How wellbeing interventions can help develop high performing employees

Employees who feel cared for, are well and are happy are more productive and perform better

How wellbeing interventions can help create more high performing employees.jpg 1

There is strong evidence that there are clear links between wellbeing and productivity in the workplace.

Employees who feel cared for, are well and are happy are more productive and perform better. Conversely, when an employee is struggling, unhealthy or unhappy, they are less productive and less present at work.

While employers can’t force their employees to change their behaviour, they can influence them. And when they do, they improve their performance.

A precursor to high performance

To have higher performance, organisations must do more to enhance and support employee wellbeing. One study spanning six countries and nine years has found that a high performing team must have a high level of happiness.

Another study assessing 1 million soldiers found that high wellbeing predicts outstanding job performance. These two studies show that happiness and wellbeing are more a cause of, than a consequence of success at work.

Supporting high performers

In most organisations, high performers are around 400% more productive than others. They will produce 25% of your output, yet account for only 5% of your workforce. However, there is also another feature of a high performer that most of us don’t think about, and that’s their higher than average need to have wellbeing support in the workplace.

High achievers have a higher rate of depression and are at higher risk of burnout than other employees. The links between high performance and poor wellbeing are so established that in the UK, when a school is rated as high performing, it’s also automatically designated a risk category.

Alter practices to achieve productivity growth

By taking a scientifically backed approach, any employer can instigate low intensity wellbeing support that is designed to improve employee performance. Very small improvements in employee behaviours can drive significant changes in performance in the workplace. Three examples of low intensity wellbeing interventions include:

Encouraging more movement: Research finds that walking for just 20 minutes a day improves cognitive functioning and academic performance. Adding more movement to the working day, even while sitting at a desk, has the potential to lead to higher brain activity. Exercise programmes have also been found to improve mental health to the extent that its benefits can outperform counselling.

Ensuring people get quality sleep: The ROI per employee, per year of a good night’s sleep is around £2,000. For an employer of 1,000 people, helping just 10% of employees to get better sleep could result in productivity gains worth more than £200,000. Benefex’s Big Mood Study 2023 found that employees who had better quality sleep improved their mood over a two-week period.

Creating opportunities for regular psychological flow states. Listening daily to mindfulness and soundscapes can help minimise distractions and procrastination in the workplace and improve employee performance, as well as support overall wellbeing.

Supporting behaviour change with digital tools

Digital wellbeing has a role to play – not just to help an employer to administer the content, tools, and support to achieve better performance, but also to help an employee identify the need to change.

This study found that asking questions can bring about behaviour change, as it gets people to consider a future where their answers to those questions may change. One of the main reasons why this question-behaviour effect motivates people is because their answer may create discomfort. For example, asking an employee how much exercise they got yesterday; saying ‘no’ creates discomfort. In many cases, this admission becomes a precursor to change.

Digital wellbeing platforms that assist employees in identifying the changes they need to make and supporting them in the process through question-behaviour methods are effective at producing better wellbeing outcomes and subsequently, higher performance.

Proving the ROI of wellbeing support

There is a large, positive correlation between employee wellbeing and performance measures across all industries. From better customer loyalty to higher creativity and innovation, to high shareholder returns, the evidence is inarguable.

One major new study of 158,000 people across 450 employers has found that employers that engage in more health promoting behaviours save an average of 11.5 days of unproductive time per employee, per year.

The latest post-pandemic research has found that organisations with happier and healthier employees are less stressed, report greater profitability and higher stock market performance.

When you commit to offering low intensity wellbeing interventions in the workplace, you are not just supporting your people to develop better health behaviours, you are investing in the success of your organisation.

To learn more about how to better support and advance employee wellbeing, take a look at Benefex’s 2023 Wellbeing Report.