It can cost around 23% of an employee’s salary to hire them and get them trained in. Let that statistic sink in for a minute. When you start thinking about the cost of just getting an employee in the door and starting to add value, it makes them quite the valuable resource that you don’t want to lose anytime soon, right?
Businesses typically put the customer, the product, or the service at the forefront of the company. Perhaps your main goal is sales, or perhaps you’re looking to expand your customer base. We expect our employees to dedicate their workweeks to helping the company succeed, so why not expect a company to dedicate themselves to their employee’s wellbeing?
Wellbeing can encompass the physical, emotional, social or even economic areas of a person’s life. Some employees may come from a background where they’ve had a decent wellbeing most of their life, and will be more resilient through change or tough times at work. Others will not be so fortunate, and greatly need your support as a company, a manager or a business owner to help them through hard times, or even a difficult project at work. This is where you come in, and can begin to add value to your employee’s wellbeing.
Physical wellbeing
Supporting your employee’s physical wellbeing can include several healthy initiatives to support a healthier and more active lifestyle.
- Team sports
One of the best ways to incorporate a better physical environment is to create and promote team sports. Have your employees express interest in what kind of sport they enjoy, and create a company team to play in a local league. Make sure to support them in this, making it easy to sign up, and fair for anyone interested. Games can promote employee bonding, as well as increase their teamwork skills, and get people out of their desks and onto a field.
- Gym memberships
Give incentives to get your employees moving more by providing discounts at local gyms and fitness clubs. Exercise has been proven to increase productivity, so it will end up paying off for you to invest a bit in this. Some additional ideas is to only provide a discount if employees visit the gym a certain amount of times per month, to motivate them to actually visit the gym. You could also try onsite classes if you’ve got the space, and allow employees to take their lunch break to attend a yoga class or outdoor run.
- Healthy foods at work
If your company provides any food at work, or has vending machines or a cafeteria, make sure it’s stocked with healthy options besides the chips and sugary drinks. No employer can control what their employees eat, but you can at least ensure there are healthy alternatives for people to make their own choice.
Emotional and Psychological
- EAP programs
Employees have personal lives, which means they’re also going to have personal conflicts, outside stress, and This should matter to you not only because you care about your employee, but because it can affect their work and satisfaction in a job. An Employee Assistance Program or something like it is an absolute necessity for an employer to provide. Providing free, confidential support to your employees ensures they have someone to talk to when their personal issues start to overwhelm them. It can also be utilised when the issue is actually at work rather than home, which can help solve some internal conflicts and productivity issues.
- Encourage taking of annual leave
Too many employers don’t pay enough attention to their overall leave balance. Take a moment to tally up how much leave your employees have accrued to date, and if you don’t already have a cap on how much they can accrue, it’s time to set one. Annual leave is there to preserve free time for an employee, and to help them take a break and rest occasionally, and they ought to use it! While you don’t want to force an employee to take it if you don’t have to, make sure that you’re fostering an environment where it is easy to request time off, and that leave is granted unless it is an absolute business necessity to deny the request.
- Work/life balance/flexibility
Work and life balance is becoming increasingly more important to employees. Make sure that you are doing your part as an employer to offer flexible working arrangements when appropriate, including flex time, working from home, or part-time hours to those who request it and the request fits within your business need. Try some of these other tips to manage your own work/life balance as well.
Economic
- Salaries
When you think of economic wellbeing, you likely think of salary first. However, although this is an important component, there’s multiple factors that feed into your employee staying at a job besides their salary. Employees these days often want to feel like their work is worthwhile first, and a comfortable salary second.
- Stuff
One underutilised and often overlooked area of economic wellbeing is making sure your employees have all the tools to do their job. This includes ensuring a new employee has an ID clip holder for their badge, and a neck lanyard to wear around the office. Their desk space should be clean and ready for their arrival, including a nameplate custom engraved with their prefered name. Other desk property could also be custom engraved to provide a nice, welcoming touch to the employee.
- Training
One of the best ways to get the most bang for your buck is to provide relevant training that upskills your employees. A perfect example of this is work, health and safety training, which can help employees avoid any common injuries now, saving you a worker’s compensation premium hike later.
Take just a few of these tips on board, and you’ll start seeing your employee engagement increase dramatically. As a company, the best investment you can make is in your own staff, and what better way to invest in them then by making sure their wellbeing is taken care of, allowing them to be a productive, healthy and satisfied employee!