It's All About The Experience

In some ways, employee well being is easy to define. You know when employees are happy at their jobs. There’s a general feeling of cheerfulness and optimism in the air when you go to work. But it’s often hard to tell what exactly creates this aura of happiness. Are your employees merely physically and mentally healthy themselves, or have you done something to create the type of environment which will make them content?

There are times when a toxic company culture can impact even the most cheerful of people, making them dour and sullen. At other times, company culture can be an uplifting force that makes employees excited about being at their workplace.

Evaluation Methods

If you want to change your company culture, you must first evaluate your employees’ well being. There are various ways of doing this. If you run a small business, it may be possible to sit down with each and every employee and find out what they’re happy with and what they’re unhappy with in their jobs. If you run a larger company, this type of one-to-one interaction may not be possible and you might have to rely on a survey or hire a consultant to find out how your employees feel about working for you.

It’s possible that through this type of open communication, you’ll understand some of the main things which need to be changed. For example, if you have a small staff of five and three of them are giving you the same feedback, then that means that you need to change that thing.

Workplace Wellness Strategies

Apart from paying attention to what your employees are telling you, there are also certain workplace wellness strategies you can adopt for your organization. It may not be possible for you to put all of the following strategies into practice at once, but try to implement them slowly to improve the employee experience.

1. Physical Environment: Make sure the physical environment is conducive to employee well being. It should be spacious with natural light, some bright colors, artwork, comfortable furniture, etc.
2. Overtime: Employees should not be asked to work overtime too often as this is one of the main things which creates feelings of dissatisfaction. There are times when overtime is unavoidable, but it shouldn’t be expected everyday.
3. Good Benefits: This can include health and dental insurance, vacation days, daycare, etc. Find out which benefits are most important by speaking to your employees and if possible try to accommodate those needs.
4. Freedom of Communication: Employees should feel free to speak to upper level management instead of having to just follow orders without being able to communicate if there is a problem.
5. Encouraging Creativity: You can have brainstorming sessions and encourage employees to come to you with problem-solving ideas. Employees feel valued if they are able to think outside the box and have the capability to express themselves.

Wellness Programs

In addition to actually changing the way your business is managed, you can organize wellness programs for employees. These can include yoga camps held in the offices themselves, meditation sessions that the employee can go to free of charge, or even 5K runs that you encourage everyone to take part

You’ll notice a subtle shift in mood and an increase in employee enthusiasm when you do this. As people become mentally and physically healthier, they’re more likely to start enjoying work as well.

Big Impacts for Business

You might think that simply making your employees happy isn’t really going to impact your business, but in reality it does. The impact is long-term and highly beneficial.

The happier your employees are, the harder they work, quality is improved and your best employees are loyal to the company. Plus, you're at a lesser risk of facing problems that other companies have, such as a high turnover rate or a decrease in productivity.

In the long run, putting some actual effort into company culture and employee well being results in a business that is more apt to run smoothly on a day-to-day basis.

Does your company offer an enhancing employee experience? Are employees noticeably happy, or is there a certain drag with employees and productivity? If your company is struggling with employee well-being and you want to learn more ways to identify the problem and find a working solution, view our HCM webinar, "Raising the Bar on Employee Well-being" presented by David Weiner, OMH Solutions. 

This webinar discusses in depth:

• Exploring what defines employee well-being (beyond physical and emotional health) and why this matters to growing businesses.
• Learning effective evaluation methods for measuring employee well-being.
• Discovering workplace wellness strategies for enhancing the employee experience, productivity and retention.
• Creating a better organizational culture through wellness programs that are focused on improving the employee experience.
• Understanding the business impacts of addressing employee well-being and the workplace experience.

Platinum Group is a full service human capital management (HCM) resource that allows businesses to manage their payroll, benefits compliance, track time and attendance and other various human resources functions in a way that maximizes efficiency and eliminates redundancies with the platform, iSolved. For more information about Platinum Group or to schedule a demo of iSolved please visit our website.