The importance of employee health and wellness cannot be overstated. It affects more than just medical costs. A healthy workforce is a more productive workforce. Unhealthy lifestyle choices usually lead to chronic diseases, which can cost businesses billions of trillions of rands in lost productivity. This is why encouraging healthier behaviours and wellness can really pay off.
What is wellness? The term wellness covers physical as well as mental fitness. Over the past few decades, wellness has grown as a concept in the workplace, focusing on assisting employees with influencing their own health, quality of life, mental well-being, and as a result, their work performance.
Employee Wellness Is Not Just About Reducing Absence From The Workplace Through Illness
It is also about how to proactively encourage and promote healthier lifestyles and attitudes. Employee wellness takes a look at the individual and then encourages them to make healthy lifestyle choices, with the purpose of benefiting them as well as the culture in which they work. It broadly covers health promotion, the prevention of ill health, and the factors that help to determine how healthy someone is, both in body and mind. Most of all, employee wellness is about enabling individuals to make better choices about their own health, in other words, to take control of it for their own benefit.
In current times, there has been a noticeable shift in the way companies are approaching employee wellness programmes – employee wellness has turned into a major focus. This means that many businesses are beginning to invest more in comprehensive employee wellness programmes, which aim to address work-life balance.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the benefits of a comprehensive employee wellness programme?
A comprehensive wellness programme will improve employee health as well as your organization’s bottom line. It is not going to make all your problems go away but it will help you create a worksite culture of health. Your employee wellness programme will boost and maintain employee morale. With an effective wellness programme, you will improve the lives of your employees and help drive the success of your organisation.
What is the role of employers in employee wellness?
Employers have an important role to play in employee wellness. They must establish a health-conscious environment, such as healthy food options in the canteen, supportive messaging as well as healthy workspaces. Employers should also integrate employee health with employee wellness through comprehensive and compliant wellness programmes. Employee wellness should be linked to existing support benefits, such as employee assistance programmes (EAPs), which help workers to deal with emotional, financial, legal or physical challenges.
What makes a successful employee wellness programme?
A successful employee wellness programme needs to be practical and accessible, with a number of on-site employee health services. It should also include health screenings and education, such as regular health awareness days. The programme should also be tailored to the needs of the employees, with a focus on promoting healthy lifestyle choices.
What are the benefits of promoting employee wellness?
Promoting employee wellness can result in a number of benefits, such as increased productivity, improved employee morale, reduced absenteeism, and lower healthcare costs. It can also help to create a culture of health within the organization, which can lead to greater job satisfaction and employee retention.
What is the role of health and wellness coaches in employee wellness programmes?
Health and wellness coaches can play a valuable role in employee wellness programmes. They can provide guidance and support to employees, helping them to make healthy lifestyle choices and to take control of their own health. Health and wellness coaches can also work with employers to develop comprehensive wellness programmes that meet the needs of the employees.