3 ways to encourage employees to engage with physical wellbeing
The connection between wellbeing and productivity in the workplace is well established.
Employees who feel cared for, healthy and happy tend to be more productive and perform better. Conversely, when employees are struggling with stress, ill-health or unhappiness, they become less productive.
In fact, the healthiest workplaces save an average of 11.5 days of unproductive time per employee each year. Empowering employees to take charge of their physical wellbeing doesn’t just benefit your workforce; it positively impacts business outcomes. For that reason, and because it’s the right thing to do, employee wellbeing has become a strategic priority.
And employees are also demanding wellbeing support – 86% of employees say they would contemplate leaving a company that doesn’t prioritise their wellbeing.
Here are three key steps to empowering your employees to look after their physical wellbeing.
1: Make wellbeing accessible
Employers are recognising the importance of supporting employees in managing the challenges that come with modern ways of working. Micro-stressors, those small daily stressors we all experience, can accumulate and cause burnout, reduce productivity and affect wellbeing. These negative consequences can be amplified in remote workers, as they struggle to disconnect from work.
The first step to encouraging good physical wellbeing behaviour is to ensure the tools and resources are easily accessible, wherever in the world employees are located. This means providing digital tools that are always available.
Mobile apps and online platforms ensure that wellbeing support is at employees’ fingertips, regardless of their location or schedule. This is especially critical for organisations with disparate workforces, as it offers convenience and flexibility, so that employees can access resources when and where they need them.
2: Make wellbeing easy
Although 90% of employees recognise the importance of self-care and better wellbeing habits, only 23% feel they’re making a good job of it. A further 40% say they’re “too tired” to make significant changes.
Wellbeing is an increasingly complex subject and overwhelming and often contradictory information can leave individuals confused. Evidence suggests that a lack of time is one of the major barriers cited by people for failing to to engage in regular physical activity, but many employees may not know how significant even small doses can be for their physical wellbeing.
Employees often want quick and easy solutions. Low-intensity interventions have been shown to be extremely effective ways to develop better physical wellbeing practices. These brief, simple actions have a substantial cumulative impact as well as significant instant effects.
For example, just 10 minutes of gentle stretching has been suggested to boost mood and cognition in the short term, and walking daily has been shown to reduce the risk of death. Interrupting sitting time at a desk with even small bouts (less than 60 seconds) of vigorous physical activity through ‘exercise snacking’ can lead to profound improvements in cardiometabolic health and even reduce the risk of cancer.
It’s best to offer employees brief exercise options (that can be tailored to different abilities and preferences) – for example, walking, desk-based movement breaks, home workouts, and yoga. These interventions are easy, don’t require a significant time commitment and can be integrated into daily routines to significantly improve employee health without feeling overwhelming.
Improving health literacy through easy-to-understand healthcare information also makes physical wellbeing more accessible to employees. Educational content helps people understand the need for change and make informed choices – empowering them to start managing their own wellbeing.
Step 3: Communicate effectively
Communication is key to a successful wellbeing strategy. Digital platforms can help you deliver wellbeing content and information to employees quickly and effectively wherever they are.
For organisations with diverse workforces, delivering content through various mediums, such as email updates or apps, ensures employees can access information in the way that suits them best.
The goal is to create regular content that keeps employees engaged and informed about their physical wellbeing. To keep employees engaged, wellbeing communications should be consistent, delivered in small amounts and tailored or personalised to the individual where possible.
To encourage action, educational content should link directly to the relevant resources in the app so it’s easy for employees to find. And using employee advocates can be a powerful way to incentivise others to engage with wellbeing tools.
The need to get wellbeing support right
Good wellbeing support has become a necessity. Implementing easy-to-do, low-intensity interventions and the right digital tools to successfully deliver content to employees is key to empowering employees to take charge of their physical wellbeing.
There’s strong evidence of the symbiotic relationship between mental and physical health and research has been accumulating in recent years. Many forms of physical activity are associated with measurable improvements in physical, mental, and social wellbeing outcomes.
To learn more about how organisations are progressing towards their wellbeing goals and the role of wellbeing tech, take a look at our Wellbeing Report.
In partnership with Benefex
The home of award-winning employee benefits, reward, recognition, & communications.
