Are you following current employee wellness trends in your organisation?

Employee health trends are fast-paced, current and incredibly important for your corporate wellbeing; addressing wellness strategies in your business is necessary to have a healthy and balanced workforce.

Today, wellness has developed to encompass social and emotional well-being through mindfulness, stress management and company culture. We have compiled information about the current trends for you to check you’re on the right path…

Self-care

Self-care is one of the top wellbeing trends of 2019. In fact, Apple listed it as one of its top trends for 2018 and this will only increase in 2019. Some of the world’s leading brands such as Apple and Nike offer mindfulness practices for their employees to reduce stress and increase productivity. Mindfulness is a meditative and calming process that invites people to reflect on the present moment and momentarily pass over minor issues causing unnecessary stress.

According to the Harvard Business Review, to motivate your teams you need to create an internal culture where mindfulness is encouraged and accepted. So, if you’re promoting self-care and mindfulness in your organisation, you can’t drop it in and hope people cling on – it requires strong communication that utilises company culture to help employees.

Health clinics and classes

Health clinics are another trend we are seeing employers embrace in 2019. A recent study has shown that half of the businesses with over 5000 employees have an onsite clinic, and this is estimated to rise to two thirds in 2020. Having a health clinic makes your organisation highly competitive, by providing your team with the facilities to control conditions and a dependable place that makes, for example, having a check-up readily available at work you’re showing that employee wellness is top of your concern. Health events such as workshops, physio sessions and yoga are also current hot trends – keeping these well communicated and current is the next step.

Addressing burnout

Burnout and stress are two serious issues; modern life’s hectic pace places more stress on employers and it is becoming increasingly harder for people to separate work from their personal lives.

Burnout affects all industries financially and socially, costing money from lower productivity, more errors because of an un-enthused team. Employers can start to address this increased wariness about burnout with simple measures such as encouraging people to sign off from their email at the end of the day. Helping your team separate work from home improves moods and wellbeing of your team, giving them space to switch off their minds and focus on their personal, social and family life.

Flexible working

Following on from the theme of ‘switching off’… flexible working has grown dramatically in popularity. 70% of millennials now seek flexible working when looking for employment. The reasons being that with the rising awareness of employee wellbeing, people feel they need more time in the week for hobbies, or to spend time with family and friends – the things that make us, us, (outside of our career).

Employee mobility requires an IT system that is accessible wherever you are, and a sophisticated communication format/platform so your team can maintain communication, even if they’re in different places. Flexible working can improve employee engagement and wellbeing, recognising their life outside of work makes your teams feel valued, and as millennials will become our primary workforce – the need for flexible working measures may increase even more.

Personalisation

Today, employers are more aware that just like how everyone has different roles, everyone also faces different challenges and require different solutions.

Transformation in Tech and AI are being developed to help personalise the employee journey.Innovative technology can collect and leverage employee’s personal data.  Beyond simply reporting, this data can be used to provide an early warning sign that employee well-being could be an issue, where engagement is low or where intervention is required.

Here at Hollaroo, we place the user at the heart of our platform, creating a space where conversation and creativity can flourish. We believe that relationships with your employees should follow three simple principles – respect, relate, respond.  Respectful in terms of how and when you use data to make judgements about your workers welfare, relate(able) in circumstances where they might not recognise the implications from their actions and responsive – don’t track data to report actions like attrition, which is historical and difficult to reverse!  Perhaps that’s a fourth R!