Employee wellbeing: Businesses must be proactive and not reactive

Here, Trickle Data Insights Limited offers solutions of how to support and boost your workers wellbeing and help your business thrive during a pandemic

The world of work as we know it has been irrevocably changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. To survive, become more resilient, more adaptive to change and continue to thrive, organisations have had to transform at an unprecedented speed.

Now more than ever, you need to focus on optimising your engagement with your people to assure their happiness, productivity, psychological safety, and sense of belonging. Nurturing a transparent, flexible, and inclusive workplace where everybody’s voice is heard will help you to achieve this while boosting your organisation’s resilience.

If a workforce is kept engaged, satisfied, and inspired then presenteeism, retention and productivity will increase, and your organisation will thrive. Respected studies have shown that people who feel inspired at work are significantly more productive than those who classed as “satisfied” on the engagement scale. (1)

The wellbeing of your people is crucial to the success of your organisation and is something that requires ongoing focus. However, it is often considered reactive, after a problem has become apparent.

By enhancing your Smarter Working strategy to include an everyday focus on employee engagement and wellbeing, you can take a more proactive and human-centred approach towards how you engage with your people and show them support.

It is particularly during a crisis when people are feeling most uncertain, anxious and vulnerable that organisations need to ramp up their wellbeing strategies in order to protect both the physical and mental health of their people.

Stop being reactive and get proactive

Personal wellbeing and employee engagement are intrinsically linked, it is essential you imbue strong organisational values to promote wellbeing into your employee engagement strategy. Encouraging people to make small, natural changes to the way they engage with each other can be a simple first step in nudging the culture of your organisation towards becoming more human, and people-centric.

Studies have shown that companies with top-rated cultures post a return to shareholders which is 60% higher than those with an average-rated culture. (2) Also having a strong company culture with authentic values will help your people to act as a strong cohesive team and feel a greater sense of inclusion.

For example, encouraging peer recognition can help build a positive work environment where people feel appreciated. Trickle’s customers such as employees at the Scottish Government use our Fist Bump feature to show their teammates appreciation for their hard work. Both managers and employees can use this simple and fun tool to show their teammates that they are valued.

To help your people feel more engaged you should encourage continuous feedback and improvement as to how your organisation is operating day-to-day. You need to take your people’s suggestions, concerns and issues on board and demonstrate that you are actively listening by engaging and collaborating on appropriate actions to progress concerns and suggestions.

Continually showing your people that their input is valuable and has impact will encourage ongoing engagement.

Trickle’s Engage module automatically ranks the most popular suggestions and biggest concerns from your people, giving you the data you need to focus your engagement and to take actions on what matters most right now.

This enables you to bring important conversations around improvements and concerns together in a structured way and in one place where everyone can clearly see what topics are ranked highest priority. This allows people to easily contribute to the most important discussions, with optional anonymity meaning that everyone can feel comfortable participating in the discussion without feeling there will be negative consequences for doing so.

With these insights, you will be able to make much better decisions, improve your employee engagement and benefit everyone in the organisation. If people see action and change as a result, this will nurture trust, and ultimately help increase their feeling of engagement and psychological safety.

Focus on prevention and not the cure

To help your people remain fit, healthier and more resilient you need to make sure they are aware of the wellbeing advice and guidance that is available to them both within your organisation, and in other respected sources such as the NHS and BBC websites. You must also clearly sign-post how they can access the information they need at the time that they need it.

Unfortunately, mental wellbeing still carries a negative stigma and often people would prefer not to discuss these issues, even if they are struggling. UK charity Mind found that 90% of people who take a day off with stress or anxiety, will never cite that as the reason for their absence – which means your organisation is unable to help address the underlying issues to prevent further discomfort and potential absence.

Trickle’s customers such as West Dunbartonshire Council use our Confide module to ask their people simple wellbeing questions which deliver instant, proactive guidance based on the way they are feeling. This helps you nip problems in the bud before they become a bigger issue that could potentially lead to people becoming unfit for work.

It is also important to make sure that your people have a way to privately seek advice or support for when their issues are more sensitive. It is a leader’s responsibility to ensure that none of their people suffer in silence.

Trickle’s Flare tool provides an anonymous way for your people to seek direct support for concerns that they feel uncomfortable or unable to raise in person. Flares are private, secure, flexible and are directed to specialist individuals or groups within your organisation, based on the category of the issue – for example, mental, physical, or financial wellbeing concerns.

An opportunity for growth

Any period of crisis can be used as an opportunity for growth and change – with the COVID-19 pandemic, the topic of wellbeing has started to make its way into our everyday conversations.

So, let us take this opportunity to make employee wellbeing something that we are all happy to talk about as part of our everyday chats at work. It is important to recognise we all have a role to play in making our workplaces more human.

The human element of any organisation underpins key businesses outcomes, including growth and profitability. Productivity, revenue, retention, and innovation are all linked to employee wellbeing and engagement, and, if left unattended, can threaten the organisation’s survival. (3)

Employee wellbeing and engagement platforms like Trickle offer your people a way to truly have a voice, contribute to the key topics in the day to day running of your organisation, and really feel part of a team.

Organisations that take a smarter and more human approach to employee engagement & wellbeing, and the ever-changing work environment, are fortifying their operation by protecting and nurturing their greatest asset – their people.

References

(1) https://hbr.org/2015/12/engaging-your-employees-is-good-but-dont-stop-there

(2)https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/the-organization-blog/culture-4-keys-to-why-it-matters

(3) Trickle, Employee Engagement White Paper, https://trickle.works/resources/white-papers/

Trickle Data Insights Limited

Please note: This is a commercial profile