It may be a cliché, but your workforce really is your greatest asset. So if you want to create a positive working environment in which individuals thrive and stress is minimal, you need to take staff wellbeing seriously.
Doing so fosters loyalty and reduces time and money spent on recruitment, with staff less likely to take sick leave. And, clearly, when people are mentally and physically well, they’re more likely to have energy and even enhanced cognitive abilities, allowing them to realise their potential.
In 2022, one UK specialist in this area found that some two-thirds of employees (67%) had experienced moderate-to-high levels of stress, while just over a third (34%) had experienced negative stress at work. Respondents also reported high levels of anxiety, with more than half (58%) experiencing symptoms, and 52% having at least mild depression symptoms – around a fifth (22%) revealed clinically relevant indications of this.
Meanwhile, research from mental-health charity Mind found that 60% of workers felt more motivated when their employer invested in their mental wellbeing.
According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), wellbeing initiatives routinely don’t meet their full potential because they’re isolated from daily operations. So, to be impactful, you need to integrate wellbeing priorities across your organisation, embedding them in its culture, leadership and people management.
There’s no single ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Different team members will be grappling with different challenges and feelings. But, among other things, staff wellbeing encompasses physical and mental health and safety and having an inclusive, well-designed workspace, strong line management plus a good work-life balance.
Policies on sickness absence, autonomy, whistleblowing, working hours, rewards and change management also play their part. It’s also important to stress that everyone is responsible for fostering their own wellbeing in a workplace, not least in these times of change, upheaval and uncertainty.
What can we actually do?
Everyone’s different, so engagement and motivation involve a range of complex, varied human emotions. But here are two ideas which you may not have previously considered:
- Hiring a wellbeing speaker
A wellbeing speaker is a specialist in health and wellbeing who combines factual information, stories, positivity and enthusiasm to talk to your employees about the importance of mental and physical wellness. At the same time, they share practical, genuinely helpful tips to use at work and beyond.
Hiring one of these motivational speakers for a corporate event or standalone session can prove a transformative experience, kicking off a ripple effect of positive change across your organisation in areas from nutrition to exercise, sleep and more.
Speakers can galvanise people into taking responsibility for their own wellbeing, so that you create a culture of happiness, health and strong performance by harnessing holistic wellbeing’s power to drive innovation and productivity. Job satisfaction and employee retention will improve significantly as a result.
- Workplace massage
Again, this may not be something you’d previously considered. But workplace massage can yield myriad benefits:
- Muscle stretching releases energy and endorphins into the body.
- When staff accept this skilled care, they immediately feel more positive and optimistic, and therefore more motivated. They’ll look forward to it, especially if they’ve previously enjoyed massages.
- Classic massage involves boosting healthy blood flow across the body, kicking your brain into action. Even a 15-minute massage can help make team members more alert, attentive and productive.
- Tense bodies tend to be less agile and responsive, while tense minds won’t easily identify efficient solutions. Massage clears the head to enhance performance, avoid mistakes and improve engagement.
- Finally, massage is known to relieve symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression.
