Wellbeing is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution. Well-being, especially in a corporate setting, needs to be an interrelated, multifaceted approach to health.
According to Employment Hero’s 2022 Wellness Report, there are two things we need to know about health. They are:
- There’s no singular element that signifies overall wellbeing
- Each dimension of wellness is interrelated
There are seven dimensions that add up to an individual’s overall well-being and all facets need to be met in order to achieve optimal wellness. Encouraging well-being at work means to address and balance each of the seven factors.
These are:
- Physical: How your body operates and feels
- Mental: How you handle stress and manage your emotions
- Financial: Your confidence in your financial situation and goals
- Occupational: Your sense of fulfilment and happiness in your professional life/career
- Relational: Your sense of belonging and connection with others
- Spiritual: Your sense of purpose (religious or secular)
- Recreational: Your connection to creativity, hobbies and interests
An individual may be at their peak physical health, but their occupational health might be lacking, and they may not feel fulfilled. They might have a strong sense of financial confidence, but if they’re lacking in their relationships and aren’t able to communicate effectively, they might feel a reduced sense of belonging in the workplace.
Through the Wellness Report, and by examining and questioning the seven factors of individual wellness, we can transcend the traditional way of thinking about health and as companies, we can begin to address each dimension for a happy and fulfilled team member.
As an Organisation, How do we Address Each Element?
Physical wellbeing
The more common wellbeing perks are typically related to physical needs. In a corporate setting, implementing walking meetings or stand-up meetings is a good way to get your team out of their seats. Gym memberships, on-site facilities and incentives or challenges are a great way to get people moving and challenging their current activity levels. Also ensuring healthy lunches and education around physical health is a great start.
49% of Australians has said that regular exercise was the most helpful tool to manage stress since the start of the pandemic.
Here at Corporate Edge, we participate in corporate charity events like Steptember as a way to encourage and motivate the team, as well donating and getting involved in important causes.
Mental wellbeing
50% of employees agree that their workplace is very supporting of employees’ mental health. While this is an increase from the 2021 findings and is to be celebrated, the mental well-being of individual’s is an ongoing battle that needs constant attention and improvement.
Taking mental health seriously in the workplace is a necessity and leaders must address their styles of dealing with this. As a company, training leaders to build habits and model healthy behaviours is key to the overall success of this initiative. Implementing regular check-ins, showing up and being vulnerable, offering flexibility and being inclusive are small methods to start.
As organisational leaders, you can
- Prioritise proactive and preventative workplace mental health training by investing back into your leaders, managers and individual contributors
- Modify policies and practices that reduce stress and are generous, practical and flexible
- Reframe performance reviews as opportunities for compassionate feedback and learning as opposed to evaluations on performance, KPI’s and strict targets
- Conduct pulse surveys
- Invest in wellbeing tools
Financial wellbeing
According to the report, 56% of Australian workers are stressed about their finances, potentially caused by a loss of work, pandemic uncertainty or the increased living costs.
Addressing this gives organisations a chance to re-evaluate their financial strategy as a top-down approach. Investing in financial education, EAP’s and Superannuation options, allows an individual’s financial needs to be met.
Occupational wellbeing
36% of Australian workers agree that the pandemic has decreased the importance they place on their career.
While workplace culture and employee experiences are constantly improving, many employees are questioning the role that work plays in their lives.
Having purpose and feeling connected to something bigger than oneself gives us vision. The vision leads to belief, belief to passion, and passion to energy. Purpose creates a level of alignment that enables individuals, as well as teams, to operate at a level of energy necessary to achieve high performance.
Organisations can continually invest in their corporate culture and implementation, as well as listen to their employees and work alongside them to reinvent and rethink traditional methods.
Relational wellbeing
Relationships allow us to feel connected, not just to others, but to a bigger purpose or goal. It allows individuals to belong, which then informs their identity.
Relational well-being can be implemented through several ways as a top-down approach.
Encouraging off-site events, team lunches and dinners, conducting regular one-on-one meetings with direct reports and more, allows each person to feel truly connected, trusting and vulnerable with each other.
Spiritual wellbeing
Spiritual well-being, whether religious or secular can be as simple as encouraging people to share and have open conversations and to be accepting of others in the workplace.
The Employment Hero report found that 72% of workers agreed their workplace accepts them for who they are as a person.
Recreational wellbeing
27% of Australia workers said that they turned to a new hobby or interest to help manage their stress since the start of the pandemic.
Organisations can leverage these outlets through additional flexibility for individuals to explore, encouraging creativity in their role and running team events that inspire alternative ways of thinking or even participating in activities just for fun.
As a result of this report, the big picture of employee health has revealed that Australian businesses are heading in the right direction but there is still plenty of work to do.
An encouraging statistic was that 52% of employees rated their employer’s commitment to improving wellness as good, despite the challenges and difficulties that have surfaced as a direct result of the pandemic.
Individuals who feel supported in their wellbeing and connected to their organisation are more likely to be positive and productive, which is what all organisations should be striving towards.
“High-growth and resilient businesses are created by healthy and inspired employees, who are given the environment to do their best work.”
Employment Hero Wellness Report 2022
