Six Steps to Workplace Wellness 

Prioritizing well-being has clear benefits 

Author: Jen Amos

Just because companies are feeling a cash crunch doesn’t mean that they can’t foster a culture of health, where employees have a feeling of well-being and are engaged in their workplace.

A 2009 report by Towers Perrin, a global professional services firm that helps organizations improve performance, shows not only why companies need to think about employee health, but also how to improve it.

Towers Perrin states that well-being isn’t just about physical health, but that it encompasses three connected elements:
1 Physical health: overall bodily health, including energy and stamina.

2 Psychological health: overall mental health, including stress and anxiety levels, life satisfaction, feelings of accomplishment, optimism, confidence, control, empowerment and safety.

3 Social health: relational health, a feeling of balance between work and personal life, a sense of fairness, respect and social connectedness.

Prioritizing employee well-being isn’t just a “nice thing to do”; it has clear benefits both to employee and employer. For the employee the rewards include a balanced work and home life, meaningful work that is appreciated, overall health and feeling in control. The employer also reaps rewards—organizations can expect higher levels of sustained engagement and lower turnover.
The Towers Perrin’s research shows that the elements of the workplace that have the highest impact on employee wellness are:

• Physical environment
• Efficacy of leadership
• Quality of working relationships
• Employee’s sense of competency
• Aspirations and need for personal growth
• Views about attainability and fairness of performance-based awards.

All of these factors should be evaluated when initiating a workplace wellness program, but the responsibility doesn’t rest solely with the employer. The right approach is one of shared responsibility. The employee needs to manage his or her individual health, health care and benefits. The company needs to monitor how its health plan works for employees, and use support tools such as health-risk assessments and online tools to help employees look after their health.

Towers Perrin outlines six critical steps to create a culture of health:

1 Understand and measure both engagement and well-being, as well as the way the culture supports or inhibits either or both. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Companies need to look to their own cultures, and examine how their work cultures affect engagement and well-being.

2 Focus on effective leadership. The role of leadership in employee engagement is critical. In the book Closing the Engagement Gap, How Great Companies Unlock Employee Potential for Superior Results, (2008), Towers Perrin Managing Directors, Julie Gebauer and Don Lowman offer these approaches for management:

Know them. Being familiar with employees helps you create the right programs.
Grow them. People will commit to companies that allow them to learn and excel in their jobs.
Inspire them. Employees will do whatever it takes to succeed when their work has meaning.
Involve them. Knowledgeable, empowered workers add more value to the organization and its projects.
Reward them. If you reward employees fairly, they will give more of their time and creative energy.

3 Re-evaluate the value proposition: Examine the employee deal—what the organization expects from employees and what employees expect from the organization. Determine what steps you can take to balance the deal in ways that meet both parties’ needs.

4 Some of the key factors in engagement are development opportunities and clear career paths. Because employees might change jobs if workplace conditions aren’t meeting their needs, it’s important to understand the impact of any cuts in training and development, and weigh the savings against the potential loss of key people.

5 Align total rewards: Your reward philosophy must support all facets of well-being, including the psychological and social. Compensation programs should reward high performers and those who make consistent contributions to key goals. Employees who feel they’re being asked to do more with less will expect reciprocation from their employer at some point.

6 Develop the capabilities of frontline managers: Because managers are on the front line, they make decisions that have a real impact on individuals. Managers and supervisors are in a great position to understand what employees need, regarding workloads, personal issues and day-to-day activities. It’s critical that they receive training in managerial skills and that they know the organizational programs.

PDF of Towers Perrin report mentioned in article available here.

Article published Your Workplace magazine issue 12-1