Health and Wellbeing – driver of Organisational Health

The CIPD recently published a report “Growing the Health & Well-being agenda” recognising the positive link between employee well-being and long-term organisational health and highlights the change in focus from simply mitigating health risks to active optimisation of people’s health and wellbeing through a fully integrated wellbeing approach at the very core of the organisation.

This ensures that employers are using a “best practice” approach wherever they touch their employees; and the CIPD refer to the 5 domains of well being:

1. Work
2. Health
3. Personal growth
4. Collective/ Social
5. Values and principles

These symbolise the key pillars of the relationship between the employer and the individual and encourages a mutual respectful standard of behaviour in line with employee wellbeing.

Employers should be taking the following action:

• Make health & wellbeing a strategic priority
• Senior Managers must buy in and role model the necessary behaviours – senior leaders and line managers are pivotal to shaping employee’s experiences in work and bringing policies to life and therefore have a vital role in managing and enhancing the employee experience. It is essential that they are up for the challenge and properly trained.
• Create a healthy culture by integrating health and wellbeing practices and initiatives into the day to day operations.

This will prove challenging in certain sectors, but organisations that genuinely promote and value the health and well-being of employees will benefit from improved engagement and retention of employees with consequent gains in performance and productivity.