HR Strategies to Promote Employee Well-being in Organizations By Pallavi Jha

On World Health Day Pallavi Jha of Dale Carnegie reflects on organisational health. Employee well-being is defined as: “creating an environment to promote a state of contentment which allows an employee to flourish and achieve their full potential for the benefit of themselves and their organisation”.

Employee health directly influences work behaviour, attendance and job-performance, and companies that understand this workforce-driven health and productivity concept and take it seriously are the ones who will attract and retain better talent. While it is necessary for senior leaders and managers to push their teams to achieve the highest level of productivity, it cannot be emphasized enough how vital employees’ personal lives are to a company’s success.

Employers may be keen for employees to work additional hours on occasion. However, remember that this impacts the amount of free time your employees get. While it may seem like a short-term solution to a large workload, overtime leads to reduced morale, irritability and lower performance levels, and ultimately, a negative result for both employee and employer. A happy, well-rounded individual will provide better creative solutions to problems and will have better quality output.

PUT SOME STRUCTURE IN

In order to adopt useful measures to create a healthy work environment for their workforce, companies must adopt a structured approach. It is crucial to first do an analysis of your organisations employees to determine what will eliminate some of the pressures associated with their jobs.

ON-SITE DAY CARE

One of the benefits could include on-site day-care: The Dale Carnegie India Employee Engagement Survey revealed that only 39% of working women were fully engaged at the workplace. Companies need to invest in measures to create a work-friendly environment that empowers their female workforce to pursue their professional goals.  Companies across the board are discovering that they must keep young women in full-time jobs if they are going to keep their workforce at critical staffing levels.

According to CII-IWN (India Women’s Network) report Second Innings, 37% of women opt out of their jobs due to maternity or childcare issues. A key strategy for employee wellbeing is ensuring that they have day-care arrangements that allow them to visit their children during the day.

MIND AND MATTER

A major factor in stress relief is exercise. However, when people are working hard to meet a deadline and also spend time with loved ones, it is one of the first things many cut off their priority lists. You can encourage a healthy lifestyle by offering discounts to local health clubs, offering exercise classes before and after work or at lunch time, and setting up support groups for topics such as weight loss, smoking cessation and stress management.

BEYOND WELLBEING

As an employer, you should do all you can to improve the wellbeing of employees and minimise the negative impacts an unhappy workplace can have. Every organisation should come up with a unique program that incorporates its business needs while building an engaged, satisfied and motivated workforce to meet its goals.

 Views are the author's own