Health and Wellness: Why Your Employees Are Your Most Important Asset

Content

1. Introduction
2. Workplace Health and Wellness Defined
3. Why are health and wellness important to employees?
4. Benefits of health and wellness
5. Workplace Mental Health and Stress Management
6. 3 Tips For Improving and promoting Office Happiness
7. Corporate Wellness Programs

Introduction

It’s an unfortunate truth that many businesses overlook, but your employees are your most important asset. You might have the most profitable products out there, but what good is all that success if people don’t want to come to work because they’re constantly sick?
Employee health is critical for a healthy workplace. A happier employee means increased productivity, less time off from work because of illness, and fewer incidents of workers’ compensation claims.
At first glance, health and wellness programs can seem like a lot of extra cost and effort. However, considering how much more you will gain from happy and healthy employees, ‌wellness initiatives are worth the investment.
To keep your employees happy and healthy at work, check out our handy guide to building a healthy workplace!

Workplace Health and Wellness Defined

A healthy workplace begins with an understanding of what wellness means. Health is not just about staying fit. It also encompasses mental health, nutrition, sleep quality, exercise habits, and other factors that affect the well-being of a person. The World Health Organization defines wellness as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (WHO, 1948).

Another definition that resonates with us is the degree to which an individual feels capable, safe, fulfilled, and accepted within their working environment. In either case, not everyone feels positive about their job experience—and so it makes sense to assess what you can do to make employees happier while they’re on the clock. These definitions are a great place to start when creating a more conducive environment for your employees’ well-being.

Why are health and wellness important to employers?

A healthy workplace is good for business, plain and simple. By addressing employee health at work, employers can reduce absenteeism, keep employees, boost productivity, and recruit new employees. Healthier employees are more alert, focused and creative.

Related: All you need to know about occupational health and safety in Nigeria

Benefits of corporate health and wellness programs

Companies now understand that their most valuable assets are the employees. Corporate wellness programs are becoming more popular as companies learn that investing in employees now translates into higher profits later. Working in an environment that supports good health isn’t just beneficial for your employees. It has a positive impact on your company, too.
There are benefits to bringing a healthy lifestyle to your employees, which include:

• Decreased health care costs
• Increased employee productivity
• Better work morale and increased employee retention
• Better workplace relationship
• Sense of accomplishment
• Reduced stress

How to Manage Workplace Stress?

We have linked poor mental health and stress to lower productivity, poor customer service, absenteeism, employee turnover, disability claims, and more. To manage stress in the office, do this:

• Start a conversation in your office about how you can maintain a healthier work environment. Talking is one of our best tools for self-care—it makes us feel better because it helps release tension—and your team will appreciate not having to worry about keeping things bottled up inside.
• Ergonomic improvements: giving employees the tools to be efficient at work and providing them with a healthy and balanced work environment reduces stress and improves job satisfaction.
• Organizations should give workers a voice in decisions and actions concerning the jobs they handle.
• Workplace harassment, bullying, and violence should be discouraged and checked as quickly as possible.
• Organizations should provide a non-judgemental way to lay complaints and give feedback.
• Employers can organize stress management seminars and workshops ‌to help employees understand the stress and develop personal techniques to cope with it.

3 Tips For Improving and promoting Office Happiness

The health of your employees has a tremendous impact on your bottom line. If people don’t want to come to work because they’re constantly sick, morale will drop, productivity will decrease, and you may lose some of your best employees, and outstanding talent is hard to replace. So you might ask yourself how ‌you can improve wellness within your organization? Here are three tips for helping promote office happiness:

• The mind-body connection is well-documented in the medical literature. Stress can manifest itself physically and mentally, so try to encourage exercise. A healthy body leads to a healthy mind—and you want your employees to be at their best, right? The provision of gym memberships or reimbursement options will eliminate any excuse for employees not to get active after work. 
• Offer affordable healthcare: Office health plans should be affordable but also very thorough—employees should have access to a vast network of healthcare providers to find one that works best for them and their families.
• Give workers time off. It doesn’t just mean vacation days—happy workers know that time away from the office can recharge their batteries. Host engaging team bonding activities, so they return even more enthusiastic about what they do for a living. 

Keep these guidelines in mind to create an employee-friendly environment where people feel valued and happy. Not only will it be good for business, but it will also benefit everybody involved on a personal level as well. Book your health and wellness package today!