Why Employee Wellbeing Program Is Important

Employee wellbeing program directly affects how employees feel and think about their job and company. Studies have unswervingly shown that employee wellbeing predicts job attitude and performance. Employee wellbeing is critical and not just a ‘nice-to-have’ because the many roles of an employee mean that the attitudes and performance of an individual employee matter a lot to the company or organization. But still, many companies still do not focus on emotional and mental wellbeing at the workplace.

You may ask what employee wellbeing is. So, according to the international labor organization, it defines employee wellbeing as workplace wellbeing that relates to all aspects of working life, from the quality and safety of the physical environment, to how workers feel about their work, their working environment, the climate at work, and work organization.

In practice, this translates into all the activities, guidelines, and best practices that aim to improve an employee’s health, be it mental, emotional, or physical. While the traditional view on well-being was ensuring employees had access to good medical care, today’s workspace focuses on how well-being programs help people feel mentally and physically happy and healthy.

Up till now, companies have been slow at noticing this change. Before the covid-19 pandemic, in 2019, Gartner reported that 87% of employees were not fully happy at the workplace. Hidden behind this statistic, poor management and lack of employee wellbeing programs have, in most cases, taken their toll on employee engagement and mental health.

The year 2020 brought further sprints, which are still visible to date. The vagueness of our future and careers, Remote work struggles, and interpersonal connections pose extra challenges to employees. At home, they have to face all these alone. That is precisely where an effective employee wellbeing program comes in.

In the top best organizations, employees do not view their job as a source of unhappiness or continuous conflict with what they enjoy doing. As a matter of fact, the workplace can provide many positive factors that contribute to mental wellbeing in terms of happiness and gratification.

Prioritizing employees’ well-being lowers absenteeism and turnover, as lots of studies have said. Research shows how a carefully organized employee well-being program reduces absenteeism rates for 78% of employers, saving upto an average of $6 on resulting costs for every dollar spent. In turn, a healthy work environment motivates employees and keeps working with you for long. Without employee well-being initiatives, employees are at a higher risk of burnout, leading to losses of up to $190 billion every year.

Employee well-being contributes a lot when it comes to organizational productivity and work relationships. Gratified and happy employees are more likely to trust their heads, comply with organization rules and regulations, provide suggestions that may help the company improve, help their colleagues and work cooperatively as a team to achieve group goals. Such behaviors and attitudes lead to a high-performing company that is productive and pioneering, with employees who are socially integrated. Thus, it is not shocking that a study has also shown that employee well-being is positively associated with customer satisfaction.

The opposite is also true. A study has shown that displeased and unhappy employees are also more likely to be disconnected, absent without valid reasons, disobliging, and more likely to engage in counterproductive behavior. Taken together, the study evidence is clear that positive employee well-being is an essential asset to every organization, whereas negative employee well-being is a serious accountability.

So how can you focus on your employees’ well-being within your company or organization?

Read more here about how to develop an employee wellness program