Workplace wellbeing
Workplace health is about promoting and managing the health and wellbeing of staff and includes managing sickness absence and presenteeism (a person physically at work, but unproductive).
Promoting employee wellbeing is good for people and the organisation. It can help prevent stress and create positive working environments where individuals and organisations can thrive. Good health and wellbeing can be a foundation to employee engagement and organisational performance.
Investing in employee wellbeing, which doesn’t always mean cost - it is quite often time investment, can lead to increased resilience, reduced sickness absence and presenteeism, better employee engagement and higher performance and productivity.
However, from a financial perspective, Deloitte’s latest report Mental Health and employers: Refreshing the case for investment, revealed that employers can expect to get an average return on investment of £5 for every £1 spent.
The latest data from the HSE shows that 35.2 million estimated working days were lost in 2022/23 due to work-related ill health and non-fatal workplace injuries. Stress, depression or anxiety and musculoskeletal disorders accounted for most days lost due to work-related ill health, 17.1 million and 6.6 million respectively.
On average, each person suffering took around 15.8 days off work. This varies as follows: 6.6 days for Injuries, 17.8 days for Ill health cases, 19.6 days for Stress, depression or anxiety and 13.9 days for Musculoskeletal disorders
Covid-19 has forced employee wellbeing into focus for many organisations however, many people continue to work when unwell even if they are working from home. The full impacts of the pandemic are yet to be fully seen but many people’s mental wellbeing has been affected and employers will increasingly need to take steps to manage the main risks of stress and mental ill health across their workforce.
Standalone wellbeing initiatives play a part in educating employees about wellbeing, health conditions and healthy lifestyles but to gain a real benefit, employee wellbeing priories must be integrated throughout an organisation, embedded in its culture leadership and values.
There are many resources you can access through your own Employee Assistance Programmes and corporate wellness packages and the resources/links below are an additional resource for you to use when designing and delivering your employee wellbeing strategies and programmes.
Wellness Actions Plans are a simple tool you can use to help you support your own mental health at work. And if you're a manager, allow you to support the mental health of your team members. Anyone can complete a Wellness Action Plan. You don't need to have a mental health problem to feel the benefits.
Resources and useful links
- Thrive at Work - a free accreditation programme that supports employee health & wellbeing
- Covid secure pledge - The Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire COVID Secure Business Pledge is open to businesses in Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire to sign up to. The pledge seeks to promote COVID Secure best practice while providing reassurance to employees and customers of businesses in the local area.
- Businesses committed to a fairer Coventry - Support to address health inequalities through your working practices
- Business in the Community (BITC) Toolkits - The toolkit focuses on health and wellbeing at work developed by BITC and in collaboration with Public Health England. It provides practical, evidence-based guidance on how employers can support their employees to improve the health and wellbeing of their workforce.
- Warwickshire Skills Hub – supporting businesses, schools and communities to create a well skilled population that meets the needs of Warwickshire’s evolving economy
- W4L national calendar of 2024 wellbeing days
- Coventry & Warwickshire Workplace Wellbeing Forum
- One You and Better Health – Public Health England and NHS backed campaigns encouraging people to reappraise their lifestyle choices, put themselves first and do something about their own health
- Thriving at Work Stevenson/Farmer review – Commissioned by the Prime Minister and supported by Public Health England. Sets out what employers can do to better support all employee’s mental health with guidance and recommendations. The charity Mind provide a free resource to help implement the standards in your workplace.
- City Save - Start a savings plan as an active member of a successful financial co-operative available to individuals who reside or are employed in the locality of Birmingham (B Postcode) or the county of Warwickshire.
