Bringing Workplace Wellbeing Closer To Home

With the growing recognition of the impact of stress and hectic lives on our health, it’s not surprising that workplaces are having to consider their employees through a wellbeing lens.

From the public through to the private sector there is recognition more so than ever that the person employed really matters. The shift has moved from prioritizing tasks (can they do the required skills of the job or not), to seeing the whole-person’s wellbeing as intricately linked to performance, productivity and even profits for the company itself. Workplaces now recognize if their staff ‘feel well’ the business will ‘do well’.

And they’ve had plenty of incentive to do so. Mind, the leading mental health charity in England and Wales, show that stress and other mental health problems are the second biggest cause of sickness absence from work. The cost of these lost working days and staff turnover (employees leaving as a result of mental health problems) costs £2.4 billion each year. More so, these companies get to "attract the top talent" too, with people craving to work in a place that honors their wellbeing.

The increasing trend for enabling workplace wellbeing feels somewhat natural then. Of course, workplaces should be focused on the person they employ. Ultimately, it’s the people within an organisation that create its success.

For each individual to feel completely confident each day, in a peak state ready to be productive, and to be able to produce consistently high results, there are a number of factors that must come together. A combination of which is unique to each person —given that they each live with their own natural demands and desires in life.

The companies most often acknowledged for their prioritisation of wellness cater to this variation of factors and the uniqueness of the individuals employed. Their workplace wellbeing policies cover anything from flexible working hours and massages at your desk, through to free healthy snacks and gym passes.

The Global Wellness Institute’s Future of Wellness at Work report and survey shared it’s this recognition of individual needs itself that is so crucial. Chairman and CEO Susie Ellis says,

... we saw significant, diverse and positive implications when a company is perceived to “care” … we found that caring companies tackle not just ‘tangibles’ like healthy food and work spaces, they address emotional, relational, organizational, intellectual and financial ‘wellness’ at work (whether it’s giving workers more work flexibility or encouraging socializing and friendships).

Which gets to the very heart of what wellbeing is about, the U.K. Department of Health even defining it as comprising each individual’s unique experience of their life.

Those ‘caring companies’ are the Googles of the world (which even include access to cooking classes and guitar lessons) through to many health and wellness brands and even corporate consultancy giants.

While there is certainly more that employers could be doing (only 9% of the global workforce have access to wellness programmes at work) – the principles of a holistic and rounded approach are becoming far more standard.

Yes, the global wellness industry has been booming, and the likes of turmeric lattes, Barre workouts and inner city meditation pods have become more colloquial, however there still seems to be a gap between the accessibility of wellness and how people feel on an everyday level. We know that stress and mental health problems have continued to rise.

So, what is it that employees themselves could be taking away from this workplace approach to wellness to bring things closer to home? Their own home to be precise.

Just as much as you’d like your boss to have a little compassion for your wellness and mental health at the office, it’s also feels like our responsibility to do the same for ourselves in our own homes.

Workplaces have wide-ranging options within their wellbeing frameworks. If you were to consider writing yourself your very own Personal Wellness Policy, what would all the components be? And, how would you be measuring your level of ‘success’?

For example, if all you were to include was a beginner’s yoga course, or an eight-week bootcamp challenge, both would certainly make you feel better. Yet one part does not equal the whole — there’s no guarantee that ticking that one box is all you would need to create total wellbeing in your life consistently. You’re much more likely to require many more layers and phases to ensure your approach to your personal wellbeing is sustainable.

Like a move within a dance routine – one step, or a few notes sung of the song, alone could be gorgeous, moving, and precise. Yet pulled together with all the other moves is where it truly comes alive. Electric. Dazzling even. The vibrancy of personal wellness exists in all the parts coming together.

Brene Brown’s research findings for how to live a wholehearted life, showed that “things … like rest and play, are as vital to our health as nutrition and exercise.” Yet how often do people treat this as their personal responsibility to deliver this in their life?

A wholehearted life is really that one we all aspire to – full of happiness, freedom, joy and love. Yet it’s also clear that from workplace wellbeing through to wholehearted living, there is no ‘one size fits all solution’. No simple shopping list that will automatically make people feel good in their lives.

Life, rather, is about the moments of experience. Those moments that are unique to each individual that constitute how ‘well’ they feel in that moment.

If wholehearted living and workplace wellbeing incorporates a wide array of qualities from rest, play, joy and gratitude through to exercise, flexible hours and healthy eating, then surely our personal wellness needs to incorporate this same array?

Brene says,

cultivating a Wholehearted life is not like trying to reach a destination. It’s like walking toward a star in the sky. We never really arrive, but we certainly know that we’re heading in the right direction.

Writing your own Personal Wellness Policy or manual could just be that direction, that star that has been missing. Regardless of how your employer ranks in the wellbeing stakes. Your star is just that – yours. You get to create it design it, shift it, change it, and find the individual experience within it that gives you exactly what you need.