Using the 4 pillars of wellbeing to enhance your employee wellbeing strategy

Employees are one of the biggest assets to any organisation. Therefore, helping to ensure they are happy and healthy at work is essential to building a successful business. Without wellbeing support from you, employees can be left feeling stressed and overwhelmed, resulting in a lack of productivity and sometimes time off work. However, good employee wellbeing can enhance employee engagement, improve how employees perform their day-to-day jobs, and also have a positive impact on their peers and your clients.

A good wellbeing strategy should include four key pillars:

Physical
This means supporting your employees to make the right lifestyle choices to remain healthy and avoid preventable problems in the future. You can look out for your employee’s physical wellbeing by encouraging regular breaks, providing discount gym vouchers or cycle to work schemes, and you could even bring the yoga class to the office or virtually online! Including benefits such as critical illness cover, dental and medical insurance as part of your package is also a fantastic way to look out for your employees’ physical health.

Social
Most employees spend more time at work than doing any other activity, therefore it is important to utilise the workplace as a hub for social contact, whether that be in-person or online. Social wellbeing at work refers to a sense of belonging and inclusivity, an alignment with the company values, frequent social interaction and strong relationships with colleagues. [1] Try setting up coffee mornings, virtual gatherings or even encourage team leaders to hold weekly team meetings, as this will all help support employee’s wellbeing.

Mental
You can help your people to feel as though they can confidently cope with the stresses and strains of daily life. Creating an inclusive work culture helps to support mental wellbeing for employees. If you have an employee assistance programme (EAP) make sure this information is readily available for your employees. Having mental health first aiders within the workplace can also provide employees with comfort they have someone who can listen if they are struggling. Don’t forget to talk to your management team too, and make sure they have the right support to help their teams.

Financial
There may be many hidden financial struggles among your workforce, and whilst employees may want support from their employers, they may not always feel comfortable discussing their finances. Therefore, it’s important to offer support and advice around finances to help make sure employees feel in control of their money.  Offering financial education can help to provide employees with the tools they need to improve their finances, set goals, and be prepared for when the unexpected may occur.

Ensuring your wellbeing strategy consists of all four pillars is vital for your employees’ wellbeing, as all four are interlinked with each other. For example, physical health supports mental wellbeing and good financial wellbeing improves mental health but can also support your employees’ social wellbeing. A wellbeing strategy is more likely to be successful when it covers all four of these areas.

To find out more about employee wellbeing, as well as tips to creating a good wellbeing strategy, download our new workplace wellbeing guide here.

[1] https://peoplevalue.net/why-is-social-wellbeing-important-in-the-workplace/