Employee sickness continues to cost companies up and down the country, with the latest figures putting the cost to the UK at over £75 billion.
What’s more, according to a report by professional services firm PWC, a third of all UK employees have a current health, wellbeing, or mental health issue.
83% of those surveyed felt that their wellbeing influences their productivity, 39% have taken time off due to a wellbeing issue and 33% have admitted that wellbeing has been a factor in deciding to leave their job.
Bearing this information in mind, what methods can you use to promote health and wellness best practice in the workplace to better safeguard your employees?
Physical Health Checks
A great way to raise an employee’s self-awareness when it comes to health and wellbeing is to have them attend health checks and screenings at regular intervals.
These checks are great at spotting any early sickness symptoms, and help to prevent any chronic conditions from worsening.
By helping your employees look after their physical health, you can help to keep them in work for longer and manage any conditions on an ongoing basis. You also boost their morale and loyalty by demonstrating that you are committed to their overall wellbeing.
Mental Health Screening
Mental wellbeing in the workplace is becoming increasingly important.
1 in every 7 employees experience a mental health issue (such as stress management difficulties) during their career.
Introducing regular opportunities for employees to open up about any issues that they may be experiencing, gives them a chance to get the necessary help (such as mental health counselling) to work through their condition.
By introducing this level of support, you will help to reduce the amount of days employees take off due to mental wellbeing issues.
If the business is undergoing great change, employee resistance is completely natural, so leaders need to ease employees through the process, rather than provide obstacles that cause stress and can have detrimantal affects on mental health.
Wellness Education Seminars and Workshops
Educating employees on health and workplace wellness issues is crucial in your drive to have a happier and healthier workforce.
By introducing wellness seminars and workshops, employees can understand the effects their workplace practices have on both themselves and others.
These educational briefings could be on a wide range of subjects such as mindfulness, nutrition, exercise motivation, and coping strategies for stressful situations.
By providing educational content on these important wellness topics, employees can begin to make wiser choices when it comes to eating, exercising and looking after their mental health.
Benefits of an Actively-Managed Wellness Programme
Workplace wellness education programs have repeatedly been proven to work.
When multi-national corporation Unilever launched its “Fit Business” scheme, it involved giving employee regular health checks and putting up attention-grabbing nutritional information around employee restaurants.
The initiative achieved a 26% reduction in the weight of their factory workers and a 9% decrease in office workers who were classed as overweight or obese. Over 40% of both sets of workers admitted that the scheme had improved the quality of their diet.
This helped to reduce the amount of staff suffering health conditions such as diabetes and 13% fewer workers finished the scheme with “at risk” levels of body fat.
By increasing self-awareness Unilever was able to have a dramatic effect on the health and wellbeing of its employees.
Receive Support for Educating Employees on Wellness Best Practices
You might feel that it’s time to start educating staff members on the importance of their health and wellbeing in order to increase productivity and reduce absences for avoidable wellbeing issues.
Wellness seminars and workshops are a great way to take the initial steps to improving knowledge of best practices in the workplace in relation to both physical and mental health.
We can provide these services as part of our DocHQ Wellness package.
We can tailor our solution to your business needs so it fits seamlessly with your existing employee benefits system. We can also include other beneficial employee wellness practices such as regular physical and mental health checks.
If you would like to speak to us about receiving a bespoke wellness program, why not book a call with a member of our team?
DocHQ Ltd is a Health Tech company improving choices. We help you connect efficiently to health support and advice whether you are at home, work or travelling. See our website for our services or call us on 0330 088 0645.
