Creating a culture that supports employee well-being.
Five reasons why supporting employee physical and mental health makes financial sense.
In a postpandemic world, employees now expect quality of life over ‘perks’.
According to Carolina Valencia, VP, Gartner,
“The reality is that three shifts in the work environment have eroded the impact of the traditional Employee Value Proposition: Employees are people, not just workers: work is a subset of life, not separate from it; and value comes through feelings, not just features.”
While it’s often a balancing act to find the middle ground between employee happiness, and business needs, as a corporate functional nutritionist I have experienced first-hand the value of prioritizing employee health and wellness through thoughtfully integrated company wellness programs.
It’s probably obvious that a healthy employee will show up to more days of work. What’s not so obvious is that a healthy employee is also far more productive while at work, adding an average value of $7000 to each healthy employee.
Choosing the health and wellness of your employees will support a company culture of overall well-being, increase productivity, and help attract and retain the best employees.
A carefully planned company wellness program can:
Maximize employee morale, productivity and stamina.
Reduce stress, absenteeism and healthcare costs.
Improve the health, energy, and positivity of employess.
Help retain quality employees and attract the best talent in the marketplace.
Create a corporate culture that competitors can aspire to.
A LOOK AT ‘PRESENTEEISM’
The bottom line is healthcare is becoming more costly for employers. Recent studies indicate that more than 50% of corporate profits now go towards healthcare costs, versus only 7% three decades ago.
We all know that sick employees tend to take more sick days. What’s lesser known is that sick employees are less productive while at work.
A recent study found that lost productivity costs due to presenteeism and absenteeism are at least 2.5 times higher than direct health costs.
Presenteeism is the term used when employees are present at work, but function at a lower productivity rate due to health reasons. Health conditions incorporated under the umbrella of presenteeism include anxiety, depression, migraines, diabetes, arthritis, and back and neck pain.
‘Presenteeism’ results in an annual cost of approximately $7000 per employee.
The estimated annual cost of lost productivity to employee fatigue alone is $136 billion.
A common misconception is that employee absence due to illness is a bigger threat to productivity and bottom line. But, in fact, presenteeism is actually 10 times as costly.
Why should I invest in employee wellness?
Not surprisingly, employers are actively seeking new ways to reduce healthcare costs, without jeopardizing their ability to attract and retain quality employees. These factors have prompted many organizations to actively promote health and wellness offerings.
72% of employers saw a reduction in healthcare costs after implementing a wellness program.
If you’re not convinced, here are a few more numbers to consider:
The average return on investment (ROI) for employee wellness programs is 6-to-1.
Wellness programs can reduce absenteeism by as much as 14-19%.
87% of employees consider health and wellness offerings when choosing an employer.
In Gartner’s 2021 EVP Benchmarking Survey, entitled, ‘Make Way for a More Human- Centric Employee Value Proposition’, the case is made for a more human experience of work.
‘The EVP for the postpandemic workforce must orient toward employees as people, not workers; provide an exceptional life, not work, experience; and focus on the feelings, not just the features that match employee needs.’
In the aforementioned poll, the 3 most important aspects of physical health and wellness for U.S. employees are nutrition and healthy eating, fitness and weight loss, and emotional and mental well-being.
By providing education for employees on how to improve eating habits, reduce stress, and increase healthy lifestyle activities like exercise, corporations can experience not only reduced healthcare costs, absenteeism and presenteeism, but also a reduction in chronic disease of up to 80%.
Productivity and morale also increase exponentially, due to higher levels of positivity, energy, and vibrancy in the work environment. As a result, the workplace culture is markedly enhanced, and corporations can attract more talented employees, and experience less turnover of quality staff.
According to Gartner’s “Human Deal”, there are five important aspects to the human deal, which increases employee satisfaction by 15%.
They are:
Deeper Connections: “I feel understood.”
Radical Flexibility: “I feel autonomous.”
Personal Growth: “I feel valued.”
Holistic Well-Being: “I feel cared for.”
Shared Purpose: “I feel invested in.”
Through thoughtful holistic well-being programs, employees feel cared for, which vastly contributes to overall company culture.
They also show up better to work, produce more, and support their fellow employees more effectively.
In Good Health,
Sinead