Employee wellbeing is a hot topic in virtually every industry. Today’s top talent is on the hunt for an employer capable of showing empathy, understanding, and humanity. If you want to attract the most appealing pharma, medical and life sciences experts, you need an employee wellbeing strategy.

Though investing in your team’s wellness might seem challenging and expensive, the benefits far outweigh the costs. Positive wellbeing significantly reduces absenteeism and staff turnover while improving productivity, motivation, and employee engagement.

So, how do you foster a company culture built around wellbeing?

Encourage Effective Communication

Communication is the key to a happy, engaged, and successful team. Poor communication leads to misunderstandings, confusion, stress, and mistakes. A lack of good communication also means you can’t develop a good understanding of what your employees really need to thrive in their roles.

Regardless of whether you’re running a hybrid team peppered with remote workers, or a traditional in-office ecosystem, make sure you have various avenues of communication available.

Encourage staff to chat through instant messaging tools, and book regular video meetings if they can’t connect in person. Let your team members know who to reach out to when they have concerns about their physical and mental health and make it easy for teams to give feedback about their work lives.

Regular anonymous surveys asking about employee engagement, work/life balance, and wellbeing will help you keep your finger on the pulse of team happiness. For those with specific issues to address, make someone in your team available to help with planning personal goals.

1. Embed Wellbeing into Company Culture

For wellbeing initiatives to thrive in a business, they need to be more than just an afterthought. Companies need to prioritise and promote positive wellness constantly. This means leading by example for business leaders, who should always be the first to get involved with nutrition seminars or host mental health forums.

Embedding wellbeing into company culture also means encouraging your staff to get involved with the right incentives. Giving your team discounts on healthy food deliveries both in the office and out of it is a great way to get them eating right. Supporting staff with rewards, like exclusive trips to networking events when they achieve their health and wellbeing goals, is another great idea.

Make sure your team members can see the benefits of getting involved with wellbeing, whether they’re focusing on physical health, mental health, or nutrition. You could even think about sorting your employees into wellbeing teams where they can compete for rewards. This boosts the overall health of your staff while improving professional relationships.

2. Create a Feedback Loop

Various factors in the workplace may contribute to stress, poor physical health, and bad mental health. A feedback loop is an excellent way to ensure you’re promoting an ever-improving sense of wellbeing in your business.

On the one hand, your feedback loop ensures managers and supervisors regularly assess the performance and efforts of their team. Employee recognition is an excellent way to keep staff motivated and engaged. It’s also an important way to ensure your people are actively working towards improving their performance in areas where they might struggle.

On the other hand, a feedback loop also encourages your team members to share their insights. You can ask your staff what they need to feel more supported and healthier inside and outside of work. Getting insights from your team members mean you’re more likely to make the right investments into strategies that have a genuinely positive impact on your staff.

3. Consider More than Just Physical Health

There’s more to wellbeing than giving your team members discounted gym membership and access to healthy food. According to one study from 2020, around 58% of employees report some level of stress at work, while 69% defined that stress as moderate or high. Mental health is an often overlooked part of the wellbeing roadmap, but it’s crucial to any business.

Just like poor physical health, negative mental health can lead to absenteeism in your workplace, disengagement, burnout, and countless other problems. When you’re building your wellbeing strategy, make sure you address common mental health issues and concerns too.

You can also look at specific areas that might be problematic to the health of your team members. For instance, if you know some of your employees are struggling with financial planning at this stage in their lives, invite them to come and talk to a budget planning expert. If some of your staff are trying to quit smoking, help them kick the habit with access to company programs.

4. Promote Self Care

Most business leaders make the mistake of focusing on productivity first and wellness second. It’s great for a manager to see huge amounts of work falling in the “done” pile regularly. However, it’s important to consider the cost of that increased workload. Piling extra tasks on your staff can quickly lead to stress, overwhelm and burnout.

With this in mind, promote the importance of self-care and self-awareness among your team members. Let your staff know it’s okay to ask for help when they’re struggling, and don’t punish anyone on your team for letting you know they’re feeling overloaded.

You could even consider introducing things like remote work for those struggling with work/life balance in the traditional office. Many of the pharma and medical industries professionals can work just as well in a virtual environment as they do in the office.

What Next?

Wellbeing is quickly becoming one of the most important priorities in today’s business landscape. Learning how to promote good wellbeing among your staff members could mean you can benefit from happier, more engaged employees and less unnecessary turnover.

The best way to boost your chances of a successful team is to hire the right people. If you need assistance tracking down the right people for your team, contact us on +971 (0)4 442 0921 or via email here.

Thanks,

Rudy

How Kinetic Can Help

Kinetic sources professionals locally and internationally for leading multinational, regional and local Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices companies, including Consumer Healthcare organisations.

If you need help sourcing the best candidates for your pharmaceutical or medical device organisation who will help drive your business forward this year, contact us today.