The Evolution of Employee Wellbeing in the Workplace

Fifteen years ago, employee wellbeing in the workplace was viewed as a nice-to-have rather than a business-critical component.

During my time in Human Resources, employee wellbeing wasn't viewed as a priority on the HR agenda.  Our people mattered to us, but our idea of employee wellbeing amounted to Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), Occupational Health Services, and if you were lucky, subsidised gym memberships.

What we lacked at the time was the understanding of why investing in workplace wellbeing was essential for business success.  As HR leaders, we didn't know the link between employee wellbeing and high performance.

A Shift in Understanding Workplace Wellbeing

In 2011 I began studying Solution Focused Psychotherapy and Hypnotherapy, initially out of personal interest. I recognised that understanding more about what drives us as humans would be of value in my HR career, but I had no intention at the time of doing what I now do!

As I delved deeper into the subject of the human psyche, particularly learning about the stress response, I realised how profoundly stress impacts so many aspects of our lives, yet how little people understand the stress response.

Even to this day, the term stress is bandied about without the full knowledge of the impact living in survival has on mental and physical health and why preventing stress as opposed to simply managing it is vital.

The further I journeyed into my Diploma, the more light bulbs went off in my brain. My mind was blown away! All this newfound knowledge and insight made me desperate to finish my training so that I could qualify as a Psychotherapist and take this knowledge back into the business world.

Fast forward to today and mental health and wellbeing in the workplace is now at the centre of many organisations. While there is still a way to go to embody employee wellbeing into the fabric of organisation culture, the landscape of employee wellbeing has dramatically evolved.

The Missing Piece in Workplace Wellbeing

During my time as an HR Business Partner at Brighton and Sussex University Hospital, I witnessed high levels of absenteeism and turnover, with continuous pressure from the senior leadership team to meet targets and KPIs.

In my role, I often felt powerless to create any significant impact on those figures because I couldn't see what else we could be doing except referring people to occupational health or running absence management training.

At that point, Mental health training for managers had yet to make an appearance. Although looking back it seems obvious that would have been a powerful solution. 

It reminds me that we can only see a problem from our current level of thinking!

Thankfully, due to my training in Psychotherapy, I had an epiphany and saw the missing piece of the puzzle was a comprehensive approach to mental health and wellbeing, like that highlighted in the image.

The realisation that providing employees with knowledge about their mind and body could significantly impact their health and performance led to you reading this blog!  I gained my qualifications waved goodbye to my HR career and set out on a mission to bring this insight and wisdom into the corporate world.

To me, it felt like everything suddenly made sense! I was delighted when my HR colleagues joined me on my wavelength and I started receiving requests to deliver employee wellbeing and resilience training.

It's fair to say that the topic of employee wellbeing is vast. And each dimension within itself is vast.

I've witnessed many organisations aiming to improve workplace wellbeing, but often with a haphazard approach.

If you are an HR leader, or Wellbeing Manager or have responsibility for workplace wellbeing, my advice is to take a step back and consider what you are aiming to achieve, starting with the end in mind.

To take a more strategic approach to company wellness programmes by reviewing available data such as;

• Employee engagement surveys
• HR Absence Data
• Retention Figures
• Themes around mental health cases
• Private medical cover reports

Workplace wellbeing initiatives that aren't tied to a specific goal, or wellbeing/HR strategy are not likely to have the kind of impact you want, and may not give you a clear return on investment.

Check out the video in this blog post about how to create a wellbeing strategy to give you some ideas of where to start!

The Role of Employee Wellbeing Platforms and Programmes

One of the many light bulb moments I experienced during my training was how we can create a prevention-over-cure approach when it comes to workplace wellness.

A simple way to achieve this is by investing in employee wellbeing platforms.

The advancement in technology has had a profound impact in this arena with more choices than ever in employee wellbeing platforms and Apps. 

I love delivering training (especially when there's a flip chart involved!), yet one day I had a thought. I was five years into my business and along with delivering workplace wellbeing programmes, I was also working with individuals. 

I recognised that so much of the advice and guidance I was providing people with was the same, no matter what they sought my help for. And I thought 'Wouldn't this be great if people could access this knowledge and the techniques I use with clients online!'. 

Ta-da, I created my first employee wellbeing platform - which is now an App!

I'd gained so much knowledge of the human psyche, and experience from working with people. I'd also expanded my training into areas such as energy psychology and I knew in every fibre of my body that if employees had access to more cutting-edge techniques such as these, I could help create a revolution in employee wellbeing!

I'd seen the rise in e-learning within organisations and yet when I checked out the e-learning modules for employee wellbeing I was sorely disappointed.  Most of the e-learning wellbeing or mental health training was on average an hour long, broken into 3 to 5 minutes modules. 

From my experience, while this was better than nothing, it wasn't sufficient to support the health and wellbeing of people in the workplace. And it lacked the intervention of the techniques.  When I dug deeper I was also amazed to see that these e-learning programmes were around £15.00 per licence. For a company with a headcount of 100, your HR budget was looking at £1, 500. 

Needless to say, I was passionate about getting my employee wellbeing platform out into the world and nothing gives me more pleasure than to look at the statistics of people gobbling up the content!

Insights from Cary Cooper on Workplace Wellbeing

According to Professor Sir Cary Cooper, having a non-executive director for employee health and wellbeing on the board is crucial for integrating wellbeing into the organisational strategy and I'm in complete agreement.

This approach ensures that employee wellbeing is not just a peripheral concern but a core part of the business strategy, influencing decisions and policies at the highest level. Cooper emphasises the need for emotionally intelligent managers who can recognise and address mental health issues within their teams effectively, which brings me to my next point!

The Importance of Mental Health Training for Managers

Despite working for some of the biggest brands in the world such as British Airways (how I miss my flight concessions!) to Virgin Atlantic and Carnival UK, mental health training for managers was non-existent.

The role of a manager has also evolved and is more complex than ten years ago.  

Without mental health training, managers are simply paddling upstream without an oar.  They don't know how to spot the signs someone is struggling or what to say. They have a fear of getting things wrong or making things worse.

They may be struggling with their mental health and so feel ill-equipped to help their team members.  Having worked in the field of HR for over a decade I knew the impact a manager has on everything from employee engagement to performance. This is why I decided for us to specialise in providing this training.  I saw it as an opportunity to bridge the two worlds.

You can read more about the impact mental health training for managers has, in this case study we produced for Sofology.  If you ever needed a business case for your company - here it is!

Take Action: Enhance Workplace Wellbeing in Your Organisation

Mental health is now fully on the radar for organisations but given the vast spectrum of mental health and wellbeing, it's natural if you need help in creating a wellbeing strategy that delivers. 

Get in touch and have a chat about how we can help support you and your people in the best way possible.