One definition states,
“Wellness is the act of practicing healthy habits on a daily basis to attain better physical and mental health outcomes, so that instead of just surviving, you’re thriving” Although I think it changes as various different stages of life there are practices that can lead to better wellness such as: eating whole unprocessed food, drinking plenty of quality water getting plenty of quality sleep and maintaining good social connections – saving the best to last as the Harvard Longevity study found this to be the biggest factor in a happy long healthy life.
Employers recognise that practicing these behaviours go a long way to preventing costly long term illnesses or conditions that can impact the individual and the company. More recently employers have also noticed the benefit of having some kind of mental health programme as an outcome for the benefit of the employees again as well as the company as part of a benefits package.
Wellbeing however encompasses the broader holistic dimensions of a well lived life. Although there are other definitions Gallup’s Global research has found five elements of wellbeing that add up to a thriving life.
- Career wellbeing: You lie what you do everyday.
- Social wellbeing: You have meaningful friendships in your life. (the poor stats on this are frightening when people were surveyed)
- Financial wellbeing: You manage your money well
- Physical wellbeing: You have energy to get things done
- Community wellbeing: You like where you live
So it would seem wellness is an integral part of wellbeing. However, wellness is only a part of a thriving life. Consider the person who eats well and exercises regularly but hates going to work and has few close friends. These areas that are not fulfilled affect not only the persons physical health but their productivity, their engagement and overall performance.
Interestingly Gallup also researched people who where only physically thriving compared to people who were thriving in all 5 elements listed above and they:
- miss 68% more work each year dur to poor health
- are about 3 times more likely to file a workers compensation claim
- are 5 times more likely to seek out a new employer in the next year
- and are twice as likely to actually change employers
Although the physical wellness would be the easiest to measure it appears that it is clearly not the only driver of employee productivity and satisfaction.
There’s an internal marketing problem here though. Of the 85% of organisations that have wellness programmes only 60% of employees know about it. Only 40% actually engage in it. The effectiveness can be questionable depending on the nuances of the programme and most importantly the culture of the company. Getting the culture right is often the first step in setting up an organisation for success in a workplace wellness programme. Once the culture is humming as it should then rolling out programmes can be much more effective and impactful.
If you are working remotely often or just during a lockdown take a look at my blog on that very subject.
If you are wanting some support in the workplace with engagement and wellness reach out. I’d love to chat.