Workplace health and wellbeing are on management’s radar, but too often treated as a soft issue, placed somewhere between HR, fruit bowls and mindfulness webinars. This is now ending.
International research suggests more attention should be paid to it: healthier workplaces are not only good for employees, they are linked to better organisational performance. In other words, workplace health and wellbeing should be seen as part of its talent and productivity strategies and also, increasingly, its leadership and stewardship responsibilities.
International research suggests more attention should be paid to it: healthier workplaces are not only good for employees, they are linked to better organisational performance. In other words, workplace health and wellbeing should be seen as part of its talent and productivity strategies and also, increasingly, its leadership and stewardship responsibilities.
This matters, as the S in ESG is often the least understood element. Environmental issues tend to be visible. Governance is familiar territory. But the social dimension – internal social factors in terms of how organisations treat their people, and the social value that flows from it – is less tangible. Yet for most organisations, it is here that culture, reputation and performance interact.
Recent studies indicate that organisations with high levels of employee wellbeing enjoy better performance on recruitment, engagement and retention, with higher profitability and better stock-market performance. Other work has highlighted the role of healthy workplace practices in reducing stress-related absence, burn-out and the hidden drag of presenteeism – people being at work but not functioning at their best.
In many businesses, the cost of poor workplace health is not evident in sickness absences. It crops up in lower energy, weaker concentration, poorer collaboration, slower decision-making, more mistakes and talented employees leaving. An organisation may appear fully staffed while in practice operating well below its potential.
The answer is not, however, in superficial wellbeing perks. Evidence does not support a simplistic view that free bananas and yoga classes lead to higher productivity. Healthy workplaces are built through enlightened leadership and management, good physical office environments and job designs and ultimately, of course, culture.
The full article by Adrian Pryce DL and Tommy Hutchinson, was originally published by All Things Business and can be read in full here.
