Invest in Well-Being to Reduce Stress Among Employees

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Well-being in the workplace involves many factors. But in the end, they all touch on how a person conducts their professional life. It includes things like work practices, welfare conditions, and workplace health & safety. Workplace well-being aims to create a secure and comfortable workspace for your staff. By doing so, they’ll feel protected, satisfied, and engaged during work.

However, protecting employee well-being is not easy—many people have to tackle physical and mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and stress. Let’s learn about the importance of workplace well-being, your legal obligations, and how well-being support reduces work-related stress. 

Why is Workplace Well-Being Important?

All businesses benefit from recognizing the importance of workplace well-being. This can be done by having small conversations with staff members to implement company-wide policies. It’s essential to champion well-being for both your employees and your business.

Neglecting well-being can lead to an array of problems. Your staff can suffer from work-related health conditions, like stress, depression, bullying, and even intoxication abuse. These conditions can quickly escalate–sometimes to the point of no return.

That’s why it’s so important to focus on employee well-being. It’s easily manageable through strong leadership, communication, and development skills. These allow your business to grow in a comfortable and safe workspace environment. The more comfortable your employees feel, the happier they’ll be. 

How is Workplace Well-Being Linked to Stress?

When your employees are suffering from work-related stress, it affects everyone. This type of health condition may be psychological, but the effects can control all aspects of physiology. Work-related stress can seep into an employee’s everyday functionality. This transition causes a risk to welfare security. Sick employees link to a decrease in production and revenue–so your company is affected.

Employee well-being and stress management go hand-in-hand. If you protect employee well-being [including physical, mental, emotional, and sociological], you can effectively minimize negative and costly situations. For the employee in question, it can reduce mental health-related illnesses and grow healthier commitment and engagement qualities.

Providing Physical & Emotional Well-Being Support

There is two central employment legislation that outlines workplace well-being:

• The Health and Safety at Work Act [1974].
• The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations [1999].

All employers are legally bound to provide physical and emotional well-being support.

Physical Well-Being Support

You can provide physical well-being support in the form of reasonable workplace adjustments. These are changes made to work conditions that allow employees to work sufficiently. You generally find them in sedentary or laborious jobs and can include:

• Ergonomic equipment, like keyboard, rests, risers, and support cushions.
• Safety equipment, like hi-vis jackets, helmets, and steel toe-capped boots.
• Uniforms for specific work sectors, like front-line workers or hospitality sectors. 

It’s advisable to distinguish which reasonable adjustments provide physical well-being support for your staff. Make sure you open up a regular dialogue with your employees to find any improvements needed to workstations. 

Emotional Well-Being Support

A little more thought is needed when it comes to emotional well-being support. Employees can be affected in so many ways, and it’s notoriously difficult to spot the signs of mental health issues. Some of the most common include stress, anxiety, burnout, and depression. So, it’s crucial to ensure employees work within safe conditions and avoid overworking.

You should hold open conversations on the importance of well-being. Provide employees with confidential one-to-one meetings where they can voice any concerns they have. Through these methods, everyone will hold well-being security on the highest level, from employees to managers. 

Look After the Well-Being of Your Employees

As our socio-economy is forever changing, more of us have to adapt to new workplaces. But it doesn’t mean the transition has been a smooth one. Not all employees will be on the same level regarding workplace amendments. However, your responsibility for supporting their well-being hasn’t diminished; it’s grown. This is a key priority and ensures they are fully protected every single day they are under your employment.  Do this and watch respect, loyalty, and value grow within your business–and, in turn, success.

Promote employee well-being by ensuring individual & organizational values align. When values are in place, it is time to work on HOW to authentically live your values.

Our values to behaviors workshop will help clarify & align values & behaviors to empower your collective journey to happier, more productive, more aligned work.

About the Author

Kayleigh Frost

Kayleigh Frost is head of clinical services at the health and wellbeing support platform Health Assured. She has been with Health Assured for 4 years and is a leader in the field of wellbeing. She is currently one of the hosts of Health Assured’s podcast Peace of Mind which features special guests on all sorts of matters regarding wellbeing.

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