Workplace wellness is on the rise and fast becoming a recruitment and retention strategy for business, with one in five workers willing to sacrifice a promotion for better wellbeing in the workplace. A culture of wellness drives results by helping to create an engaged workforce. Want to attract and retain top talent in your business? Here are seven ways to create workplace wellness with Kylie Cocks, the South Australian Business Chamber’s Healthy Workplace Adviser.
48 per cent of Australian workers believe unrealistic workload expectations have the greatest negative impact on wellbeing in the workplace.
According to Dr Lindsay McMillian, author of Workplace Wellbeing – A Future that Works, if workers are drowning in more deadlines than there are hours in the day, taking any time to talk about workplace wellbeing “is going to sound incredibly tone-deaf”.
Senior leadership support is critical to building and sustaining successful workplace health programs. This goes beyond a simple endorsement of programs and involves active and visible participation. Management-related factors have been shown to contribute more to success than the content of the workplace-wellness intervention. If the key leaders are not on board yet, get a business case together.
44 per cent of Australian workers believe a pleasant working environment contributes to wellbeing in the workplace. If employees enjoy their time at work, they are less likely to take long breaks or go on sick leave. A healthy workplace environment could include inviting lunch areas and modern décor, friendliness and regular staff meetings to ensure staff feel valued.
For a workplace wellness program to succeed it’s essential that all employees are engaged in the program. The best way to achieve this is to ensure your program is relevant to the needs of your organisation and its employees.
75 per cent of Australian workers believe workplace wellbeing includes both physical and mental wellbeing. It’s important to encourage both physical and mental health side-by-side. Workplace wellness should become the integration of workplace health and safety and human resources management.
One of the biggest ongoing debates surrounding workplace wellness is whether or not it works. It’s important to remember numbers can’t always capture the benefits of an employee wellness program. When evaluating the success of a wellness program, employers should not only take return on investment into consideration, but value on investment as well.
Leadership is very strongly linked to wellbeing. According to Christina Boedker from UNSW Business School, a person’s relationship with their immediate supervisor is a key driver of their wellbeing.
“The relationship with the boss is more important to a person’s wellbeing than relationships with colleagues,” Christina says.
If your industry association, peak body or business association is interested in supporting your members to understand and incorporate healthy workplaces, contact Kylie Cocks, the South Australian Business Chamber’s Healthy Worker Adviser for a free consultation on (08) 8300 0251 or email kyliec@business-sa.com.au
Click here to view the South Australian Business Chamber’s range of health and wellbeing courses on offer.
