Productivity is a vital part of any business success, especially if you are a small business or are self employed battling against much larger entities. There is a fine line between getting the most out of your employees and making them feel overworked and stressed. In order to track where you stand with this as a business, it is important to measure things like absenteeism, presenteeism and engagement with staff. Of course the best way to make sure to aid the productivity of your workforce is to look after their wellbeing and make sure engagement levels are high between employer and employee.
Wellbeing strategies are a great way to show your staff that you are looking out for them, whilst setting motions in place for if problems do occur. The most common technique is to provide health insurance options for your employees that could be in the form of private medical cover or even cash plan options. Other options include offering employee wellbeing strategies such as gym memberships and assistance programmes that offer up counselling for employees who may be dealing with difficulties including stress and motivation issues.
Stress is one of the main problem factors occurring in workplace that affect both engagement and productivity. Millions of days of work are lost every year in the UK as a result of problems including stress, anxiety and depression. In the press we are constantly reminded of the damage stress can do peoples wellbeing and how it affects the workplace – a growing issue as the lines between work and home life are blurred even more with the increased adoption of smartphones, tablets and other devices. As this increased stress is a result of the workplace, it is important that employers play a part in helping to tackle this problem.
The easiest way to do this is to encourage healthy activities such as visiting the gym, organising activities and healthy eating. This could be achieved through such means as providing fruit and other healthy snacks in the workplace and organising running clubs, charity events or something similar.
If you are looking to keep your employees focused and productive, making sure their basic needs are cared for should be one of your top priorities. It doesn’t take much to achieve, by offering a few simple steps such as helping out with keeping active and encouraging healthy eating you can make a real difference. These small steps will have a large impact on overall business productivity and will help you to further engage with your workforce.
Gareth writes on behalf of AXA PPP healthcare, who provide a number of employee wellbeing and business health insurance options including self employed health insurance.