In this part of her series for AMBITION, Jane Sunley asks how far employers need to take responsibility for their employees’ health and wealth
Almost by definition, employers are responsible for their people’s wealth. And all employers are responsible for health and wellbeing at work as well. It (almost) goes without saying that it’s the right thing to do. And any organisation that wants to be a great place to work will have embraced health and wellbeing wholeheartedly.
Employees will expect it as a ‘given’. However, we do live in complex and uncertain times, so it’s not unknown for the budget in this area to be given less priority than that for other areas.
There are definite bottom-line benefits such as good levels of employee engagement and retention, high motivation and productivity, employee satisfaction, creativity and innovation, reduced absenteeism and less time lost dealing with conflict.
Assuming you have all the statutory health and safety requirements fully up to date, a physically- and-mentally healthy culture is likely to include all or some of the following:
- general focus on, and promotion of, wellbeing
- trust
- shared values
- consultation
- fair treatment
- positive environment
- a safe and well-run place to work
- good leadership
- an attendance culture
- healthy corporate social responsibility (CSR).
With team members who are able to:
- drive their own progress
- feel in control over their own role
- benefit society
- fulfill both personal and work goals
- be healthy and energetic
- understand how they fit into the big picture.
There’s also increased focus on the employer ensuring employees are financially secure and knowledgeable. For example, making available financial and pensions advice rather than just handing people their pay slips and assuming they understand how best to use their incomes to safeguard their financial futures. Making available advice on how best to manage personal finances, and debt management, is especially important in light of the advent of pay-day loan companies, some of which charge interest rates of more than 1,500%, plus fees. (Boo, hiss).
You can see how more or less everything in this
book would make a positive contribution to wellbeing at work. However, there
are a few specifics you should address.
- Find out how your people rate you in this area; what do they perceive you do towards it, what would improve it?
- Review your work-life balance and financial education arrangements – challenge your business to do better.
- Draw up your action plan (you might be surprised at what’s uncovered and therefore have a lot, or a little, to do).
- Build a supportive environment, in which leaders and managers commit fully to creating a wellbeing culture.
- Work out logistics and priority order – better to tackle three things well than do lots of things poorly.
- Communicate your intentions.
- Run a pilot and evaluate this.
- Deliver on your promises.
- Monitor, evaluate, evolve.
Some lower investment items that contribute to wellbeing:
- providing a pleasant working environment e.g. acceptable temperatures; acceptable lighting; comfortable desks; good decor; sufficient space; break-out areas and so on
- making available healthy drinks and plenty of water
- free fruit and healthy snacks
- quiet room/chill-out zone
- time management sessions to help people control their workload
- nutrition workshops
- comfortable, supportive chairs
- workplace assessment
- buddy or employee counsellor
The
behaviours of managers, leaders, employees the
organisation as a whole all need to show that they’re really on board with a ‘wellbeing’ culture or you may as well not make the effort
in the first place. Leaders and managers have to ‘walk
the talk.’
- room for chatting and taking breaks
- allowing use of headphones for people who are focusing on work in a noisy environment (or using ‘do not disturb’ signals such as flags)
- making sure people take proper breaks and all of their holiday entitlement
- allowing people to turn off email
- encouraging exercise (even if it’s just a walk round the block)
- subsidised gym membership
- in-chair office massage
- random acts of kindness such as buying team cakes or sending flowers to an unwell colleague
- financial education workshops to help people take better control of their finances.
It’s important to note that the value of the ‘nice to haves’ such as cool office décor and fun stuff will be lost if you fail to put in place the basic building blocks like treating people fairly and transparently and so on…
The scourge of email
Email – love it or loathe it, this and the advent of multi-function devices such as smartphones, are largely responsible for the ‘always on’, 24/7 business culture that’s developed here and in most other parts of the world. This wonderful connectivity was supposed to make life easier – and in many ways it does – yet it’s also responsible for a great deal of workplace stress.
Combined with the ‘cover
your backside’ tradition of copying in all and sundry to emails, traffic
levels have become pretty unmanageable – unless
Ok, so you’ll probably have issues getting people to embrace such a change, but keep at it, it’s so worth it. Not customer-centric? Surely customers today appreciate the benefits of working with those who come back from holiday fully refreshed, and are happy to deal with another competent person in their absence?
Adopting this seemingly small change can have dramatic results. It means that practically all of the internal traffic just ‘goes away’ and as long as colleagues are willing and able to deal with urgent stuff, service quality isn’t affected. A rule can also be set up you apply some email discipline. There’s loads of stuff on the internet about how to do that, but here’s one example you might not find:
What most people don’t know is that it’s possible to set up your email so that people who are away on holiday don’t receive any messages, therefore avoiding holiday logging-on and a fit-to-burst inbox on their return.
Instead, senders receive a message along the lines of:
‘At X Co. we’re able to have a proper break when we’re on holiday, so your email won’t be delivered to my inbox. If you’d prefer a response from me please resend on (date) or, if more immediate support is needed, please forward on to (colleague) or call the office on (no.). Many thanks for helping me to recharge.’
that allows emails with keywords in the subject box such as ‘urgent’ to be let through, and not deleted. In the unlikely event of an emergency, the business can also, of course, contact people by other means.
Not only do people enjoy stress-free holidays, they come back to a practically empty in-box. So, instead of having to spend two days trawling through the backlog, they can get on and be productive right away.
It’s equally important to deal with other forms of stress and, again, I’ll leave you to look that up.
A quick note about… benefits that excite and enthuse
How you reward and recognise your employees is something that should be led from the top – it is not ‘an HR initiative’ – exciting benefits form a fundamental part of what you are as an organisation.
On the basis that people are individuals and should be treated as such, I’d recommend you look at some sort of flexible arrangement when it comes to ben- efits – one person might trade off work-life balance against pay; another might much prefer develop- ment opportunities to a Christmas hamper. There are web-enabled systems to help manage this if you’re a large enough organisation, otherwise:
- find out what sort of things would make a real difference to people’s lives, make you a better place to work; stuff that people will really appreciate
- work out what’s feasible, or even better, task a group of employees to do this
- get organised and deliver – consistently
- continue communicating – openly and honestly
- keep checking benefits are working for all parties.
Remember, it’s much harder to take
away than to give, so start simply and
build as you go.
What is appropriate?
Just because you’re into snowboarding, fast food or bringing your dog to work it doesn’t mean everyone who works with you will be too. While it’s important to think about the individual, it’s also essential to make sure the benefits you offer don’t offend or alienate anyone. You’ll need to make sure what you offer is in line with your organisation, not only culturally but whether there’s a fit with your brand, products and services, field of work. Find out what people would value – ask them – you might be surprised. Overall, it’s a tricky balance, though done well, a great thing.
Don’t just take it from me
Case study: E.ON
E.ON is one of the world’s largest investor-owned power and gas companies delivering services to around five million people in the UK. Its customer service centre based in Bedford, employs approximately 350 staff team members, and there are many other operational sites across the UK.
As one of the largest employers in Bedford, with an average employee age of 41, health and wellbeing is vital to the business to ensure the company is able to cope within the busy customer service environment. E.ON’s employees’ length of service averages 11 years, with a part-time/full-time split of 58% and 42% respectively.
E.ON currently supports its employee’s health and wellbeing with:
- a dedicated intranet supported by the HR and occupational teams
- regular healthy advice updates via monthly newsletters
- an employee assistance programme providing unlimited access to advice, information and coaching from health specialists, qualified counsellors and a free and confidential support service.
On top of this, E.ON added ‘in-house’ expertise to ensure appropriate support and access to local health services. The company invited volunteers with an interest in health to come forward as ‘workplace health champions’ to help support and sign-post staff within the customer service centre. Four individuals came forward and attended a one-day accredited no-cost training course through their local public health team, gaining a Royal Society of Public Health qualification in health improvement.
All the workplace health champions are given ongoing support by Nuffield NHS Trust and are fully trained in first aid and smoking cessation management. They are regularly updated through health and wellbeing training provided every four months and are equipped with the tools needed to address the needs of individuals confidentially, and where necessary, take a proactive approach to supporting colleagues.
Although there is a serious element to delivering health and wellbeing within the organisation, there is also a focus on having fun and supporting charities along the way. E.ON took part in the ‘Movember’ campaign to raise awareness of the risks of male cancers, and in special fundraising days supporting Macmillan Cancer Support, the MS Society and other charities, including the opportunity to focus on physical activities to support its charity of the year – the NSPCC.
