Corporate wellness has never been more relevant. Since the pandemic, there is heightened awareness of health and it is clear that one’s best defense against illness is a strong immune system. Wellness in the workplace incorporates physical health, mental health, and financial health.
Mental & Physical well-being in the workplace allows your employees to function optimally. We at Sheer Bliss maintain that healthy and happy staff are the most productive staff. This is the essence of a well-functioning company. Furthermore, if staff are happy in their working environment, talent will be less likely to explore other opportunities, resulting in higher staff retention rates.
Over the last decade, companies have made many changes to make a healthy working environment a way of life by adding gyms to buildings, standing desks, and having healthy meal options available to staff. Wellness days create a culture of awareness around personal health which opens conversations about how to improve health. Not only does this improve the overall health of staff but the incentives associated with corporate wellness can be viewed as perks. This drives company loyalty and assists in customer retention.
Work-life balance is one of the main driving forces for people not wanting to return to the office after lockdown as they feel they have the flexibility to fit small errands into their day from home, the converse is also true where people do not “switch off” and can end up working longer hours and impacting sleep patterns due to time spent on devices into the night.
Looking at each of the three elements of staff wellness we can clearly see the advantages and disadvantages of a healthy company.
Physical Health
Raising awareness of physical health requires voluntary involvement from staff because they need to make gradual changes over time and Discovery Health has done this exceptionally well with their Vitality Active Rewards by incentivising users to improve physical activity. However physical health is not only focussed on fitness, diet and sleep play a critical role in ensuring overall physical wellness.
Mental Health
SADAG conducted its own online survey on mental health during the lockdown and found, amongst other things, that 55% of the participants experienced anxiety and panic, 46% experienced financial stress and pressure and 40% experienced depression.
People in general are still reeling from the effects of Lockdown and while life is feeling a lot more normal, most people are still processing the impact of the whole ordeal.
When we look at mental health in the workplace, the focus is generally on stress management, sleep quality and personal resilience to help people better cope with stressful situations.
Self-care is also high on the list, helping staff to take time out when necessary with meditation, massage, yoga and breath exercises to name a few.
Financial Health
Financial wellness days are not as popular as wellness days centered around health, although they are sometimes incorporated into an existing wellness day. Their importance cannot be compromised as financial stress contributes to withdrawing from social occasions, substance abuse and stress and anxiety.
In summary, it is very clear that a wellness program in the workplace will impact staff in a positive way.
Advantages
- Enhanced recruitment and retention of healthy employees.
- Reduced healthcare costs.
- Decreased rates of illness and injury.
- Achieved company objectives.
- Improved employee morale.
- Increased productivity.
Disadvantages
- Cost, any activation in a company has a cost attached to it.
- Administration, someone needs to plan and coordinate the program.
- Privacy, staff may not want to share personal information
Every wellness program is designed to create a feeling of well-being. Staff who feel well taken care of take good care of clients and the company as a whole.
As we close off this year and begin to plan a successful 2023, we wish you good health with happy and productive staff in the new year.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
