Welcome to ‘Compensation Insider’ – an initiative by HireSure.ai that helps you navigate the murky waters of total rewards. Our vision is to decode and optimise practices related to compensation philosophy, appraisal planning, compensation & benefits planning, ESOP planning, pay parity, the nature of rewards, job structure and so much more.
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🧬 The Evolution of Employee Well-being
Workplace wellness is a high-priority concern for HR professionals today, but the sad truth is it was not always like this.
Back in the day, companies were not just stingy about dolling out employee wellness programs, some employers were outright sabotaging the health of their employees.
Anticipating the short-sightedness of such a culture, in 1817, Robert Marcus Owen, a Welsh social reformer proposed an “eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest” structure to validate fair working conditions.
This concept was first adopted by Ford Motor Company in 1914 and became a norm in many industries.
As the times changed, businesses understood that taking care of their employees’ physical, mental, and emotional health is not just a moral obligation but also a sound business strategy.
🦸 How Employee Well-being can be Your Hero in the Current Economic Climate?
The pandemic turned out to be an era that tapped into some eye-opening (and not in a good way) struggles in the HR industry:
😴A reactive nature
🧑💻Lack of scalable technology
📊Manual collection of data (usually prone to fluctuation within short periods of time)
And these factors significantly interfered with a smooth employee experience. Today’s workforce also reflected this sentiment as they felt 2020 was the most stressful year of their working lives (Oracle and Workforce Intelligence Report).
As a result, the whole scenario shifted the focus towards one of the most hush-hush topics of the employment industry:
Mental Health!
Companies took to conducting employee surveys to gauge the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of their workforce. The results were staggering, with one of the Reports revealing 78% of employees went through mental health issues during the remote work phase.
The findings underscore the need for companies to prioritise the well-being of their employees and to do it NOW!
⚔️ But How Do We Dodge the Double-Edged Sword of Current Economic Downturn
For businesses, the pandemic wreaked havoc on economic fronts and so much so that companies are still grappling to recover from the financial hit.
In such a case, many enterprises are stuck between a rock and a hard place where they want to promote employee wellness initiatives but do not have the resources to do so.
But according to The Future Workplace 2021 HR Sentiment survey, around 68% of senior HR leaders have considered employee wellness and mental health a top priority.
So, with the right intent, nothing is impossible.
In fact, Future Workplace has carved out 7 Pillars to steer the HR leaders on the right path for curating the best employee wellness programs.
A lot of companies out there have used these pillars as their guiding principles while documenting and implementing their employee well-being initiatives.
And we’re going to have a look at their secret recipe for how to keep your employees happy!
🧘HealthWise’s Reflection on How Employees can be Well
Healthwise has come a long way with CEO Don Kemper’s dedication to employee wellness.
The company conducts monthly meetings where a report is presented on active wellness programs running at that moment. They also have an “Annual Wellness Day” where the employees are motivated towards adopting a healthier lifestyle.
Every alternate Wednesday, they invite their employees to improve cross-team connections by sharing a healthy snack with their colleagues.
📈Business Priorities of Chevron
In the words of Paul Drechsler, Chairman/CEO of Wates Group Limited “Good Health is Good Business”.
And Chevron has taken this concept to heart.
They have categorised 60-70% of their jobs as safety-sensitive and hence they have tied fitness for employees to their business objectives with the guiding principle:
“Healthy Workers are Safe Workers”
Their initiatives focus on cardiovascular health, a repetitive-stress-injury prevention program, fitness centres and more.
Chevron is also known for providing regular “stretch breaks” to their employees for improved physical activity.
🍀Biltmore’s Comprehensive Take on Employee Wellness
Biltmore is one of the organisations that understand that well-being is not limited to physical fitness.
As an illustration, Biltmore extends a nondenominational chaplain service that is available round the clock to help its employees and immediate family members navigate through difficult times.
The service is geared towards providing support for a variety of issues such as divorce, serious illness, death and grief recovery and more.
Biltmore places great emphasis on confidentiality, ensuring that the services provided are confidential, voluntary and free of cost.
They also have bi-annual 2-day long fitness fairs where they encourage their employees to include all forms of wellness into their lifestyle.
📝 Summary
Here, we are going to summarise a few pointers for all the leaders who want to revamp their employee wellness strategy. All you need to do is focus on the following:
😌 Giving your employees the right work flexibility
📆 Do away with unpredictable and inconsistent work schedules
🙍 Always be on point with your staffing requirements
🎓 Encourage your managers to complete leadership training programs
🤝 Improve social belongingness amongst your employees
💯 Take Care of Your Employees With CompUp
Empowering businesses to make informed decisions regarding their total rewards strategy, CompUp offers a state-of-the-art platform that leverages data-driven insights.
Our comprehensive solution facilitates key decision-making by aligning key benefits packages with your company’s values and objectives.
By leveraging our data-backed approach, you can make informed decisions that optimise your people’s PnL strategy, ultimately driving positive outcomes for your business.
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