Employee wellbeing starts at top

There are several cost-effective ways organisations can improve employee wellbeing to create a productive and engaged workplace.

Flexible work practices can be offered to employees at no cost to the organisation but are a way to enhance productivity and retain high-performing employees.

Last month human resources executives from across the world gathered at the CHRO Conference in New York City to discuss the impact of employee wellbeing on productivity.

Workforce productivity is a talking point for leaders of organisations across every industry and sector but it appears that employers are still failing to see the link between employee wellbeing and productivity.

Every dollar spent on effective mental-health action returns $2.30 in benefits to an organisation, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers, Beyond Blue and National Mental Health Commission report in 2014. Once managers accept that employee wellbeing is an essential investment, leadership is essential to improve wellbeing. There are several cost-effective ways organisations can improve employee wellbeing to create a productive and engaged workplace.

Offer flexibility

Flexible work practices can be offered to employees at no cost to the organisation but are a great way to enhance productivity and retain high-performing employees. Offering the flexibility to work remotely or providing employees the option to choose their working days or hours allows them to balance work and family commitments, and it’s a preferred option by employees, especially millennials.

Enhance mindfulness

Research shows that mindfulness in the workplace improves employee focus, attention and behaviour, as well as the ability to manage stress and how employees work together, all of which affects workplace productivity. Offering employees access and time to engage in activities that contribute towards their mental and physical wellbeing, including yoga, meditation or a gym membership, is one way to encourage a healthy lifestyle.

Financial education

Financial wellbeing is fundamental to an individual’s sense of security and therefore happiness. Providing education on salary packaging, superannuation and life insurance options, and how to optimise savings and benefits, equips employees to take control of their finances, leading to an improved sense of wellbeing that significantly boosts an employee’s engagement and productivity at work.

Better work cultures

A recent study by recruitment agency Citrus Group found that, after salary, the main reasons people quit jobs are lack of career progression and culture, followed by flexibility to work from home and leadership.

Organisations need to pay serious attention to culture because all of these elements — staff development, leadership, leave policies and flexible work — are what feed a company’s culture and can have a huge bearing on employee wellbeing.

Culture exists whether you nurture it or not.

Cultural problems typically arise when there is a disconnect between what a business says about its culture and how it behaves. Issues also occur when culture is ignored and allowed to be ad hoc.

Leaders need to be an example for good and set the tone for the organisation’s culture.

Managers also can improve a company’s culture by calling for a cultural review that assesses workplace policies and perceptions, as well as teams and how well they work together.

When Gooroo is deployed to perform cultural audits for customers, we examine the company’s unique cultural levers, identifying the critical priorities and how they’re linked.

It helps to quantify and visualise where the weak spots are and what decision-makers need to address.

Your company isn’t the product you make, your intellectual property, your patents or even the customers you serve.

First and foremost, your company is your people. If you don’t nurture them and support their wellbeing, you’ll ultimately be left with nothing.

Tom Brown is chairman of Gooroo.