Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
Leaders must promote workplace wellness to remain competitive and provide employees with a healthy environment. It helps employees work better and improves employee morale and employee retention rate.
Besides, it also allows organizations to save money on healthcare expenses. In essence, it helps the organization function well and perform optimally.
As an organization’s leader, you must commit to promoting workplace wellness.
In this knowledgebase article, we will see why leaders promote workplace wellness and the 7 steps they must follow to be successful.
What is Promote Workplace Wellness?
To “promote workplace wellness” means that leaders at a company try to help their workers stay healthy in their bodies, minds, and feelings. It includes setting up programs to help employees stay well, ensure good food, and employees have a good balance between work and personal life.
They want everyone working there to feel good and stay happy. They hope employees will be more productive, miss work less often, and feel better overall.
In today’s challenging times, leaders must prioritize promoting workplace wellness as it plays a significant role in the overall health goals of their employees.
The pandemic has brought about a shift in how we work. It is more important than ever to focus on personal health and wellbeing.
With remote work environment and increased use of social media, employees face different ways of stress that can impact their mental and physical wellness.
Senior leaders support is crucial in ensuring employees have the tools to cope with mental health challenges and promote workplace wellbeing.
By implementing health promotion initiatives and company wellness programs, leaders can set higher standards for employee wellbeing and act as role models for their team members.
An open-door policy helps reduce the stigma surrounding mental health challenges and creates a safe space for employees with empathy.
In addition to the adverse effects of the pandemic, financial security has become a concern. It adds another layer of stress to their lives.
Leaders must recognize this and prioritize wellness strategies that address financial well-being, such as providing financial planning resources and benefits.
Why must leaders worry about promoting Workplace Wellness?
Workplace wellness programs have become popular. But why must leaders care about promoting workplace wellness? Why? Because workplace wellness programs improve employee health and well-being, reduce absenteeism and health care costs, and boost productivity.
However, leaders must support employees in maintaining a healthy lifestyle by convincing them to enroll in workplace wellness programs.
It helps employees develop healthier habits and make healthier choices. Leaders must ensure employees register active participation in the wellness program by forming teams and motivating everyone to participate.
It will create awareness of the importance of well-being and encourage everyone to practice healthy lifestyles.
Effective crisis management is another vital aspect of promoting workplace wellness. Leaders must have the critical leadership skills to navigate challenging times and support workforce.
Leaders can create a culture that values the wellness of their employees by prioritizing self-care and encouraging healthy habits.
When leaders prioritise workplace wellness
| When Leaders Prioritise Workplace Wellness | When Leaders Neglect Workplace Wellness |
| Employees are healthier and happier | Employees may be more prone to illness and burnout |
| There is less absenteeism and turnover | There may be higher absenteeism and turnover rates |
| Productivity is increased | Productivity may suffer |
| There is a positive work culture that values employee well-being | Work culture may be negative or indifferent to employee well-being |
| The organization may attract and retain top talent | The organization may struggle to attract and retain talented employees |
| Healthcare costs may decrease | Healthcare costs may increase due to employee health issues |
7 Steps Leaders must follow to promote Workplace Wellness
There are many benefits of workplace wellness. In a healthy workplace environment, employees are more productive and have higher morale. It leads to better employee engagement and lower employee turnover. But despite these benefits, workplace wellness challenges many companies.
It means no concrete set of practices or norms in place yet. To promote work well-being, leaders must follow the following steps:
Step 1: Establish a Wellness Vision
Your workplace wellness program must establish a vision and mission statement for the program. It should communicate the goals and objectives of the program.
Promoting healthy behavior at work, especially for remote teams, is challenging, but define it well.
To address this, leaders must model healthy behavior in their daily work lives and encourage their teams to do the same.
Additionally, the involvement of senior leadership in promoting the program can help increase employee engagement.
Creating a team of stakeholders to assess employee needs and develop an action plan for promoting wellness is another way leaders can help design a successful workplace wellness program.
Step 2: Create a Wellness Committee
A wellness committee is a group of employees responsible for promoting and implementing workplace wellness programs.
The committee should include representatives from all company areas, including human resources, medical, and operations.
The wellness committee should have the freedom to decide workplace wellness policies, such as what forms of health coverage to offer or which health resources to support.
A well-organized wellness committee reduces healthcare costs and improves employee health.
Step 3: Develop Wellness Goals
To create a successful wellness program, develop achievable goals for employees. They must align with the company and employee population.
They should also be realistic and based on current health data. For example, setting a goal of reducing workplace stress levels by 10 percent may not be feasible for all companies. But, it is reasonable for those with high rates of stress-related illness.
| Employee Wellness Program Goals | Targets |
| Increase physical activity | – Increase the number of employees who meet recommended physical activity guidelines by 20% in the next year. – Increase the number of steps taken by employees each day by an average of 1000. |
| Improve healthy eating habits | – Increase the percentage of employees who report eating fruits and vegetables daily by 30%. – Reduce the percentage of employees who consume sugary drinks daily by 20%. |
| Reduce stress levels | – Rise the percentage of employees who report feeling less stressed at work by 25%. – Decrease the number of sick days taken due to stress-related illnesses by 15%. |
| Improve mental health | – Increase the percentage of employees who report feeling satisfied with their work-life balance by 30%. – Increase the number of employees who access mental health resources provided by the company by 50%. |
| Improve overall health | – Decrease the average body mass index (BMI) of employees by 2 points in the next year. – Reduce the number of employees with high blood pressure by 10%. |
Step 4: Implement Wellness Strategies
Leaders have a vital role in promoting workplace wellness. They can help lead by modeling healthy behavior, creating corporate wellness initiatives, investing in a workplace wellness center of excellence, prioritizing mental, physical, and social well-being, and more.
Wellness strategies help leaders promote employee engagement reducing absenteeism and healthcare costs.
Leaders must prioritize mental, physical, and social well-being. By recognizing work-life balance, leaders must ensure that employees stay healthy at work and outside of it.
Leaders should also offer informative resources and healthy options to improve employee wellness.
Step 5: Monitor and Evaluate Wellness Progress
Evaluating wellness progress is vital in helping leaders identify areas of improvement and success. It happens through employee surveys, health assessments, or observational studies.
Leaders should also track workplace stress levels and rates of physical health problems to see if their wellness goals are effective.
Step 6: Offer Wellness Resources
Now that leaders have a better understanding of promoting workplace wellness, they can provide resources and support to employees.
It may include,
- Providing mental health counseling
- Healthy eating options
- Work-life balance advice/seminars
- Physical activity programs
- Sleep room
- Yoga classes
- Nutrition information classes
Step 7: Reward and Celebrate Achievements After Promoting Workplace Wellness
Senior leadership should celebrate employee achievements in wellness by recognizing their efforts in company newsletters or emails.
Such a step can go a long way in propelling organizational health and promoting a workplace wellness culture.
In addition, offering rewards to employees is a great way to show appreciation for their hard work and dedication. It can also help reduce employee burnout and turnover rates.
Use visual tools such as charts and diagrams to highlight successful wellness achievements. These visuals are often easy to understand and can help communicate complex health-related data effectively.
Additionally, virtual potlucks with the CEO can help celebrate employee successes and promote healthy collaboration within the organization.
Overall, promoting workplace wellness requires senior leadership commitment and support, as well as employee engagement and involvement.
Related articles
- 5 ways to demonstrate accountability at work.
- 10 tips to retain top talent.
- When to decline a meeting (with templates and a free tool).
- 5 ways to a win-win situation in business.
- 5 aspects of meaningful feedback.
- The leadership style to maintain integrity.
- A boss, a leader – which one are you?
- 7 ways to prevent employee burnout in 2023.
- 5 ways to lose a good employee.
Frequently Asked Questions
Senior leadership is responsible for promoting workplace wellness programs at a company. They must be on board to ensure employee participation and support. Employers must provide a supportive backbone for the program, while managers can help engage employees by building trust and leading by example.
Wellness Change Agents must be ready to make a real impact on employee well-being. Senior executives and managers can be early champions of the program and help promote it throughout the company.
Workplace wellness benefits employers in many ways. By improving company culture, driving user engagement, and reducing healthcare costs, workplace wellness can help attract top talent and elevate your company’s image. In addition, workplace wellness can help employees improve their overall health, eliminate or control risk factors for chronic health issues, and manage existing health issues.
Employers also benefit from increased productivity, reduced worker absenteeism, and lower healthcare costs due to workplace wellness.
Furthermore, workplace wellness can inspire employees to be their best selves leading to higher performance and satisfaction.
Leaders can assess workplace wellness in their company by measuring employee participation in wellness activities. To measure employee participation, leaders should ask employees how often they participate in wellness activities and why they think these activities are critical.
Leaders should also track employee engagement with wellness activities by assessing employees’ interest in participating in the programs.
Hierarchical regression analysis helps to identify the amount of variance in health behaviors accounted for by the other variables in the study. This analysis provides leaders with the most influential factors in predicting employee health behaviors.
Furthermore, leaders should get directly involved in announcing and promoting new wellness initiatives and communicating resources offered to employees.
Also, they should set an example by taking advantage of health assessments and screenings offered by the wellness program and enrolling in new wellness initiatives.
Conclusion
Leaders can promote workplace wellness by fostering a culture, providing resources and support, and offering education and training.
Leaders must recognize their role in promoting wellness and working toward employee satisfaction.
By creating a structure that supports employee wellness goals and actions, leaders can ensure employees have the support they need to incorporate healthy lifestyle choices into their daily routines.
Offering rewards and celebrations for employee wellness achievements helps create a culture of health-consciousness across an organization.
Hoomale is a hub of thought-provoking articles on various subjects, from company operations to the mindset and behavior of young people to future work and tech. Stay informed and educated with our captivating reads.
Get notified of our next post via email by signing up with the form below. Consider subscribing to our Youtube channel.
Disclaimer: Our post may contain affiliate links. By clicking and purchasing, the commission could come to us at no extra cost. Rest assured – we only endorse products and services with a personal stamp of approval and top-notch quality. Appreciation for your support runs deep.
