Incentive&Motivation Magazine Winter 2017 | Page 5

Employee wellbeing in 2018 Three types of wellbeing strategy for your organisation As we look to the New Year, it’s time to consider wellbeing in all areas of your business. We explore at the three core areas you should be looking at this coming year. Physical wellbeing Around 12% of gym members sign-up in January, and according to the Fitness Industry Association, most people have quit or stop going after 24 weeks. Providing employees with access to a gym or offering employer- supported or subsidised gym membership can play an important part in a corporate health and wellbeing strategy. By helping employees to stay fit and healthy, employers can expect to reap the rewards. According to the AFLAC 2012 Workforce Report, employees who took part in a workplace wellness program were more satisfied at their jobs and were generally more content. The benefits of physical fitness are well publicised and caring for your employees physical wellbeing would be an ideal benefit to offer. Financial wellbeing Mental wellbeing Financial concerns are becoming more and more prevalent in the workplace. According to the 2017 DNA of financial wellbeing report from Neyber, 58% of employees admitted to being mentally and physically affected by financial worries. With 33% of employees citing financial worries as the biggest concern, ahead of health, relationships and work life balance. These financial problems are not necessarily because of poor financial management, but increasingly from external factors such as the rising costs of education and housing, depressed wages, rising childcare costs, as well as energy and food prices, which are all taking their toll on employees across the UK. According to the Health and Safety Executive, 12.5 million working days were lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2016/17. Now is the time to go one step further and offer your employees access to financial wellbeing solutions including loans direct from salary, on-site financial education and saving products. Personal Group have partnered with Neyber and SalaryFinance to offer employees access to affordable borrowing with low APRs and manageable repayments that are taken directly from payroll. Offering additional support such as fairer finance schemes is a practical way employers can improve the overall wellbeing of their staff. This proposition is about offering practical financial support as part of an overall holistic benefits package which tackles wellbeing head on. Mental wellbeing has never been so important, with work-related mental ill-health costing the UK economy up to £26 billion every year through lost working days, staff turnover and lower productivity. Stress management resources including mindfulness training could be the ideal antidote. Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) courses may be something that you really see benefits from – The Mindfulness Initiative has shown businesses teaching mindfulness have seen improvements in many measures of team performance and has been practiced by businesses including HSBC and Jaguar Land Rover. 2018 Physical w Financia ellbeing l wellbei ng Mental w ellbeing www.incentiveandmotivation.com | 05