What is Employee Health and Wellbeing?

Categorised in: Employee Benefits, Employee Wellbeing

Employee health and wellbeing should be a priority for businesses and involves ensuring that your employees are safe, healthy, content, and engaged within their work.

As part of any HR strategy, employee welfare must be considered, Covid-19 had a critical impact on the mental health of many. In a post-Covid world where working circumstances have changed for a lot of people, it is a key element for business productivity and shapes the way a company operates.

Health and wellbeing covers more than just absences amongst staff. Other than physical health, employee wellbeing is about focusing on other aspects of the mind that shouldn’t be ignored.

Reasons why employee health and wellbeing matter

The dynamics of the workplace have changed dramatically over the last few decades. Due to this, mental health for employees is far more important and must be prioritised more by employers as a critical factor in supporting the wellbeing of their people. Poor mental health is often at the root of long term absence issues that can affect companies, and these incur significant costs. Having a supportive culture for your workforce and enforcing a wellbeing programme along with valued employee benefits can minimise the risks of mental health issues for employees, and can result in a positive domino effect within your business.

More importantly, with many companies now utilising hybrid working, psychologists have cautioned that self-isolation can trigger illnesses such as depression, PTSD and more. These can be less noticeable with employees now working in the office less frequently.

It was a trending topic prior to Covid-19 and just some of the reasons why focusing on employee wellbeing is good for business include:

How to improve employee health and wellbeing

There are many ways a wellbeing programme can benefit an organisation. HIVE360 offers comprehensive wellbeing support in our integrated employee app as well as a host of other attractive benefits. In every case, prevention is better than cure, and this applies to mental health too. Here are just a few different ways to implement an employee wellbeing scheme:

Future of employee health and wellbeing

Employers are realising the significance of employee health and wellbeing support because of the power it has in transforming the lives of their employees. The mental health of workers had been a hotspot prior to Covid-19. But, due to the pandemic, there’s now far more emphasis and wider awareness of the issue, which is leading to greater understanding, empathy and support.

The price of employee’s absenteeism, disconnection and healthcare are too high to be overlooked. As employers are progressively understanding employee wellbeing, we’ll see more competitive and diversified employee wellbeing benefits, programmes and apps.

Heath and wellbeing support with the HIVE360 Engage app

We offer great employee benefits and wellbeing solutions that are available at any time, and at no additional cost through our Engage employee app, all included as part of our wider services.

For more information, you can contact us for support and advice, or book an exploratory meeting.