5 Practical Ways Your Business Can Foster Employee Wellbeing

In today’s ever-changing workplaces, looking after employee wellbeing isn’t just a trend; it’s a strategic necessity. Organisations are beginning to recognise the profound impact of a healthy workforce on productivity, retention, and overall success.

In this article, Fiona Doran-Smith, Director and Lead Consultant at Yellow Tree Wellbeing shares five ways your company can foster employee wellbeing and cultivate lasting benefits within your company. From securing the support of your leaders to empowering line managers with essential skills, these strategies are about creating a supportive atmosphere where everyone can thrive.

1.      Gain commitment and participation from your leaders.

When your senior leadership team fully engage with your wellbeing initiatives, they are much more likely to be successful. Employees are more likely to engage if their managers and leaders participate. Leaders and line managers must role model positive behaviours like not replying to emails on holiday, taking a proper lunch break and pushing back on unreasonable demands. Your leaders have a significant impact on the culture of the business; they need to work as champions and advocates of any wellbeing initiative.

2.      Equip your line managers with the required skills and  knowledge

The CIPD’s 2023 health and wellbeing at work report showed that respondents believed the biggest challenge for corporate wellbeing in their organisations was lack of line manager skills and confidence (43%, followed by lack of engagement with activities at 35%). Managers play a vital role in the health and wellbeing of their employees. Therefore, skills like being able to have difficult conversations, delegate effectively, use emotional intelligence and take a coaching approach are all critical to their success.

3.      Support and develop effective coping skills.

Effective coping skills, such as managing stress, building resilience, maintaining positive mental health, and dealing with change and conflict, are vital not just for work-based challenges but also in life. Learning new skills or improving existing ones also increases confidence and boosts our levels of satisfaction. It’s a chance for team members to feel a sense of community and receive peer support. The focus on wellbeing initiatives and providing opportunities to develop coping skills is important and should be part of a well-rounded wellbeing strategy.

4.      Align wellbeing with business priorities and objectives

Employee wellbeing needs to be embedded in the day-to-day operations of your business, from how you recruit, induct, manage performance and reward, to how you develop your people. And your processes and policies need to be designed to nurture the health of your people. This also means making sure you hire enough people. In our work with many organisations across various sectors, excessive workloads are one of the most common causes of stress that we hear about. This is often exacerbated by sickness, absence, and attrition. When there’s no contingency in your resource management, team members quickly become stretched when managing extra workloads. If unchecked, this leads to burnout.

5.      Monitor and evaluate success

Most organisations now have an Employee Assistance Programme (or EAP). However, these services are not always being utilised. When they are, they are often unequipped to deal with issues that require specialist attention (such as trauma). This has been highlighted following allegations that calls to Health Assured (an EAP providing support to 13 million workers in the UK) from vulnerable people were not always handled properly. The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy has now launched an investigation. So, it’s vital that the quality and effectiveness of these services are monitored and that organisations don’t rely on these as their only provision.

At Yellow Tree Wellbeing, we believe that a well-rounded strategy, be it a long-term wellbeing programme, short one-off initiatives, or external support and resources, can not only create a healthy workplace but also a healthy bottom line. This is supported by Deloitte's Mental Health and Employers 2022 report which found an average £5 return for every £1 spent on wellbeing support and initiatives. If you would like to learn more about the types of solutions we offer and how they can be implemented in your company, don't hesitate to contact us. There are many solutions available to match your varying business needs.