Wellbeing in the Workplace
The evidence shows that wellness programmes can have many benefits both for employees and employers.
There is a lot of research to demonstrate this, particularly from the USA, because wellness programs have been up and running there for decades. There are literally hundreds of rigorous scientific evaluations and studies highlighting the positive impact of workplace wellness programs.
That could be one of the reasons why the U.S. evidence also highlights that as of 2020, most U.S. employers had wellness programs of some kind, including over 50% of small firms (those with up to 200 employees) and a whopping 81% of large companies.[1]
So what we can gather from this mine of information and what are the proven workplace wellness statistics and practices that could benefit companies?
The proven wellness workplace practices every employer should know about
Wellness programs are good at helping people adopt and maintain healthy behaviours because with the right education, information, motivation, skills/tools, and social support people change their behaviours.
This is important because healthy behaviours lead to lower health risks, and lower health risks lead to less chronic disease and lifestyle related diseases. Low health risks are the foundation of good health, and wellness programs are a great way to help employees and their spouses avoid elevated health risks.
With less disease and lower health risks employees have fewer health care costs.
Healthy Behaviours ➡️ lower health risks and less disease ➡️ fewer health care costs and healthier employees =
WIN WIN for employers and employees
more benefits include……
Wellness programmes improve productivity.
Poor employee productivity can be defined as physically being at work but not working and is known as presenteeism.[2]
One of the main causes of ‘presenteeism’ is poor health [3], and it follows that presenteeism is also associated with unhealthy behaviours, elevated health risks, and the presence of chronic disease. So helping employees to adopt and maintain healthy behaviours through a comprehensive wellness programme employees’ overall health is likely to improve.
So wellness programmes that focus on helping employees have good health behaviours will eventually have a positive impact on productivity.
Wellness Programs can also decrease Absenteeism. This occurs for a variety of reasons that also link to healthy eating and lifestyle habits and behaviours. Employees with good health behaviours have lower absenteeism because they are healthier, i.e they tend to have healthy BMI/body weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose levels, and they manage their stress more effectively.
By reducing absenteeism through a wellness programme that focuses on healthy eating and lifestyle behaviours a company will experience cost savings.
So the bottom line is that wellness programs have the ability to improve employee health and this can have all kinds of benefits in the workplace for both employees and employers.
But….
However, there is an important caveat to bear in mind.
The ability of any wellness programme to reduce healthcare costs depends upon how effective the programme really is.
The wellness offering needs to be a comprehensive programme that focuses on a variety of strategies and approaches to improve employee behaviours. The effectiveness of workplace wellness programmes is also linked to high levels of programme engagement from staff/employees
Although there is a cost implication in running such a comprehensive wellness programme and ensuring staff engagement with it, research has shown that employers will discover that the savings from such a thorough programme and high levels programme participation will be greater than the actual cost of the programme.[4]
This ‘savings’ include:
Significantly improved healthy eating and lifestyle behaviours of employees - happier and healthier
Reduced elevated health risks
Lower health care costs because employees need less medical care
Improved employee morale and productivity
Less health related absenteeism
Stress at work
For a health coach devising a corporate/work wellness programme that aims to be truly comprehensive it needs to be thorough in both outlook and approach, and that means taking a whole person approach utilising a range of methods and strategies. In practice this would mean that in addition to dietary and fitness/exercise, it would also explore other lifestyle factors that are important considerations for an individual’s health and wellbeing. A key one in relation to the work environment is stress management.
Doctors and scientists have long known that stress complicates and can influence a wide range of conditions with its negative health implications including heart disease, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and autoimmune conditions. Stress also affects the ageing process itself and it can be a factor in depression and anxiety issues as well.
There is also increasing evidence to indicate that chronic stress — a mainstay of modern life — doesn't merely exacerbate disease and health conditions, it can actually cause them, and stress negatively impacts important bodily functions and processes such as sleep, digestion, and immunity.[5]
In turn, many who are stressed out end up practicing unhealthy behaviours that can also have negative consequences for health. These unhealthy behaviours include:
Comfort eating
Excessive drinking, smoking, and use of other recreational drugs
Sleeping and exercising less
So stress is an important underlying factor that can account for and lead to ill health and disease - which is the opposite of wellness and wellbeing
It is important to also bear in mind that wellbeing encompasses not only a person’s physical health but their mental and emotional states as well. Over the last few years appreciation of mental and emotional health within the workforce has become more prevalent than ever before. This is important and necessary because an individual’s work life and environment is an important aspect of their overall lived experience as it accounts for a substantial portion of people’s time.
If we take the UK as an example, data produced by the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE)’s Labour Force Surveys over the last 5-6 years has found that almost half, 49%, of all working days lost in 2016/2017 were reported as being due to work-related stress, depression, or anxiety. A considerable percentage no doubt, and year on year this is increasing…..
By 2018/2019 this figure had risen by 5% to 54%, and by 2021-2022 it was slightly higher still, with the total number of working days lost to work-related stress, anxiety, and depression reaching 17 million days, which equates to 55% - more than half of of all sick days taken in total.[6]
Clearly the UK are a stressed out nation (and they are not alone globally), and that’s not good news for people’s health, nor for any country’s economy.[7]
So let’s delve a little deeper into some of these findings….
In addition to over half (55%) of all work days lost being due to work related stress, anxiety, and depression, by 2020, a staggering 79% of British adults in employment reported commonly experiencing work-related stress, making work-related stress the most common form of stress in the UK and it’s on the rise…..
This is Chronic stress and it is an unfortunate byproduct of our fast paced modern lives for many and it can be an uncomfortable place to be. Whereas acute, short-term stress is not detrimental to someone’s health, long term or chronic stress is unhealthy and has many negative health implications. Leading on from those mentioned above, this can include things like:
Insomnia and sleep issues
Tiredness and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Headaches and migraines
Low mood, anxiety, and depression
Lowered sex drive
Irregular periods, fertility problems, and erectile dysfunction
High blood pressure and a risk of heart disease
Digestive issues such as reflux, heartburn, IBS and stomach ulcers
Weakened immune system making people more vulnerable to pathogens and bacteria
With the plethora of negative health associations associated with chronic stress, and work-related stress the most common form of stress in the UK, it is clear why stress is a significant contributor to poor physical, mental and emotional health, low productivity and absenteeism among the UK workforce.
Experiencing work stress and anxiety can affect all age groups and unless addressed can lead to workers taking on too much and negatively impacting their health, and for some this could mean reaching the point of burnout.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) describe burnout as:
‘a state of emotional, physical and mental exhaustion caused by excessive or prolonged stress that can leave people feeling exhausted and unable to cope with the demands of life.
One of the factors often cited as a cause of burnout is the growing expectation of ‘high performance’ within workplaces and for individual in their careers. Indeed one of the biggest developments in the business world between 2018 and today was the World Health Organisation (WHO) in April 2019 recognising ‘burnout’ as an ‘occupational phenomenon’.
Pandemic Legacy….
With those experiencing workplace stress being on the rise, it reinforces the importance of businesses to look for ways to support their employees to tackle stress, anxiety and other health related issues.
Positively, the amount of people who say that their workplace doesn’t offer any measures to help manage stress and anxiety has more than halved since 2018. However, there is still room for improvement.
Undoubtedly, the global pandemic's legacy has impacted the workplace and organisations are facing a number of challenges as they seek to rebuild and get back to pre-pandemic levels of profitability.
Experts speak of the need to rehabilitate from the emotional and mental trauma caused by the pandemic and other recent distressful events in the world. This has been compounded by the the accelerated move to virtual or hybrid working environments with reduced face time overall and high reliance on screen time, which can make it challenging for managers to track staff wellbeing.
As part of their efforts to motivate staff back into the workplace, employers need to identify the causes of stress in their workplace and introduce a range of strategies and tools to help to deal with this.
The research and statistics show that not only will this improve the employee’s wellbeing, but it will also improve company performance.
The ood news is that….
Health coaching can really help!
Health coaching is particularly useful for improving workplace wellness. A good wellness programme can encourage healthy behaviours, reduce presenteeism, improve productivity. With stress levels continuing to rise among the workforce, the innovative approaches for stress management that health coaching brings are very much needed at this time. Unquestionably stress affects physical, mental, and emotional health and there is much potential for health coaching to be of help in the area of stress management within the workplace alone. For example, health coaching can help employers to identify the causes of stress within their workplace and then introduce a suitable range of strategies and tools to help to deal with this. What is key to remember is that there are many ways to aid and relieve stress naturally whether through dietary means as well as a wide range of other lifestyle practices.
So as a discipline health coaching can be very useful and advantageous for both staff and companies.
It helps to engage and motivate employees by providing support, information, and a myriad of strategies, tools, and tips to enable staff to improve their health on many levels: improve their health awareness and overall health outcomes, help to prevent burnouts, reduce their stress levels and the risk of some diseases, help them to lose weight, enhance their immunity, energy levels, mindset, and motivation. Ultimately evidence shows staff will be healthier, happier and more productive.
From an organisational perspective, improving the physical and mental health of the company’s workforce can lead to many benefits: a reduction in sick leaves and health related payments, reduced absenteeism and presenteeism, and increased productivity and engagement within the company. By providing employees with a programme that is supportive and provide ways and methods to improve their overall health and wellness, this positively contributes toward a company’s attractiveness for potential new employees.
As an employer, one of the most caring and considerate things you can do for your staff right now, is to offer one-to-one or group Health & Wellbeing coaching workshops and plans as part of your wellness offering.
Utilising health and wellness coaching within the corporate sphere is an area that is expected to grow in upcoming years and if you’re interested to find out more about the many ways The Life Muse and health coaching could be beneficial for your company or organisation, please reach out - I’d love to hear from you!
You can contact The Life Muse directly to discuss and tailor an offering specific to your organisation's unique needs and make your employees’ work experience healthier, happier and more productive.
References
https://www.wellsteps.com/blog/2020/01/02/workplace-wellness-statistics-wellness-stats/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22856386/
Ibid.
Almost every one of the return on investment (ROI) studies produced has shown positive return on investment. for wellness programmes. The most comprehensive review ever completed found this. See Steven G Aldana, PhD, ‘Financial Impact of Health Promotion Programs: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature’ (2001), American Journal of Health Promotion, pps 296-320. https://www.wellsteps.com/images/stories/manuscripts/roi%20review.pdf
Researchers from Harvard recently published another summary of wellness ROI that also showed the dramatic savings the company made because of reduced healthcare costs. See https://www.wellsteps.com/blog/2020/01/02/workplace-wellness-statistics-wellness-stats/
Of particular note is the research of Dr. Sheldon Cohen, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh USA, who has been at the forefront of stress research for 30 years. Dr. Cohen's work focuses on the roles of stress, affect, and social support systems in health and well-being. His research has aimed at uncovering stress' mechanism in promoting illness. His work has been very influential in the field and current research projects of noted British psycho-neuroimmunologists continues to build on Cohen's groundbreaking research. See https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/psychology/stress-immunity-disease-lab/cohen/index.html
The HSE data used in this paper is based upon Perkbox’s 2020 UK workplace stress survey
https://www.perkbox.com/uk/resources/library/2020-workplace-stress-survey
These articles examine from data for 2023 in UK and draws upon numerous sources such as NICE, CIPHR, Statistica, The Workplace Health Report, etc., and has specific data on Anxiety, Depression, and Stress
https://championhealth.co.uk/insights/stress-statistics/ & https://championhealth.co.uk/insights/mental-health-statistics/
https://www.ciphr.com/workplace-stress-statistics/
