Learn / Employee Wellness: What It Is And Why It Matters
Employee Wellness: What It Is And Why It Matters
July 16th, 2024| Clinically Reviewed by
Key Points
- Employee wellness is a vital component in companies of all sizes.
- Healthy work environments help companies retain their employees and grow.
- Employee wellness platforms like Spirence focus on employee well-being.
Employee wellness means more than good job performance. It means you are well as a mother, father, child, spouse—as a person. Employee wellness focuses on your mental health, your physical health, your work satisfaction, and ensuring you have access to all available health resources in your company.
Good job performance is a byproduct of employee wellness, as is a positive company culture and employee retention. Several platforms cater to employee wellness and mental health literacy to encourage this, including Spirence.
Listen to our podcast episode with Spirence’s Vice President, Laura Kunz, to learn more about the platform and how it came to be.
What Is Employee Wellness?
Employee wellness broadly refers to the overall health and well-being of employees. Well-being is your ability to “address normal stresses, work productively, and realize one’s highest potential.” People with intact well-being perform better1 at work and other areas of life, including their overarching health.
Employee wellness involves more than just the employee’s at-home efforts to better their health; it centers specifically on what companies can do to improve the workspace and the well-being of their employees.
To do this, companies often offer an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). These include resources for therapy, stress reduction, and tips for general well-being.
Why Does It Matter?
A positive workplace culture that prioritizes employee wellness offers a host of benefits. It reduces turnover, as employees are most likely to quit a job over toxic workplace cultures2. Studies found poor company cultures are more likely to lead to resignations than low pay or burnout.
Toxic workplace cultures contribute to higher percentages of depression2, stress, anxiety, and physical health conditions like heart attacks and high blood pressure. These issues follow employees home, affecting their free time and families.
Even in healthy workplace cultures, heavy workloads, stress, and a lack of mental health resources can drive employees to a better opportunity. Offering them solutions in-house can prevent resignations and foster healthy cultures, healthy employees, and happier home lives.
Improved Quality of Life
A positive workplace culture that prioritizes employee wellness can improve their overall quality of life. Plus, feeling positive toward work can make non-work hours more enjoyable and enable you to actually rest on days off, contributing to a better quality of life. You’ll have more time and mental energy to focus on who and what you love.
Since work takes up a majority of our waking hours (⅓ of our lives3), positive or negative experiences there can dictate your well-being outside the office. Negative work environments and poor employee wellness can also affect virtual employees4. Focusing on their wellness and nurturing a positive culture benefits all employees, all the time.
Higher Work Performance
Happier, healthier employees can connect more with their work and meet the standards set by themselves and their employers. Better mental health and well-being leads to improved productivity5, which benefits both the employee and their employer. Employees get more done and employers can focus more on their business, not rehiring employees.
Better Overall Health
Poor well-being caused by negative work environments can affect your overall health6 via chronic stress and mental health conditions. Chronic stress can lead to conditions like cancer, heart disease, autoimmune flare-ups, and more. Conditions like depression and anxiety can also develop.
These issues are less likely to affect employees in a positive work environment, improving their overall health.
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Tools And Programs for Employee Wellness
Many corporations, big and small, leverage tools and programs to improve the well-being of their employees. Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), for example, connect employees to resources about benefits, mental health, and other workplace issues. However, EAPs don’t always meet the needs of employees seeking support, but not clinical mental health services. They may want to learn more about their options or ask questions on behalf of a loved one—not go to counseling or connect with an inpatient program.
New subclinical products can meet these needs and offer the educational tools needed to improve mental health literacy. Platforms like Spirence offer live webinars, bite-sized informational pieces on mental health, and weekly family sessions to help employees needing acute and non-acute support.
These types of platforms are designed to prevent mental health crises and the need for clinical care. Using them, employees can learn more about mental health and wellness as a whole, understand their treatment options, and pose questions to behavioral health experts. Other employee-wellness platforms include:
Education as a Key Component
Many employee platforms share one key component: education. Webinars, articles, videos, and even games educate employees on mental health and treatment options in case their wellness suffers a drop. As their mental health literacy increases, employees can enjoy greater peace of mind knowing how to care for their mental health and well-being.
Platforms like Spirence also provide the option to pose questions to professionals, like therapists, psychologists, and coaches (for free).
The Trickle-Down Effect of Caring Employers
Offering an employee wellness platform, especially a comprehensive one, can make employees feel seen and cared for by their employer. This can build a positive work culture and psychologically safe work environment. In a culture like this, employees are “healthier, happier, more productive, and less likely to leave3.” Profits increase for the company, with higher productivity and less turnover.
Positive work environments contribute to a sense of belonging3, helping employees feel like their contributions and well-being matter. Employee wellness tools can go a long way in fostering this environment.
How Employees Can Prioritize Their Well-being in and Outside of Work
Employee wellness platforms aren’t the only way to improve and prioritize your mental health and well-being. Here are a few strategies and practices that can protect your wellness and bolster your mental health literacy:
- Set boundaries at work with clear office hours.
- If a request beyond your role’s responsibilities comes in, communicate what is and isn’t your job to do.
- Avoid water-cooler gossip to distance yourself from potential drama and stress.
- At-home employees can designate an area of their home solely for work, like a desk in a guest bedroom vs. working on the couch.
- Seek mental health support through therapy.
- Educate yourself on mental health and well-being through books, articles, podcasts, and more.
Educational Resources for Mental Health Literacy
These are a few options you can check out to teach you more about mental health in the workplace and beyond.
Books
- You Belong Here by Kim Dabbs
- Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements by Tom Rath and Jim Harter
- Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace by Gill Hasson and Donna Butler
Podcasts
- The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos
- In Recovery with Dr. Nzinga Harrison
- The Mental Illness Happy Hour with Paul Gilmartin
- The Recovery.com Podcast (that’s ours!), which includes an episode with guest Laura Kunz, Vice President of the Spirence employee wellness platform
Articles
- The National Institute of Health’s Emotional Wellness Toolkit
- Workplace Health Initiatives from The Center for Disease Control
- Harvard’s Why Workplace Culture Matters
Progression and Promises in Positive Workplaces
Creating positive work environments, healthy workplace cultures, and improving mental health literacy offer a much-needed shift in employee well-being. Wellness platforms can contribute to a healthy workplace by connecting employees to invaluable clinical and subclinical resources—and they show employers care.
Self-education through books, podcasts, and articles can also bolster your mental health literacy and well-being. With these tools and resources, you can grow and maintain your wellness.
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