Employee wellbeing initiatives are becoming an increasingly important aspect of occupational health.
Ellie Taylor of Insight Workplace Health explains why.
As an employer, you need to comply with health and safety legislation, but good occupational health (OH) practices are increasingly being recognised as more than just a matter of compliance: they’re a powerful way to boost employee wellbeing, morale, performance and retention. They can go a long way to mitigating risk and to ensuring you get the very best out of your team.
In 2018 the Global Wellness Institute reported that Europe is the fastest growing spender on workplace wellness. This is in line with a growing interest in wellness among the general population.
“Once upon a time, our contact with wellness was occasional: we went to the gym or got a massage,” said Katherine Johnston, senior research fellow, GWI. “But this is changing fast: a wellness mindset is starting to permeate the global consumer consciousness, affecting people’s daily decision-making – whether food purchases, a focus on mental wellness and reducing stress, incorporating movement into daily life, environmental consciousness, or their yearning for connection and happiness. Wellness, for more people, is evolving from rarely to daily, from episodic to essential, from a luxury to a dominant lifestyle value.”
This means that increasingly, your employees will want, and recognise the benefits of, wellness benefits within the workplace.
The growing need for such initiatives
In 2018, global professional services firm AON reported that 68% of employers had noticed an increase in mental health-related illness amongst the workforce. AON’s Benefits and Trends Survey 2018 highlighted the power of employee benefits schemes such as physical activity challenges, health and wellbeing apps and stress reduction techniques to boost wellness.
What can Insight do to help?
The increasingly pro-active and caring face of OH provision is reflected in the services offered by Insight Workplace Health. Our team can conduct a variety of health promotion days in your workplace, including blood pressure clinics, cholesterol/blood glucose checks, smoking cessation/awareness, mental health/stress awareness workshops, healthy eating clinics and alcohol and drug awareness. We also offer a full portfolio of measures to improve the mental health of your employees, from training programmes, prevention and counselling through to psychology or psychiatry.
By making use of these you are demonstrating your care and commitment to looking after the wellbeing of your team and also ensuring they are able to perform at their best.
As the Society of Occupational Medicine’s (SOM) 2017 report Occupational Health: the value proposition puts it: “The most important issue for employers to address isn’t whether or not health promotion programmes should be implemented, but rather how they should be designed, implemented and evaluated to achieve optimal results.”
Get in touch today to ask us how we can help you fine-tune yours. Find out a bit more about what makes Insight stand out from the rest. Visit our Training centre to see what courses we can offer your business. Learn more about our approach to Wellbeing and Health promotion
Contact Us and see the benefits of Occupational Health for yourself.