(Expansion) – In our historical and current labor context, promoting the health and well-being of employees is key to improving their quality of life and at the same time being a more profitable organization. Various initiatives can help contain or mitigate risks to employee health and create positive work environments in which individuals and organizations can thrive.
Good health and wellness may be a core enabler of employee engagement and organizational performance according to multiple studies that support the need for organizations to “invest wisely” in this area.
Several laws and regulations currently require the execution of actions aimed at protecting the health and safety of employees, promoting their well-being and generating healthy work environments, however, the effort goes beyond mere regulatory compliance and leads employers to put its employees at the center of the organization and to genuinely safeguard their health, safety and well-being.
Investing wisely in employee wellness can lead to greater resilience, increased engagement, reduced absenteeism due to illness or accidents, a better work environment, as well as improved performance and productivity.
However, many of the initiatives do not achieve their full potential because they are isolated or misaligned with the business strategy, which is why health and wellness strategies must be integrated as a core component of the culture, leadership and management of the business. human capital within the organization.
Today, employee wellness has expanded beyond physical wellness to focus on building a culture of holistic, diverse, and inclusive wellness that includes physical, emotional, financial, and social wellness, which is precisely where the idea of transitioning is centered. from the traditional “Wellness” towards the integral vision of “Wellbeing”.
Studies conducted by Mercer Marsh Benefits show that employees’ desire to work for organizations whose values align with theirs will be an important criteria in selecting a new employer, new employees expect your company to be actively and genuinely involved in their professional development but, today more than ever, in their comprehensive well-being.
In a more recent study, “People Risk,” 79% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that employee health and safety represents a serious threat to the business, putting at the center of agendas the need to act in advance, recognizing in a timely manner, controlling and evaluating the risks to the health of employees within its comprehensive risk management strategy.
With regard to mental health, considered by many experts around the world as a parallel pandemic, organizations are in the best time to provide timely support to prevent a considerable impact on the job in the medium and long term.
In this regard and according to another study by Mercer Marsh Benefits, “Health On Demand”, employees face several challenges regarding their emotional well-being. Financial worries and a sense of isolation have contributed to many employees feeling stressed in their daily lives.
Employer support in the areas of accessing and paying for treatment, reducing stigma, and building resilience is valued. Employers that offer counseling and mental health benefits create stronger social bonds with their employees, which in turn makes employees less likely to quit.
According to this study, half of employees worldwide feel somewhat stressed in daily life and, in most countries, about a fifth reported feeling very or extremely stressed, leading this list of countries like Mexico , Colombia, United States and India.
Finally, it is evident that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the approach and broke many paradigms around the management of human capital and the offer of benefits, putting organizations before a “reinvention” of them, including socio-economic transformations. -cultural of the present moment; In terms of health and well-being, leaders now see this issue, not only as a benefit for employees, but as an opportunity to support them in aspects of their personal and work lives, in a win-win relationship between both parties.
Editor’s note: Ariel Almazán is Workforce Health Leader at Mercer Marsh Benefits for Latin America and the Caribbean. Follow him on . The opinions published in this column belong exclusively to the author.
