Human resources departments have much on their plate, but first and foremost they are tasked with ensuring that the company has a happy and productive team. One of the keys to having such a team is the wellbeing of employees, both mentally and physically. Employees who are healthy on both levels are more motivated, focused, and productive, which is a win-win for the employees and the company as a whole.
Here we’ll discuss how HR professionals can improve the wellbeing of employees, and thus provide value to the company.
Conducting a Wellbeing Needs Assessment
Assessing the wellbeing of your employees starts by going to the source and asking them for their feedback. You need to know employees’ needs before you can address them, so the best way to find out is to send out surveys. These surveys should be filled out anonymously so that employees feel free to share. You’ll want to ask questions to assess:
- Employee stress levels
- How employees feel about their workloads
- If employees feel that their efforts are recognized
- If they would recommend the company as a positive place to work
- Their thoughts on what the company can do to improve their wellbeing
- Anything negative about their current work environment
- Their overall job satisfaction
This feedback can be used to address any areas where the company needs to improve and to create an employee wellness program.
Another way to assess employee wellbeing is to look at your employee turnover rates. A certain amount of employee turnover is normal, but if your turnover rate is above industry norms, you have to understand why employees are leaving. As part of your offboarding process, you should learn from the employees what lead them to seek a change and record this data.
Additionally, you should be continuously assessing employee productivity. If productivity is low or quality is suffering, it could be a sign of low wellness levels.
You can find more information about many employee wellbeing topics on this HR website. It covers many other HR topics as well and is a great resource for HR professionals.
Developing a Wellness Program
Creating an employee wellness program is the first step in improving the physical and mental health of your team. A wellness program should have several elements.
Fitness Programs
Offering gym membership reimbursements can encourage employees to take better care of their physical health. You could also hold in-office yoga classes after work, or as a break during the day. Another way to encourage fitness is to offer walk-breaks, where employees can take regular breaks to go for a walk outside or even in the building.
Mental Health Programs
Offering access to mental health resources and services can help to reduce the stress and anxiety levels of employees. You can also offer more PTO days and encourage employees to take them regularly to relax and take a break. This will allow them a better work-life balance. Additionally, financial wellness education could help to reduce finance related stress, which is very common.
Social Activities
Team social activities are a great way for employees to blow off steam and to get to know each other on a more personal level, which can improve work collaboration. Once a month, you could host some sort of team activity, whether it’s an in-office happy hour, an employee game night, or a team dinner.
Community Service
Doing good makes people feel good, so you could schedule days when the team does some sort of community service together. This is a great team building activity and a way for employees to connect. You could also offer incentives for employees to do community service on their own time.
Creating a Positive Work Environment
Your wellbeing assessment should have given you much information about any shortcomings in your team’s work environment, so you need to take measures to address those issues. Creating a positive work environment generally involves several key steps.
Establish a Code of Ethics and Conduct
First of all, you should have clear standards for how employees and managers are expected to conduct themselves and how they’re expected to treat others. You should have a no-tolerance policy for acting without integrity, discriminatory acts, or acts of speaking to others disrespectfully. These policies should be clearly communicated to everyone and reinforced regularly.
Create a Positive Onboarding Experience
Employees should feel comfortable in their work environment from day one, so making the onboarding experience a positive one can get employees off on the right foot. Make sure that they receive adequate training, meet their colleagues, and have time to acclimate to their new environment. Also make sure they have all the resources they need to do their job.
Establish Communication Channels
Employees need to know that they can be heard, either by their direct managers, or by the HR department. Ensure that team members know who to go to when they have questions or if issues arise and encourage them to always speak up. And when they do, listen, and address their questions or concerns immediately.
Recognize Accomplishments
To have a positive work environment, employees need to feel valued. Recognize the accomplishments of employees or teams publicly, whether in meetings, employee newsletters, or through a digital group message. Also, consider implementing a bonus system when employees meet or exceed certain specific goals.
Consider Flexible Work Options
Work-life balance is important to everyone, so consider offering work flexibility such as remote or hybrid options, or flexible hours. Also ensure that everyone receives adequate PTO days and vacation time.
Make the Office Physically Comfortable
Employees should have comfortable spaces to work, meaning comfortable chairs and adequate desk space. Consider offering standing desk options as well, which can enhance performance and physical well-being. Also, make sure that employees feel connected – if your office has cubicles, consider removing them so that team members can talk and collaborate.
Measuring the Impact of Your Efforts
Ensuring the wellbeing of employees is a continuous process. You should conduct wellbeing and satisfaction surveys on a regular basis to see if the results are improving over time. If specific areas are not improving, you can reassess your efforts in those areas. Also, make it a point to check in with employees on a regular basis so that they know that you care about how they’re doing.
You can also measure the impact of your efforts by assessing your employee turnover rates. If they are not improving, you’ll have to assess the feedback that you’re getting in your offboarding process and address those issues.
Conclusion
A happy, healthy team is a motivated and productive team, so by improving the wellbeing of employees, you are improving the wellbeing of the company. It can also be very rewarding for you personally as an HR professional to be contributing to the health and happiness of your team. It’s arguably one of the most important functions of your HR role, so make it a focus, not an afterthought. You’ll be adding value that goes far beyond the bottom line of the company.
