Six Surefire Ways to Improve Employee
Well-Being at the Workplace

By Kirsten Pike

Do you know that a happy employee is 10% to 12% more productive?

The importance of having a workforce that is comfortable, healthy and happy can’t be denied at our dynamic work environment. In today’s era, businesses that have a healthy and happy staff tend to gain high productivity and enjoy long-term profitability. The reason is simple. Happy employees are less absent, more productive and ultimately boost the company’s growth.

Employee well-being should be at the heart of the workplace – a place where businesses must put an effort to find improvements with time. Well, to make things a bit simple, here I’ve come up with six surefire ways to help you improve your employees’ well-being, morale and productivity.

So let’s take a look at them below...

1. Develop a Pleasant Workplace Environment

The environment in which your employees operate plays a significant role in their mental health. Ensuring that the environment in which they are working is pleasing can bring improvements in their mood as well as enhance their productivity.

Offices must have a pleasing layout. The lights, the desks, the chairs, the decoration and the entire physical work environment must be nice, comfortable and delightful for your employees. Therefore its important make effort to develop an environment which is pleasing to your employees’ eyes, so they feel happy and comfortable working in your company.

2. Give Breaks to Your Employees

It won’t be sensible to expect your employees to continue working productively without taking breaks in between a day at work. In fact, taking breaks is not only important for productivity but also for employees’ well-being.

Employees can’t work continuously for hours, staying super productive and getting done with all their tasks on time. Breaks are necessary for them. It gives them time to relax and rejuvenate, allows them to socialize, also refocus on the tasks at hands. Even a coffee break is reported to improve employee motivation to about 70%. So there is no reason why you shouldn’t let your employees take breaks.

3. Provide Healthy Meal Options

What people eat contributes a lot to their physical and mental health. So if your company provides a cafeteria for employees, make sure it provides a variety of healthy meal options for them. Though healthy food options might cost you more, the investment will be well worth the cost.

Providing employees with healthy food options gives them a chance to stay fit and healthy, in return they continue performing well for your company. On the other hand, if you don’t have a cafeteria, consider providing your employees' meals during the day for the strong effort they are putting in your company’s growth. However, keep in mind to provide them with healthy foods instead of the usual fast food. In addition, you can provide them with discounts and gift cards to health food stores to encourage them to buy healthy meals.

4. Provide them with A Place to Rest and Relax

Quite often companies tend to ignore the importance of relaxing spaces. They think it’s not a necessity but they are wrong. Companies must have a place dedicated for employees where they can relax during their break time and socialize with their colleagues.

Make sure that you set up a good relaxing space that is comfortable and has all the good equipment, such as coffee machines, vending machines, TV, couches, tables and so on.

5. Improve Team Spirit and Feeling of Belonging

An employee doesn’t always work alone to complete his tasks, he needs to work together with his colleagues to complete different projects. It is the reason why team spirit is an important element for a winning company, where the majority of the employees are happy to work together and looking to perform well.

Encourage employees to listen to each other, support each other, and have good relationships with one another. Keep in mind social links are an important part of your employees' life which helps to enhance their teamwork, so it’s necessary to foster an environment that helps promote team spirit and feeling of belonging.

An employee must feel that he is an important part of the company. He must feel his role in your company is a significant one to help it grow and find every success it’s aiming for. That way, not only he wo

6. Promote Health Education

Sometimes all employee needs is a bit of awareness on how to be at their healthiest. With a busy work schedule and a lot of things going inside your mind, finding time to be active and seeking out health advice from professionals just doesn’t seem possible.

Bring in speakers that can provide employees to improve on their health and making them learn to leverage time for their overall well-being, which can turn out to be a lot beneficial for both of you.