Employee wellbeing encompasses the mental, physical, emotional, and economic health of employees, influenced by workplace conditions and external factors. Organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of promoting employee wellbeing to enhance productivity, engagement, and retention while reducing absenteeism and presenteeism. Implementing effective wellbeing strategies can lead to significant benefits for both employees and employers, including improved morale and stronger company culture.

1. • Dr Nirmala Loung Poorunder
• University of Technology Mauritius
employee wellbeing © 2022 by Dr Nirmala Loung Poorunder is licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

2. What is employee wellbeing?
• Employee wellbeing is defined as the overall mental, physical, emotional,
and economic health of your employees. It’s influenced by various factors
such as their relationships with co-workers, the decisions they make, and the
tools and resources they have access to. Hours, pay, and workplace safety
also have a significant impact on employee wellbeing.
• While it will vary from person to person, employee wellbeing should average
out to a level that allows for a productive and healthy workplace. Outside
factors contribute to employee wellbeing too. Stress around issues such as
housing, health, and family all play a role in performance at work. However,
employers can acknowledge they have no control over what takes place
after hours while still taking responsibility for what they can do for their
employees.
• According to a recent employee wellbeing study by Alight, less than half of
U.S. employees have a positive perception of their overall wellbeing. Overall,
there has been a major decline in employee wellbeing from early 2020 to
mid-2021, even as employees return to work at the office again.

3. 7 Dimensions of
Employee Wellbeing
According to Prowell, the
world’s famous
methodology for assessing
employee wellbeing, there
are 7 major components
of employee wellbeing in
the workplace which fall
into 3 domains: mental,
physical and social
wellbeing. This is
important to remember as
many people associate
wellbeing with physical
health only
while wellbeing is much
more than that.

4. Employee well being in the workplace
• Employee wellbeing is about optimizing the health of all
employees. It is not only about physical wellbeing, but
other components of wellbeing that cannot be ignored when talking
about healthy and well-functioning individuals or employees.
• Nowadays, employers are aware of many elements that comprise
employee wellbeing and are looking to make their employees
happier and healthier.
• With recent COVID-19 outbreak, many employers noticed the impact
employee wellbeing has on their performance, and consequently on
the business results. Employees were distressed and worried, and
employers had to find ways to accommodate the rising needs for
empathy towards their employees.
• However, employee wellbeing was an increasingly popular topic even
before COVID-19.

5. Importance of employee well being
• With the average full-time employee working around 37 hours a week, our
work life has a big impact on our general happiness. Businesses need to
create an environment that encourages, educates and enables employees to
put their wellbeing at the centre of their lives.
• When you include benefits that make a difference to the wellbeing of your
employees, you are also likely to see improvements in performance. Having
the right health and wellbeing strategy has the power to improve employee
engagement, lower your absence rates and increase productivity within the
workplace. Companies that don’t have a thorough workplace wellbeing plan
are at risk of having lower productivity and an unhappy workforce.
• Neglecting wellbeing can lead to presenteeism. It can be caused by both
physical and mental health issues or the fact that employees are not
motivated or engaged with the company. There is still a stigma around
calling in sick for work, which also leads to presenteeism. Nearly 40% of
employees don’t tell their manager the real reason for their absence when
calling in sick because they’re afraid of being judged or disbelieved. It’s
important to communicate to your employees that their wellbeing is a top
priority, giving time off when needed so they can recover properly.

6. 1. Reduced absenteeism and healthcare costs
• Staff who feel their wellbeing needs are being met are more likely to return
from sick leave on time
• Companies started realizing that preventing issues related to poor employee
wellbeing such as burnout, stress or sickness were more profitable than reacting
to all these issues when they already happened.
• More specifically, the employees’ sedentary lifestyle increases possibilities of
diabetes, high blood pressure and other diseases. Moreover, employees who say
they often or always experience burnout at work are 63% more likely to take sick
days. That means that employee wellbeing is directly related with absenteeism
and its cost for employers.
• Because of their many benefits, companies started implementing wellness
programs. They can vary in scope and focus, but employee wellbeing programs
have proved to be cost-effective for employers.
• As one corporate wellness program points out, “it’s also about preventing lost
time due to absenteeism, stress, and illness. These issues cost many companies
far more money than traditional healthcare costs”. Although great employee
morale is, in itself, the biggest benefit for companies, preventing foreseeable
problems like these is also important.
For example, Johnson & Johnson estimated that their wellness programs saved
them $250 million on healthcare costs over the last decade. The ROI was 2.71$ for
every dollar spent on employee wellbeing.

7. 2. Increased employee engagement
• According to research, 85% of companies say wellness programs
support employee engagement. When an employee wellbeing program is
implemented, employees feel more connected, their health is elevated,
and consequently their happiness is increased.
• All these factors contribute to higher employee engagement levels.
However, employee engagement is influenced by employee
recognition and good feedback practices too. Make sure you approach
employee engagement holistically when trying to enhance it in your
company.
3. Improved employee productivity & performance
• Showing your staff that you value and listen to their needs makes them more
likely to engage in work.On one hand, research shows that smokers are twice
as likely to take time off work, and workers with obesity take three to six sick
days more than those of normal weight annually. On the other hand,
employees that handle stress better are less likely to experience burnout.
Overall, when employee wellbeing is optimized, employees are more
focused on their work and their productivity increases.
• When employees feel well, they tend to perform better. This increases
productivity and helps employees develop better habits. Studies show that
workers are 13% more productive when happy. Habits such as healthy and
consistent work/life balance policies from management are a good example
of how employers can help increase joy. These habits also ensure business
continuity, even during busy seasons.

8. 4. Improved employee morale
• During COVID-19 crisis, we have seen how important it is to keep employee
morale afloat. By introducing employee wellbeing initiatives such as mental
health workshops or a fitness competition among departments or teams,
you can significantly improve your employees’ morale.
• Good employee health and wellbeing also leads to higher employee morale.
When employees have their needs met, they feel valued and competent as a
result.
• A happier workforce – Having the right mental health and wellbeing
strategies in place can help to stop problems from escalating
5. Attract Talent
• 78% of employers offer wellness programs to attract and retain talent. The
fight for the best talent on the market is very competitive, and high-quality
candidates have several options to choose from when picking their next
employer. Providing employee wellbeing benefits that are in line with your
future workforce is very important if you want to attract the best
candidates that will ensure your company’s business success.
• People are more interested in working for companies that put the wellbeing
of their staff as one of their top priorities.

9. 6. Better staff retention – Creating loyalty and care for employees makes them
less likely to look for alternative jobs. If you’re recruiting or plan to recruit in the
next year, creating a plan to improve employee wellbeing can help you attract
and retain skilled individuals. For example, 38% of Gen Z job seekers consider a
healthy working environment to be their number one factor in choosing a
company to work for. Benefits such as increased sick days and mental health
services go a long way toward enticing top talent from this generation to apply.
7. Customer satisfaction- Many companies have learned firsthand that treating
employees well is the key to creating a great customer experience. Simply
having a happy and satisfied staff has been shown to improve the way clients
feel too.
8. Helps to develop a positive company culture and strong employee value
proposition. By creating a positive culture that focuses on wellbeing,
the Employee Value Proposition and the employer brand develop further. When
an employer is a good company to work for, word gets around. This helps to
attract the best talent, while also creating a more enjoyable working environment
– overall, helping the business to reach important goals.
9. Reduced presenteeism Presenteeism is where staff come into work
despite feeling unwell. This causes employees to perform below their
usual standard and means illnesses have a more severe impact on the
workplace. Employees feeling as though they have to come into work
when sick also has negative impacts on mental wellbeing and affects
customer satisfaction levels. With wellbeing strategies in place,
presenteeism is reduced as employees know where their company
stands on coming into work when feeling unwell. The costs associated
with presenteeism – which are reported to cost UK businesses
£15.1billion a year – are also cut down, including those related to
accidents, underperformance and mistakes.

10. What is the cost of poor wellbeing?
• The impact of wellbeing extends far beyond how people feel -- it
affects the number of sick days employees take, their job
performance, burnout and likelihood of leaving your organization.
Here are just some of the costs of poor wellbeing:
• 75% of medical costs accrued mostly due to preventable conditions
• $20 million of additional lost opportunity for every 10,000 workers
due to struggling or suffering employees
• $322 billion of turnover and lost productivity cost globally due to
employee burnout
• 15% to 20% of total payroll in voluntary turnover costs, on average,
due to burnout

11. Studies on employee wellbeing
• Wellbeing at work refers to a subjective perception of general satisfaction with
and positive feelings toward work. It has also been suggested that
conceptualizations of wellbeing at work (and in general) should include a
component of social relationships, as this is a key component of an individual's
positive experiences at work (Fisher, 2014).
• Research shows that employees with a high level of wellbeing put greater
thought and effort into their work (Canaff and Wright, 2004; Keyes and
Grzywacz, 2005; Day and Randell, 2014).
• Poor psychological health, such as depressed mood, anxiety and fatigue, are
related to decrements in cognitive resources, and increased focus on negative or
irrelevant information (Ford et al., 2011), which in turn is related to poorer
performance (Taris, 2006).
• Poor psychological health is also related less energy and motivation to engage in
positive behaviors at work, resulting in poorer contextual performance related
outcomes such as organizational citizenship behaviors (Cropanzano et al.,
2003; Ford et al., 2011).
• Employee wellbeing has been linked to several positive organizational attitudes,
including team cohesion, job, and engagement (Bakker, 2015). Promoting
wellbeing has the potential of benefiting both the employee and the
organization.

12. Ways to improve employee wellbeing
1. Give workers more control over how they do their work.
• Research indicates that having little discretion over how work gets done is associated not only with poorer
mental health but also with higher rates of heart disease. What’s more, the combination of high work demands
and low job control significantly increases the risks of diabetes and death from cardiovascular causes. Even
relatively small changes in worker autonomy can make a difference in employee well-being. A study in a
customer service call center, for example, found that giving its employees more training so they could take on
new tasks and resolve more customer complaints on their own improved both the employees’ well-being and
their performance on the job.
2. Allow employees more flexibility about when and where they work.
• Several studies have found that giving workers more choice or control over their work schedules improves their
mental health. This can involve simply permitting varied starting and stopping times and easier trading of
shifts in jobs that must be done on-site. A more extensive work redesign at a Fortune 500 company — where IT
employees were given control over when and where they did their work but still collaborated with their
teammates to ensure needed coordination — resulted in physical and mental health improvements for
employees as well as reduced turnover for the business.
3. Increase the stability of workers’ schedules.
• Many retail and service companies today use “just in time” scheduling to try to match labor to fluctuating
demand. But erratic, unpredictable schedules make it hard for frontline workers to manage their personal lives
and family responsibilities. Research finds a range of negative outcomes occur for workers who have this kind of
erratic work schedule — including poorer sleep quality and greater emotional distress.
• Conversely, a study at Gap found that greater schedule stability can benefit both companies and employees.
Increasing scheduling stability for workers led to a 7% rise in the participating stores’ median sales and a 5%
increase in labor productivity. The added stability also improved sleep quality and reduced stress among
employees with children.

13. 4. Provide employees with opportunities to identify and solve workplace problems.
• Giving employees opportunities to participate in workplace improvements can be an effective approach to fostering their
well-being. One study of doctors, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners found that those who were invited to
participate in a structured process of identifying and addressing problems in their workplace exhibited decreased rates of
burnout and increases in job satisfaction. Employees who had had opportunities to problem solve together were also less
likely to say they wanted to leave their jobs — a key benefit for organizations trying to retain valuable employees.
5. Keep your organization adequately staffed, so workloads are reasonable.
• Research has found that high work demands — for instance, long hours or pressure to work very hard or fast — can take a
substantial toll on employee health and well-being. In fact, numerous studies find that high demands coupled with low
control create health risks, including higher rates of symptoms of depression, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular
disease. Staffing up to spread out the demands may seem costly, but employers also pay a real price when exhausted or ill
employees burn out, are absent, or quit. The solution may lie in changing staffing in a targeted way; for example, one
study found improvements in efficiency and job satisfaction when doctors were provided with a medical scribe trained to
take over some of their charting tasks.
6. Encourage managers in your organization to support employees’ personal needs.
• Many employees are also caregivers for children or elderly parents, and they benefit from supervisors who are more
supportive of the challenges they face in trying to balance their work and personal lives. A study in nursing homes found
that employees whose managers were more accommodating of their family needs had fewer risk factors for
cardiovascular disease and also slept better. Studies in health care and grocery store settings have examined training
programs for managers to increase family-supportive behaviors, with promising findings for work-life balance and
health. Employers also benefited because workers whose managers had this training reported higher job satisfaction,
better job performance, and less interest in leaving their jobs.
7. Take steps to foster a sense of social belonging among employees.
• Creating a work culture in which employees can develop supportive relationships with their colleagues can be an
important strategy for increasing worker well-being. Research has found that such relationships at work are associated
with lower psychological distress, an indicator of poor mental health.
• Fostering a sense of social belonging doesn’t have to be a complex or expensive proposition. One study of 911
dispatchers, who have highly stressful jobs and high rates of burnout and turnover, had supervisors send one email a
week prompting dispatchers to provide support to one another by sharing affirming stories about their work. For
instance, one email shared the story of a dispatcher who was able to save the life of someone who called 911 by
connecting the caller to appropriate resources. Dispatchers who received the emails encouraging them to share such
stories with one another reported a significant decrease in burnout and were 50% less likely to quit.
• As these examples illustrate, many management practices that improve worker well-being also benefit employers. That
shouldn’t be surprising. In the long run, companies that care about their employees’ health and well-being will be more
likely to have employees who care about the company’s health and well-being too. And that’s an outcome all good
leaders want.