The Five Pillars to Employee Wellbeing Success

Employee wellbeing is more than a ‘hot topic’. It’s become a priority for most employers, and it's not going away soon...

 

Culture is at the heart of a successful employee wellbeing strategy, and so too is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Creating an inclusive environment where employees feel safe and supported boosts employee engagement whilst reducing the risk of workplace stress and burnout.

 

Prevention is key!

 

Education and awareness are just as important, with managers or Mental Health First Aiders (MHFAs) trained to spot the signs of mental ill-health and the onset of employee burnout.

 

An end-to-end wellbeing strategy includes five pillars. These are:

 

• Mental and emotional wellbeing

• Social wellbeing

• Financial wellbeing

• Physical wellbeing 

• Digital wellbeing

 

These five pillars make one whole. All need to be in sync for optimum wellbeing.

 

Mental and emotional wellbeing

 

Mentally resilient employees are more engaged and productive. 

 

Everyone £1 spent on protecting your employees’ mental health yields a £5 return!

 

 1.75 million people were in contact with mental health services at the end of June 2023 (NHS England). That’s 1.75 million people seeking help, but what of those who keep their stress, worries, and health issues to themselves?

 

Empower managers and train MHFAs to recognise the signs of mental ill health in their colleagues.

 

As an HR professional, your remit is to do a lot more to support your people with less budget at your disposal. Your managers are feeling it, too! 

 

Our easy-to-implement Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) enhances your employee wellbeing goals, ensuring your people have access to BACP-accredited counsellors whenever needed, 24/7, 365 days a year.

 

More than a confidential place to turn in times of crisis, our EAP offering has a manager’s hub, providing the information and tools they need to support their teams effectively.

 

Social wellbeing

 

Social wellbeing is about connection. The need to belong, connect, and communicate with others. It's also strongly linked to mental and emotional wellbeing.

 

How can we create connections in the workplace?

 

It once again comes down to culture. Collaboration, knowledge-sharing and breaking down siloes all contribute to creating a feeling of togetherness in the workplace.

 

Creating connections and building relationships is more challenging in a hybrid and remote-working world.

 

It’s possible to nurture strong team relationships in a hybrid working environment – it just takes more thought.

 

With fewer opportunities to stop by a colleague’s desk, chat whilst making a drink, or take lunch breaks together, managers need new ways to keep their teams connected. 

 

Here are a few solutions:

 

• In hybrid environments – ensure your team comes to the office on the same day.

• Utilise the digital tools available to create informal channels where colleagues can chat and develop channels for quizzes.

• Set time aside on a Friday afternoon for a virtual team activity, and ensure you plan regular social outings as a group.

 

The best way to keep your teams engaged and socially connected is to learn from them. Create online polls to discover and deliver the activities your employees will enjoy the most.

 

 

Financial wellbeing

 

In the UK, 11.5 million people have less than £100 in savings (FCS) - less than the cost of a weekly shop for a family of four and one in ten adults feel hopeless about their financial situation.

 

Financial anxiety is on the rise, and it’s costing the UK economy £120 billion and 17.5 million lost work hours. 

 

There are many ways to support employee financial wellbeing, and it starts with removing the stigma surrounding honest conversations about our financial health.

 

In a multi-generational workforce, you can expect the financial situations of your employees to be very different. Still, your entire workforce will benefit from financial education to help them manage their budget, save for the future, or start planning their retirement.

 

Our  Financial Wellbeing App brings you the tools your employees need to boost their financial health, including a money management app. It also includes financial education tools, access to debt consolidation and employee savings schemes.

 

Financial education + money management tools = reduce employees’ financial anxiety.

 

Helping employees’ salaries stretch further is the next essential step, and you can achieve this by embedding the following products and services into your employee benefits package:

 

• Discounts on everyday essentials, holidays, and tech.

• Our Pluxee Card allows employees to earn up to 15% cashback at over 80 participating retailers.

• SmartPay spreads the cost of essential, high-cost purchases from their Net pay.

 

Empowering employees with the knowledge they need to make better financial decisions and allowing them to make their money work harder improves their financial wellbeing.

 

Physical wellbeing

 

42% of Brits have cut their gym membership to afford the rising cost of living. The Mental Health Foundation suggests as a Nation, we’re exercising 12% less often than we used to before the cost-of-living crisis.

 

You can help your employees adopt a healthier lifestyle and practise self-care by:

 

• Giving them the flexibility to work in a way that suits them, ensuring your employees have the time for more moments of joy throughout their day and adopt a healthy work-life balance.

• Encouraging good working habits, such as utilising their whole lunch break to eat well, walk or rest.

• Downloading our free health Employee Wellbeing Guide, which includes wellbeing tips from one of our MHFAs and exercises employees can do while sitting at their desks.

 

Employee benefits play a significant role in improving physical wellbeing, engagement, and motivation,

 

Get your people on their bikes and save your business money, too!

 

Our Cycle to Work scheme allows your people to afford the bike of their dreams, get fit, reduce the cost of their commute and save up to 42% in tax and NI contributions!

 

Even better… For every employee that purchases a bike through a Cycle to Work scheme, the business saves up to 13.8% in National Insurance Contributions - the more employees that sign up, the more money the company saves.

 

Breaking down the barriers to affordable and inclusive exercise!

 

We’ve partnered with some of the UK’s largest fitness franchises to form our Gym & Fitness Discounts, giving employees up to 25% off membership fees at their choice of location. With discounts on digital fitness and online workout programmes included, your employees can exercise from the comfort of their home, choosing a convenient time and a programme that suits their bodies and abilities.

 

Digital wellbeing

 

In a remote and hybrid working world, we spend more time in front of our screens. Meetings occur virtually instead of in a shared room. Email and internal messaging platforms have replaced the telephone.

 

When the working day revolves around a screen, it’s essential to empower employees to take regular breaks away from their desks. 

 

It’s essential to consider how employees use digital technology, especially if they’ve added work emails and chat platforms to their personal phones. 

 

Ensure employees are getting the downtime they need. 

 

Set clear boundaries and guidance so employees don’t feel the need to respond to notifications outside of their working day – even better, have them switch notifications off during their personal time.

 

Embrace the positive elements of a digital world. 

 

Help your people enhance their wellbeing through the digital features available to them. Our Employee Assistance Programme, for example, comes with a wellbeing app that your employees can install on their phones. It comes with mood-tracking features, wellbeing tips, and crisis support at the touch of a button – should they need it.

 

Boost employee wellbeing with Pluxee UK

 

Get in touch with our friendly team for more information on how you can open up a world of opportunities for your business by enhancing employee wellbeing and engagement in your workplace. 

 

 

Sources:

NHS

Tech Report