By Cynthia Gokhale
Organizations that keep employee wellbeing at the core of their business, have been successful and sustainable even in adverse environment. A positive workplace culture not only enhances employee satisfaction but also improves productivity, engagement, retention and ultimately, client satisfaction. During and post the pandemic, there was a great hue and cry about employee wellbeing with the core focus on Mental health. I would say, employee wellbeing is more than mental health. It is physical, emotional, social, career and most important, financial health, in addition to mental health. As you’d see, it is not to be mistaken with Wellness. Here are some key strategies to foster employee wellbeing and create a positive organizational culture:
Understanding the quality of life: One of the best employee engagement programs organizations can run, is to assess the quality of life of every employee by outsourcing the assessment activity to an external agency like Right Management, Gallups or any HR consulting firm. This could be a starting point to develop your engagement programs focussed on employee wellbeing which may well have a sizeable business impact.
Leadership: Leaders play a pivotal role in demonstrating the work culture and ethics that the organization would like every employee to follow. Leaders should illustrate behaviours that depicts a genuine concern towards employee wellbeing as well as walk the talk.
Empowerment: Empower employees to create programs that drive employee wellbeing in small clusters giving them a skeletal framework. Employees should also be encouraged to take decisions, provide solutions and implement new ideas thereby strengthening their decision making abilities while building their confidence.
Social Belonging: Offering opportunities for employees to develop open, supportive relationships with their colleagues can be an important strategy for increasing employee wellbeing. Studies have shown that such initiatives lead to lower psychological distress. Certainly, promoting a sense of social belonging can be effectively achieved by expressing gratitude. It is a universal desire to be acknowledged and valued for one’s efforts, leading to a heightened feeling of connection and belonging among individuals and their peers..
Flexible Work Arrangements: Trust employees to manage their time effectively. Give them the flexibility to choose the work from home days to help them prioritize and balance their professional and personal life.
Learning Opportunities: Improving skills both – hard and soft, helps build confidence and retains relevance, thereby creating overall positivity. Depending on the assessment outcome, organizations can build structured learning programs with measurable goals to improve the various aspects of wellbeing that need attention, may it be, Financial or emotional or physical.
By integrating these strategies into the workplace, organizations can embrace employee wellbeing as the core priority thereby building a positive and thriving workforce for long term success.
(The author is Cynthia Gokhale, Associate Director – Marketing, Corporate Communication & Service Assurance, ManpowerGroup, and the views expressed in this article are her own)
