Promoting a supportive culture in the workplace is essential to improving employee well-being. After all, the culture of a company lays the foundation for optimal employee engagement, health, success, and happiness. Even if a company has a wellness program in place, if the office is lacking a supportive culture, the program essentially goes to waste.
Workplaces that are unsupportive fail to express appreciation for their employees, don’t encourage their employees to be the best they can possibly be, and are only concerned about employee performance. However, this is like a catch-22. How can a workplace only be concerned about employee performance, yet not hype up employees to consistently better themselves?
Well, it happens all the time.
These workplaces usually promote all work and no play and offer no group bonding activities. Unfortunately, these environments are susceptible to less healthy employees and low employee morale.
Companies that focus on using a comprehensive approach to corporate wellness, however, make employee wellness fun and effective. These kinds of wellness programs make work more enjoyable, increase teamwork productivity, and promote healthy habits that benefit both mental and physical health. The most efficient employee wellness programs will take on a specialized approach, ensuring that the wellness initiatives in place accurately compliment workplace culture.
Embracing Employee Wellness
A company that embraces their own unique culture and motivates their employees can help employees become happier, more productive, and more energetic while on the job. Let’s face it – if the whole office sits behind their computers in silence for 8 hours straight, 5 days a week, the office environment can get pretty miserable. On the other hand, developing a culture of wellness where employees support and challenge one another can provoke many positive changes.
Some ways to embrace and promote employee wellness include:
- Encouraging employees to get physical activity throughout the day. Whether it is stretching, short walks throughout the day, or even a basketball hoop in the doorway – any kind of physical activity can boost energy levels and employee morale.
- Supplying healthy, nutritious snacks or lunches.
- Find ways to reduce workplace stress and monotony. Consider starting the day with a team meeting that uses a quick deep breathing exercise or meditation. This can relieve stress and help employees focus more.
- Change up team building activities. Whether you go to a nice restaurant, try to complete an escape room, or play laser tag on your lunch break, allowing employees to let loose and be silly can boost corporate morale.
- Take a holistic approach. This means using services to treat the whole employee using nutrition, professional development, social well-being, mental health, physical health, preventative care, and more.
- Support PTO. Sometimes, everybody needs a day off to take a mental health day. Companies who give PTO and support time off generally care more about employee well-being, allowing employees to feel more valued.
How Employee Well-Being Affects the Workplace
Think of your workplace as a family. When a family embraces open communication, motivates one another, and makes the rest of the family feel loved and appreciated, everyone is happier. In addition, the family dynamics are more balanced and just work better. A corporate workplace is the same way.
Here are some ways that employee wellness programs improve workplace culture and productivity.
- Improves employees’ health habits.
- Reduces health risks.
- Reduces health care costs.
- Improve productivity.
- Decreases absenteeism.
- Improves employee retention rates.
- Benefits new employee recruitment.
- Builds and sustains positive employee morale.
What’s the Bottom Line?
The bottom line is this – companies that focus on improving employee well-being will improve the entire corporation as a whole. Sure, there will still be problems, but workplace culture and producitivty are less likely to be part of the problem. If you embrace an employee wellness program that promotes a supportive workplace culture, it will benefit not only the employees, but the success of the company as well.