Human capital is among any organisations’ most valuable resources. For organisations to benefit from its human capital, taking care of employees’ wellbeing is essential to improving productivity. As Richard Branson eloquently puts it when he said ‘If you take care of your workers, they will take care of your business’.
How can organisations invest in their human capital to unlock its potential? This week’s article discusses the importance and benefits of employee wellness programs.
What are employee wellness programs?
With the high demands of work and performance, employees often face a myriad of issues such as high stress levels, lack of sleep, poor nutrition, mental health issues or mismanagement of personal finances. These issues if not managed, negatively impact employees’ wellbeing and performance at work.
Employee wellness programs are designed to address issues and promote the wellbeing of employees. When employees are healthy and happy, they perform better and deliver results. As discussed in the article [1]‘Why Holistic Wellness is Important’ available on The Reporter’s website, wellness initiatives should not only be limited to gym membership or physical activities because wellness is encompassing. Holistic wellness includes pillars such as emotional, occupational, spiritual, social, intellectual, financial and environmental. As such, initiatives should be holistic if they are to address the abovementioned issues.
What are the benefits of wellness programs?
When employers invest in the wellbeing of its human capital, they can unlock the following benefits.
- Increase productivity.
When employees are at their best – mentally, physically and intellectually, they are more productive at work. This leads to high performance and the desired results are achieved.
- Increase employee engagement.
An important metric for many organisations is employee engagement and morale. Many employees are coming to work daily but are disengaged. In the article titled [2]‘Gallup: Employee engagement ‘is not rocket science’, results show that 59% of employees are not engaged and 18% are actively disengaged at work or are quiet quitting (Nawrat 2023). To address this program, a wellness program can provide career coaching, mental health, or financial counselling initiatives to help employees be more engaged.
- Reduce absenteeism.
With some employees struggling to manage their personal finances, a big concern is absenteeism. Employees are afraid to come to work because they are running away from money lenders or cannot afford to get to work. A wellness program that offers financial education or financial management initiatives can help employees improve their financial management and reduce absenteeism.
- Reduce number of fraud cases
Like the previous point, when employees are equipped with skills to manage their finances and mental health better, they are less prone to commit fraud.
The list of benefits is not exhaustive, nor will they fully address the challenges employers and employees face. Having worked with many clients who have wellness programs, the results show that employers who invest in the wellbeing of their employees achieve better performance and results at work. I do encourage employers to intentionally invest in their human capital. Likhomo!
[1] Nthebe, T 2023 ‘Why Holistic Wellness is Important this festive season’, The Reporter, 18 January 2023, viewed 5 September 2023, https://www.thereporter.co.ls/2023/01/18/why-holistic-wellness-is-important-this-festive-season/
[2] Nawrat, A 2023, ‘Gallup: Employee engagement is not rocket science’, Unleash, 15 June 2023, viewed 5 September 2023, https://www.unleash.ai/employee-experience-and-engagement/gallup-employee-engagement-is-not-rocket-science/
