Features & Analysis
Investing in employee well-being can save you money
In tough economic times it might seem reasonable that the welfare of employees is the last thing on employers’ minds. But employee well-being is about more than coughs, colds, and bad backs. The concept encompasses all this and more, including mental well-being and satisfaction – both with life and with work. Work is a major influence in people’s lives, and employers can optimise many areas to give the best employee experience – often without a large investment.
Rob Woollen, Manchester, UK
The cost of poor employee well-being
Before examining how much it might cost you to improve the well-being of your employees, let us explore the costs of ignoring it. The obvious cost, sickness absence, is high: in the UK, employers spent £673 on sick pay in 2011 for every employee. But these costs are small when you compare them to the hidden cost of low well-being. As well as the indirect costs of absence such as low team morale, interrupted customer relationships and inflated agency cover or overtime, there is the new phenomenon of presenteeism (people attending work but not performing). Evidence from the US and the UK suggests that presenteeism costs 50% more than absenteeism.
Clearly action is necessary. But what can you do about high absence rates and poor performance? Unfortunately, despite reasonable evidence showing what works, many employers carry out generic and simplistic schemes which have little impact on absence. For example, providing fruit bowls may be a nice perk but this practice is shown neither to increase overall fruit intake nor protect against illness.
What is clear is that initiatives need to be well-planned, respond to needs and have clear objectives.
Improving employee well-being
Experience shows that counselling and physiotherapy, although costly, can bring significant returns if you use them wisely. The return on investment can be as high as 750%. And training your managers to understand how to talk to employees about their health pays back in the long term in many ways.
In the UK, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development tells us that one of the most popular well-being steps employers can take is to revisit the design and implementation of absence policies. This may seem counter-intuitive, and you need to handle it sensitively, but dealing with absence promptly and effectively enables you to offer early support while your employees benefit from a clear structure with well-defined responsibilities.
Finally, regular work breaks can benefit your whole business. This can be a difficult message to sell to both managers and employees, who may feel there is no time for breaks. However, evidence shows we can only concentrate for periods of 20 to 90 minutes and if we do not take formal breaks, we take hidden breaks, such as shuffling papers and checking emails.
Summary
Involving your employees in any well-being initiatives is crucial; well-trained well-being champions at all levels of your business can help to build and promote a wellbeing programme that reflects the needs of your staff. There is strong evidence to show that with strong leadership, appropriate and low-cost interventions can improve employee well-being and bring significant savings to your business.
Before examining how much it might cost you to improve the well-being of your employees, let us explore the costs of ignoring it. The obvious cost, sickness absence, is high: in the UK, employers spent £673 on sick pay in 2011 for every employee. But these costs are small when you compare them to the hidden cost of low well-being. As well as the indirect costs of absence such as low team morale, interrupted customer relationships and inflated agency cover or overtime, there is the new phenomenon of presenteeism (people attending work but not performing). Evidence from the US and the UK suggests that presenteeism costs 50% more than absenteeism.
Clearly action is necessary. But what can you do about high absence rates and poor performance? Unfortunately, despite reasonable evidence showing what works, many employers carry out generic and simplistic schemes which have little impact on absence. For example, providing fruit bowls may be a nice perk but this practice is shown neither to increase overall fruit intake nor protect against illness.
What is clear is that initiatives need to be well-planned, respond to needs and have clear objectives.
Improving employee well-being
Experience shows that counselling and physiotherapy, although costly, can bring significant returns if you use them wisely. The return on investment can be as high as 750%. And training your managers to understand how to talk to employees about their health pays back in the long term in many ways.
In the UK, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development tells us that one of the most popular well-being steps employers can take is to revisit the design and implementation of absence policies. This may seem counter-intuitive, and you need to handle it sensitively, but dealing with absence promptly and effectively enables you to offer early support while your employees benefit from a clear structure with well-defined responsibilities.
Finally, regular work breaks can benefit your whole business. This can be a difficult message to sell to both managers and employees, who may feel there is no time for breaks. However, evidence shows we can only concentrate for periods of 20 to 90 minutes and if we do not take formal breaks, we take hidden breaks, such as shuffling papers and checking emails.
Summary
Involving your employees in any well-being initiatives is crucial; well-trained well-being champions at all levels of your business can help to build and promote a wellbeing programme that reflects the needs of your staff. There is strong evidence to show that with strong leadership, appropriate and low-cost interventions can improve employee well-being and bring significant savings to your business.
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