Ways to make sure that wellbeing strategies work together across multiple locations
Poor mental and physical health can take a serious toll on the workplace, as it hinders an employee’s performance at work – 42% of employees with a health condition feel as if it affects their work, with 29% of these stating that it affects them ‘a great deal’, found Public Health England in its Workplace health: applying All Our Health (2019) resource. As well as increased absenteeism and presenteeism, ill-health costs workplaces £15 billion per year, so your business can’t afford to ignore the underlying issues.
Developing a wellbeing strategy
When working on a wellbeing strategy, remember that it needn’t be elaborate or expensive to implement. If your business is scattered across multiple locations, start your strategy by mapping out a set of core values that each branch should follow. Make it clear to your employees that transparency is encouraged – many people struggle to talk about their health issues for fear of repercussion, but make it known throughout your business that openness is encouraged.
Wellbeing champions
Training designated members of staff, such as line managers, from each location on your health and wellbeing strategy is also a positive way to ensure that each workplace has a wellbeing champion. These representatives can engage and communicate with other employees, arrange and facilitate wellbeing workshops, feedback concerns to board level and investigate new initiatives to promote health and wellbeing. The representatives can then schedule regular meetings to discuss what they feel is working in their respective workplaces.
Using data to inform strategy
Although the strategy should be consistent across locations, it’s likely that each workplace faces different problems or has different priorities that need to be addressed. A platform where employees can share their opinions anonymously can help inform the strategy and show where improvements can be made. Regular anonymous surveys across locations can form the basis for the business’s overarching strategy as well as at the individual workplaces.
Employee benefits
Despite the differences, there are certain benefits that can be introduced as part of the strategy that will be universally appreciated. Many employees struggle to maintain a good work-life balance – especially during busy periods – as it is key to reducing stress and burn out. Benefits such as time off in lieu and flexi-time can be great for morale, which will lead to an increase in productivity. Health benefits such as cash plan schemes also allow employees to take ownership of their own health and wellbeing, treating potential issues before they have time to take root, which can reduce sickness absences significantly.
As employees are a business’s greatest asset, it’s important to make their health and wellbeing a top priority.
This article is provided by Health Shield.
In partnership with Health Shield
At Health Shield we're passionate about improving people's everyday health.
