Promoting Employee Wellbeing can help you to become an Employer of Choice

Helping employees to look after themselves both physically and mentally of course promotes their health and wellbeing, but it can also have massive benefits for the organisation including improved focus, innovation, and productivity. It can minimise absence and can help you become an Employer of Choice.

Employee Wellness programmes can prove an attractive incentive when recruiting and retaining valuable individuals. Many large corporations have long utilised these tools, but as businesses now fight to attract and retain key staff in the current tight labour market, small and medium-sized companies might do well to consider introducing a small selection of these relatively low-cost benefits below.

If the suggestions below don't hit the spot, then maybe run a 5-minute staff survey to discover your employees’ ideas. Consulting your staff provides them with a voice and promotes inclusion – all positives for a great workplace.

1. Introduce a medical insurance scheme. Most offer incentives like discounted gym memberships or ‘reward’ schemes based on exercise completed. These schemes can also cover mental health support for staff and sometimes family members.

2. Create walking/running/exercise/cycling groups with friendly league tables.

3. Offer flexible start/finish times or longer lunch-breaks to facilitate gym visits.

4. Install a water cooler (losing just 2% of the water in our bodies can impair cognitive performance). Those brief ‘cooler catch-up chats’ are also essential for our wellbeing as humans.

5. Create a lunchtime book, recipe, or a craft club.

6. Ensure kitchen facilities are well equipped and clean, with plenty of fridge space to store healthy packed-lunches.

7. Offer a cycle-to-work scheme, employees may extend cycling to their free time and families.

8. Organise a car-sharing rota – could aid cross-pollination of ideas across teams, also environmentally-friendly.

9. Consider implementing a corporate volunteering scheme, empowering employees to give back to their local community. There is lots of evidence that supporting others benefits our own wellbeing.

Discerning employees are now looking for more than just a 9-5 job which purely pays the bills - they want to feel valued and cared for. Forward-thinking organisations offering this support are better-placed to secure and retain the best talent in the marketplace.