Tatty toilet posters are not a wellbeing strategy. Despite understanding the huge benefits that it can bring, workplace wellbeing programmes in the UK are still a bit hit and miss. If this sounds like your wellbeing strategy, here are some areas where you might be going wrong:
It’s tatty posters on the toilet doors
You’ve got motivational quotes, signposting to an ambiguous platform and nothing else. There’s a lack of substance and delivery to your program, making it an empty promise of irrelevant support and care.
You’re wellbeing washing
You use your wellbeing program primarily to improve your image, either to potential new staff or to boost your organisational reputation. You sign up to every awareness campaign day going, but your support only lasts 24 hours and doesn’t translate to meaningful support for your employees.
It addresses the symptoms and not the cause
Employees can download a mindfulness app or go to yoga to manage their stress (but you’re not addressing their workload or the issues that are causing them stress). There’s free biscuits and coffee to keep energy levels up (but no-one has time for proper breaks or to eat lunch). There are chill out zones so you can relax at work (but the culture celebrates working overtime and working til you drop).
You built what works for you
It’s what you think people want, not what they actually want or need. You’d like a gym membership, points towards John Lewis vouchers and a discount code for an expensive holiday. They’d like to be able to pick their kids up on time, have clarity about their role, have a clear development pathway, be allowed to book all their annual leave and have a proper lunch break.
Many companies think that if they can say they have a wellbeing related perk such as a discounted gym membership or a mindfulness app, employees will feel better. But the crux of employee wellbeing sits much deeper than that, meaning any company initiative that fails to address the day to day impact of work on employee wellbeing will miss the mark and ultimately be a waste of resources.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a great reminder that we need to be supporting the very basic needs of our employers before we start shopping for pretty platforms and perks. The principle is that if the employee’s basic physiological and safety needs are not met, they cannot reach self actualisation where they are high performing, motivated and engaged.
If employees’ basic needs are not being met on a daily basis, a wellbeing scheme will be irrelevant.
- Start by assessing the physical work environment for ways in which it can be made more conducive to a positive, safe and productive work environment and then look at how people are working.
- Create a culture where employees are actively encouraged to take proper rest breaks to recharge and disconnect from work.
- Plan to capacity. If your staff are working at over 80% capacity in terms of planned work, they’re at a much higher risk of developing stress and burnout, ultimately leading to sickness absence or high turnover rates.
- Develop a culture of feedback, flexibility and trust. Employees feel good about their work when they feel trusted and yet employers often don’t even trust their staff to work effectively from home.
Conclusion
We spend more than a third of our lives (over 50% of our waking hours) at work. What happens at work influences our personal lives, and what happens in our personal lives influences our work.
For a wellbeing strategy to deliver an impact on the employees of a business, it needs to start by meeting the very basic needs of employees on a day to day basis. If an employee is feeling stressed because of their manager micromanaging them and burnt out due to their unmanageable workload – an Employee Assistance Programme or 10% off a gym membership won’t help. We need to start looking at the root cause of employee wellness issues rather than focusing on which pretty platform we can advertise on tatty toilet posters.
If we want our employees to be at their best, we need to make workplace wellbeing a top priority for all organisations. Promoting physical and mental wellbeing, encouraging positive interpersonal relationships, and creating a sense of fulfilment and contentment all contribute to positive workplace wellbeing and happier, motivated and more productive employees.
