Sometimes in the work place the wellbeing of employees is sacrificed in the flow of business. It might sound like something well out of your capacity, but it happens more often that you’d think and generally without anyone even realising. It’s important to stay aware of the spirit of your employees as, apart from the social and moral responsibility that comes with being an employer, maintaining a happy workforce is proven to improve your company’s performance and efficiency.
What is employee wellbeing?
Employee wellbeing is, in its simplest form, all to do with how happy your employees are. There are many factors that could influence this, many of which are, obviously, out of your hands, such as their home and personal life, but employers are often unaware of just how much power they have over their employees’s happiness.
Remember, much of their waking life is spent at work, so it’s important to ensure that despite whatever goes on at home they can rely on a supportive and fair environment at work.
How can it affect performance?
A Workplace and Performance Relations Survey carried out by the UK government found that workplaces with rising job dissatisfaction experienced deterioration in their financial performance, productivity and quality of service. The results of the survey reveal that individual, job and workplace characteristics are inextricably linked, so it follows that a change in one cannot fail to alter another. If an employee’s mood and energy is low then naturally their labour output will falter. On top of this, they will affect the mood and characteristics of the workplace, which will influence the output of your entire workforce.
As the one in charge of the company’s output, both financially and productively, you have a duty and a personal interest to ensure that your employee’s wellbeing is up to a good standard.
Employee needs
Your employee’s mood is effected by the challenges they face everyday. Are they facing challenges too difficult that they’re struggling to overcome? This goes further than their workload and the on-the-job trials, it applies to their personal problems too.
Whilst you have no bearing over their family or relationship circumstances you can influence their health, and not just their stress levels. Physical and mental fitness play a big part in the mood levels and the ability of your employees, so it is in your interest to improve these characteristics. From this perspective, the biggest threat you will need to overcome is probably going to be smoking.
A study by the Centre for Economics and Business Research found that every smoker spends an average of 4.3 minutes of every working hour smoking. Smokers are constantly interrupted by the nag of a cigarette, impeding their work and obstructing their mental ability. One way to get around this problem and to avoid permeating your business with 70+ carcinogenic chemicals is to introduce vaping into the workplace. Vaping is a way to supply your workers with that nicotine hit without calling them away from the desk. Scientists have found that e-cigarettes do not produce toxic or carcinogenic substances when ‘smoked’ in an enclosed space, so it is safe to do so in an office and they are currently estimated at 95% safer than tobacco cigarettes. So less time away from desks and less likelihood of mental and physical sickness in your employees – win win!
Takeaway
There is no doubt that your employees want to do the best that they can in their job. It is their duty to you to perform, to work hard at their jobs and bring results, but in return you have a duty to them to encourage, direct and support their hard work. Step up to the task of being responsible for their wellbeing, and you will not fail to see and feel the advantages. You feed them with positivity and they will feed you with results. It’s an endless circle – at least, it should be.
