and your bottom line.
Why Is Wellness Important In The Workplace?
Wellness is important in the workplace because wellness and well-being have a direct impact on how invested your workforce is in the company’s future. Do a quick search on Google and you’ll see the connection between physically and mentally healthy employees and the positive effect it has on a company’s ROI.
After all, the average employee spends nearly 50 hours of their week at work. That’s almost one-third of their waking life every year! Let's not forget during this time, employees consume close to one-third of all their meals at work. In other words, work is like a second home for most employees.
It only makes sense that this environment must be a place where individuals feel nurtured, valued, and comfortable. Beyond this, here are some reasons why workplace wellness is important.
1. Increase in employee productivity
An employee who’s present physically at work but isn’t actually getting any work done, known as presenteeism, has ramifications on the business’s turnover as well as the employee's time. Employee well-being drastically improves the physical health and mental health of your staff, leading to productivity levels that are better.
A study shows that the cost of poor productivity linked to low staff health is 2 to 3 times higher than healthcare expenses. This backs up the claim that every company must focus on employee well-being. Reinforcing the fact that a happier and healthier workforce is more productive.
2. Improves staff retention
The cost of hiring someone new is twice as much as paying for their work in the first year. Surely, this is not news to you.
This is in the best interest of the company to bring down the rate of staff turnover. Investing in the future of your staff ensures workers feel valued within and secure in their role. This heightened sense of professional well-being makes certain that employees will not jump ship, saving your business big bucks!
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3. Decrease employee absence
Like presenteeism, absenteeism detrimentally impacts the future of an organization. Workplaces that lay value on well-being experience lower rates of absences owing to better stress management and health behaviors, including less obesity and anxiety.
Furthermore, well-being directly affects employee morale. You’ll see how your employees are more motivated to finish tasks and contribute more to your firm. Simply put, as employee health improves, so does the time they spend at work.
4. Positive health benefits
Positive well-being has both mental and physical benefits. Workplace wellness programs help employees embrace and sustain healthier habits that lower health risks. This minimizes the chances of chronic diseases and absences.
It’s not just prioritizing mental health, healthy eating, or gym memberships, but other dimensions of well-being too, like emotional, financial, social, occupational, intellectual, environmental, and more. Having these factors in control leads to complete well-being, which drastically improves productivity, efficiency at work, and boosts company profits.
What Is The Importance Of Wellness Programs?
Today’s corporate world is overflowing with stress-causing countless health risks and chronic diseases among employees. With short, tight deadlines, there’s barely any room for personal time. This situation leaves individuals feeling overwhelmed, leading to several conditions like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, etc.
Whether an establishment, factory, or company of any size, it’s vital to have workplace wellness programs for employees, including group health insurance plans.
While group health insurance plans give employees much-needed protection, the employee wellness program focuses on employee health and wellness.
The primary goal of wellness is to improve employee health by educating, empowering, enlightening, and motivating employees about the health issues they currently face, health risks they can face in the future, and how to stop them before they occur.
Whether it’s an energizing pilates session, calming yoga classes, moving to the beats of Zumba music, sessions on mental health, nutrition, diabetes management, sleep, brainpower, etc. it caters to the overall well-being of each individual and the team members as a whole.
This equates to better productivity, reducing absenteeism, lowering stress, and allowing employees to unleash more creativity at work.
Every day your employees make thousands of different choices, which impact their daily lives and even the future. Even the tiniest step in the wrong direction can have disastrous results in the future. Thus, it’s important to understand the valve of some ‘me time’ to live lives that are healthier, happier, and longer.
If you’re looking for a better work-life balance, this TED series will help you:
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What Are The Benefits Of Promoting Employee Health And Wellness?
A recent study by the CDC states that investing in employee health may lower health care costs, insurance claims and perhaps reduce the total amount of employee sick days!
You’re aware that you need some sort of corporate wellness program in place, but if you’re still unsure of the benefits, we’ll walk you through them.
Why wellness in the workplace is important for employers and employees?
1. An increase in productivity
Bad health is one of the primary reasons for low productivity. Participating in employee wellness programs involves good health habits, like regular exercise, that are linked to better productivity. Better health results in more focus and motivation to fulfill roles and responsibilities.
2. Better employee engagement
A corporate wellness program creates a more productive, motivated, and engaged workforce. If an employee feels cared for, they’re likely to match that feeling in their commitment to the organization. And feeling good about their job makes one more engaged and thus, perform better.
Did you know engaged employees perform 20% better than their counterparts?
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3. Reduce healthcare costs
Any organization that encourages its employees to maintain good health and wellness instantly lower healthcare costs. How? Well, healthy and happy employees have less chances of falling sick, going to the doctor, buying medicines, taking lab tests, etc.
This brings down costs for both employees and employers. Moreover, focusing on preventive care rather than curative, is extremely beneficial and saves a lot of money, time, and pressure in the long run.
4. Decrease in absenteeism
An employee wellness program helps improve the health of employees and this impacts whether an employee is absent from work or not. When one is stress-free and has better health, they’re less likely to skip work.
Did you know minor illnesses like stomach bugs, flu, cold, fever, headaches, etc. are the leading reasons for missing work?
With workplace wellness in place, these absences can be avoided. Moreover, when they're in the pink of their health, employees are more invested in their work and so execute tasks to the best of their ability.
5. Improved health
Think back to the last time you made a major change in your lifestyle. Maybe you started walking during your lunch break, swapped sugary late-night munchies with healthy snacks, or took 10-minutes out in the nap room during lunch. Simple changes help you during work, whether it’s apparent or not.
Employees are less agitated, stressed, don’t feel overwhelmed, are much healthier, and are in control of their emotional and physical selves. Because of healthy behaviors, employees are recharged when they come to work. All this contributes to only boosting your organization's bottom line.
Further reading: Why employees should participate in wellness programs?
Health And Wellness Is Wealth
In today’s workplace, several employees find it hard to tend to their personal requirements, ambitions and take care of their health, wellness, and security because of hectic work schedules. Here’s where corporate wellness programs come into play and answer why is wellness important in the workplace.
Just like how group health insurance has been made mandatory, it’s equally important to cater to wellness in the form of health benefits.
All it takes is an investment from the firm company to make all the difference to potential recruits, the current employees, and your bottom line, too.
Download this guide to explore the latest trends in giving your employees the benefits they deserve.
Loop is committed to helping employers and employees create an environment of complete well-being. We help you and your organization takes simple steps towards a better tomorrow. We cater to employees to help improve work outcomes and employers to help reduce healthcare costs - it’s a win-win!
Write to us and discover new ways to introduce workplace wellness and make the right decision for your employees, their loved ones, and your business.
