According to new research, from Edenred and energiseYou, organisations appear to overestimate the wellbeing of their employees. As a result many employers underestimate the role they can play in improving the health and wellbeing of their people.
HR has a real opportunity to improve business performance by confronting employee health and wellbeing. January and February are key months for employee engagement and wellbeing – getting staff fired up at the start of 2013 will help create a great first quarter and set the tone for the rest of the year.
However, it can take time to secure budget for a large health and wellbeing programme. So here are some simple and low cost actions to help you get started straight away and take a proactive approach to employee wellbeing.
1. Healthy food and drink plan
Simple changes will help employees make healthy nutritional choices so that they can achieve great health, energy & performance at work. These include:
– Healthy meeting rooms: Make sure meeting rooms have fruit, herbal teas and water. Also try to avoid unhealthy snacks, such as biscuits and sweets.
– Long meetings and training days: If meetings run through the day or if you have training days ensure your caterers provide healthy breakfasts & lunches.
– Company canteen: If you company has a canteen or restaurant facility, ensure healthy options are provided and unhealthy options are kept to a minimum.
2. Organise a corporate discount at the local gym
Organising a corporate discount at the local gym is quick, simple and zero cost to the business. For employees who want to exercise at the gym, this discounted rate makes it more cost effective for them to join.
3. Free energiseYou online health & energy check
This simple ten minute health & energy check gives employees a score out of 100 for the seven key drivers to great health & energy: Mind management & resilience, nutrition, sleep, exercise, computer use, re-energising & work life balance.
4. Health tips
Provide staff with information about how they can improve their health and energy. If your budget is tight start by accessing free information, for example energiseYou send a simple health tips email, giving individuals three actions to focus on for the month ahead. This is a great way to help educate employees, and keep them making healthy choices.
5. Workstation assessments
Make sure your staff complete a workstation assessment. This will ensure employees are following healthy workstation practices, and ensure your company is complying with health & safety regulations.
6. Bi-annual health & wellbeing event
Health and wellbeing events are designed to coach employees to make simple changes to their lifestyle to improve their health, energy & performance at work. Events should be fun and engaging. They can include: health workshops, access to health experts, back massages and your local gym promoting exercise.
7. Employee wellbeing programme promotion
To help you recruit and retain talent make sure prospective employees and current employees know that you have an employee wellbeing programme. January is a great time to communicate wellbeing initiatives and support employees with their New Year resolutions.
Oliver Gray is Managing Director of energiseYou
