The ongoing pandemic is changing the working environment for employees and employers, that includes staff wellbeing. While employees have been busy settling down with the idea of remote work, HR leaders were busy making this transition easy.
For many of us, the transition from a physical workspace to a remote one has been simple. Working from home has its own benefits for the employees and the organisation. Employees have gained the flexibility to work from anywhere around the world, whilst the employer has benefited from fewer costs.
Continuously working from home has resulted in increased stress, anxiety, and feeling of isolation among employees. It has affected their mental and physical health and has increased disengagement.
Free healthy food when returning to the office or online fitness classes might not be the most relevant benefit to offer this year. So, what are the workplace wellness trends to watch out for in 2021?
What Is Staff Wellbeing?
Staff wellbeing relates to all aspects of the working life/environment. From the quality and safety of the physical environment, to how workers mentally feel about their work/home life, their working environment, and the work culture.
This includes their relationships with colleagues, use of tools and resources, larger business decisions that impact them and their work, and many other factors.
The Benefits Of Prioritising Employee Wellbeing
Securing employee wellbeing can translate to multiple business benefits, they are:
More Productivity: Employee wellbeing boosts productivity and performance. When feeling well, employees display healthier behaviours and better decision-making.
Higher Employee Morale: Employees feel more competent and valued when their needs are met at all levels, including physical, mental, and financial.
Better Talent: When your company has a good reputation in the market as an employer who respects and supports work-life balance, you’re more likely to attract skilled candidates and retain your existing employees for longer periods.
Improved CRM: Happy employees are your best brand ambassadors. If you treat them well, that positive energy will pass on to your customers. Those employees will be motivated to understand how your products and services will best serve customer needs.
Employee Wellbeing Trends In 2021
Communication
Whilst working from home, it is easy for your employees to feel disconnected and isolated from the organisation because you aren’t in an office together. Whether casual or formal, it helps employees to stay connected. Connect with your team over a one-on-one or in group meetings/chat, let them know that you are there to help them out if they face any difficulty working remotely. Encourage your employees to schedule time for virtual water cooler breaks so that they can have a casual discussion with their colleagues.
Additionally, ensure that they have the tools and software required to make communication and collaboration easy. Some of the most commonly used tools are Teams, Zoom, WhatsApp and project management apps like Asana or Monday.
Flexible Workplace
Those who can work from home have had to adapt their living rooms into offices. Eventually, however, many office workers will go back to their former workplace for at least a few days a week.
It isn’t surprising that a flexible workplace is one of the leading workplace wellness trends in 2021. Employers are re-evaluating their office design, as a result, to make sure their employees are safe. Flexible workplace design examples include:
- Office design that ensures social distancing
- Ensuring safety and physical comfort at the office
- Allocated home office budget
With 68% of employees globally saying they do not feel entirely safe returning to the office, this trend only makes sense. Additionally, 75% of those working remotely feel the same. 23% of remote workers also said they would prefer to look for a new job than return to an office that didn’t have the necessary safety measures in place.
Stress Management and Resilience
While stress management fits into the category of mental wellbeing, most companies prioritise it separately since many employees struggle with managing workplace stress. Here at Wellspace, we don’t leave any stone unturned when it comes to staff wellbeing.
To combat workplace stress, most companies focus on helping their employees with stress management and resilience. Wellspace offers multiple 1:1 wellbeing sessions, one of which covers resilience and all covers aspects of stress.
Financial Wellness
Employers have been discussing employee financial wellness benefits for some time now. Financial wellness is basically an individual’s overall financial health and implies not having stress related to money. The truth is that most employees are concerned about their finances. The pandemic has only increased their financial stress, with salaries being reduced while the cost of living remains the same.
Considering how stressful the pandemic has been on the workforce, creating a financial wellness program makes more sense than ever. Some corporate wellness program examples with financial wellness benefits include financial wellness tools, financial planning education workshops, and extended paid leave.
Get In Touch
If you’d like to bring your best team to work daily then contact one of our team. We’d love to meet you and understand your company’s employee-wellness goals for this year!
