Ensuring total wellbeing of staff

Organisations are very good at providing employees with a total reward package, but what about providing a total employee wellbeing package?

Wellbeing is both physical and mental and the topic of mental health is currently very prevalent everywhere we look.

Whether it is watching the London Marathon and seeing a sea of blue headband wearers begin their 26 mile journey whilst being cheered on by royalty, or listening and watching our favourite comedians and celebrities talk about their battles and on-going journeys with their own mental health.

Mental health doesn’t disappear at 9am and return at 5pm, but it is with the employee throughout their waking, working and sleeping day.

Given that work takes up approximately a third of a day, what are organisations doing to support their employees during their third of a day?

Some organisations are taking proactive steps towards providing a total wellbeing package.

For example, training their employees who are first aiders in mental health awareness.

This is an excellent sign of acknowledgement that not all pain is physical and can be treated with a plaster or sterile wipe.

Being able to recognise signs as to a colleague’s mental wellbeing, could be key to helping that individual employee.

Other proactive steps include ensuring that employees have the ability to take their lunch breaks and preferably away from the desk or workstation.

Offering a location that employees want to go to, to seek space to relax and switch off, is a perfect solution.

An employee’s mental wellbeing doesn’t always have to be too severe or extreme for an organisation to be in a position to help.

An organisation that raises awareness of mindfulness and the ability to be in the present moment and pay attention to your own thoughts and feelings can help employees improve their mental wellbeing, thus improving the quality of the performance of their role.

The organisational change may only need to be small, but the impact for employees could be huge. Incorporating and embedding total wellbeing into existing organisation processes, such as appraisals, will start to take some of the awkwardness away from the manager asking “how are you coping?” and open the door for the employee to respond honestly, without fear of reprisals or being labelled as weak.

Perhaps it is time for organisations to reflect on their persona of potentially expecting a “stiff upper lip”?