Is wellbeing at work a ‘tick-box’ activity?

Do you ever feel like leaders do not take wellbeing seriously in the workplace, despite employee sickness and mental health concerns in England alone, costing the economy over £119 billion every year?

Sick days, loss of productivity and ill health all contribute to loss of earnings, yet so many workplaces fail to recognize a direct correlation between happy staff and increased profit. Excessive stress, depression, increased workload, poor leadership and toxic work environments all have a part to play in the epidemic that is costing the UK  economy more than 5% of its GDP, with similar statistics worldwide.

It is truly ridiculous to me that leaders are not spending a large proportion of their learning and development budget on improving staff wellbeing, when staff are not in the right mindset to learn or develop if their physical and mental wellbeing is not being looked after.

I have witnessed several places of employment instill ‘Wellbeing week’ and throughout that week do absolutely nothing to help wellness. I have witnessed some places remove meetings from the schedule, only to add the missed meetings onto the following week. I have seen some places give staff a free coffee or cake and feel that will make people want to work harder. One person I spoke to, had no time to get the free coffee due to excessive demands of the job that week! And I have even seen one establishment offer free counseling to their staff, only for it to be a group session with everyone present! Who in their right mind is going to open up about a toxic boss, unrealistic workload, personal problems or depression with the ones who are potentially causing the problems listening in? It is ludicrous!

Work-related stress is one of the key reasons for workers feeling the pressure at work, and the majority of those interviewed, named ‘poor management style’ as the leading factor for this. Part of good leadership is understanding that you may be doing some things that others do not like, but having an open mind to hearing how things could be improved for all parties. This is not easy but essential for growth.

Leaders need to understand they are the ones who can push change, they are responsible for the change and they have a duty of care for their teams to provide a safe, healthy and comfortable work environment to allow all staff members to thrive. Wellbeing MUST be a priority for ALL businesses.

The key to staff wellbeing is simple: make people feel valued and ensure they have someone to support them when they are struggling; be it work struggles or personal problems, they need to have access to someone approachable who is judgement-free and has their back. Communication and human connection are key.

I guarantee that if everyone in your workplace felt valued, supported and challenged, they would want to do their best at work, and it is only when people feel undervalued or invisible that standards slip. Yes, there will be times in everyone’s lives where our personal lives take over and we lose focus, or have to put work on the back-burner while we resolve health issues, family problems or personal matters, but if your leader knows you knows your story, understands your work ethic and values your contribution,  the drive to produce work to your capability will still be there.

As much as everyone in a workplace has individual responsibility to look after their own health and wellbeing, by eating well, getting enough sleep, keeping fit and healthy and dealing with emotional problems as effectively as possible, if the wellbeing of many staff is low, the issue lies with the establishment.

If it is necessary to fit wellbeing in your workplace into a ‘wellbeing week’ or a few specific activities or trainings, you can guarantee your employees are not feeling motivated, productive or inspired. Wellbeing initiatives are often separate from the day-today running of a business and this is where leaders fall short. It should be an integral value, practiced each day through the actions of the leaders, the morale, the vision and a general care about the health of your team, evidenced by the successful results of the enterprise and organizational performance.

Embed a focus on wellbeing into the workplace culture, prioritise it, so that it becomes the backbone of your business, by modeling effective leadership, and by giving staff a voice to be heard and a support system to listen to them, and there will never be a need tick the box and not look at it again until the following year.

Wellbeing should be embedded in culture and not an add-on to tick a box.