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What makes for an effective employee wellbeing programme and how can OH and HR professionals convince senior leaders that investing in workplace wellbeing is worth the time, money and effort? Sarah Silcox explores the challenges with those who have developed effective approaches.
Ensuring that employees are "happy and here" is a growing focus for many OH and HR departments. Most employers run ad hoc wellbeing activities in the workplace over the course of a typical year, often tying in with a national awareness-raising day or campaign involving changing a particular health-related behaviour, for example, National Stress Awareness Day or No Smoking Day.
However, moving from this kind of approach to a more strategic wellbeing programme requires a significant degree of planning, aligned with the organisation's broader business or service plan.
Developing a coherent programme of wellbeing initiatives, rather than running ad hoc activities is a vital part of moving towards a strategic, holistic approach to workplace health. Designing a strategic plan, perhaps under a branded umbrella programme name, makes it possible to move from one activity to the next, securing employee engagement as you go.
Wellbeing strategy
However, deciding to build a wellbeing programme does not necessarily mean that an organisation needs a formal wellbeing strategy. Those with experience say that the ethos in their organisation is that wellbeing is embedded into all plans and policies, rather than existing as an "add on" in a standalone, separate polity. In these organisations, wellbeing is mainstreamed in all activities, removing the risk thatit becomes a "nice to have", but side-lined exercise.
"We use a framework rather than a polity, which sets out what the organisation will do now, what we plan for the future, but also what the organisation will not do in the wellness area," says Alistair Doman, head of health management at Capita Employee Benefits.
His firm has created a series of "house views" on a small number of critical issues, for example, nutrition, mental health and physical activity. Each house view is supported by specific programmes to tackle these issues. "There are plenty of providers out there trying to sell solutions for all sorts of workplace wellbeing issues, making it essential to focus on just a few," Doman says, adding that organisations do...