The Benefex Wellbeing Progress Index
Nearly one in five organisations are still focused primarily on health and safety and compliance when it comes to wellbeing. Now it’s time to go beyond the basics of pension and sick pay and look to how you can offer your people broader health and wellbeing support. And that starts with a wellbeing strategy.
It’s time to get to the next level and move through a foundational stage of initiatives like gym membership and employee assistance programmes, towards a culture of wellbeing with a longer-term focus on preventative measures covering discrete areas of wellbeing such as nutrition, sleep, financial wellbeing, and mental health.
More organisations sit in the Foundational level of wellbeing maturity than in any other category. Reward leaders who report being at this stage have wellbeing initiatives in place such as gym membership and employee assistance programmes.
The challenge ahead is how to get onto the front foot and achieve a more preventative and holistic approach. What do you need to do to get to the next level and move towards a culture of wellbeing with a longer-term focus on preventative measures?
At this level you’ve put yourself ahead of 64% of your peers by implementing programmes - with a long-term focus on preventative measures covering discrete areas of wellbeing such as nutrition, sleep, financial wellbeing, and mental health.
So, what’s next? What do you need to do to get to the next level and create a culture of wellbeing where employees are encouraged to prioritise their own wellbeing and self-care. Key features of this includes relevant employee benefits and a well communicated programme of wellbeing and recognition. Take a look at our report, What do employees want from your employee recognition now?
This is where employees are encouraged to prioritise their personal wellbeing and a strong culture of wellbeing is reinforced by line managers, policies and internal communications.
By nurturing a culture of wellbeing, these top 12% of organisations have successfully created an environment where employees are encouraged to prioritise their own wellbeing and self-care. This is supported through relevant employee benefits and a well communicated programme of wellbeing and recognition, which is championed throughout the business by line managers.
So, what’s next? Recognition is seen as a critical tool for enhancing employee wellbeing. Employees that are receiving regular and real-time feedback feel more engaged, appreciated and supported in their work. And yet, our research found that only 13% of HR and reward leaders report that their organisation has a culture of recognition in place. Take a look at The Employee Recognition Manual to learn more.
One of the major difficulties that employers are facing with wellbeing is around measuring the impact that their initiatives and investments are delivering. They don’t have the tools, data and insight they need to measure the effectiveness of their wellbeing efforts.
Currently, only 47% of organisations are using benefits data to assess the impact of benefits on employee wellbeing. This means that the majority of employers are still in the dark about how benefits are supporting all aspects of wellbeing. Similarly, only half (55%) of employers are able to measure their total spend on benefits and assess the impact of spend on employee engagement and wellbeing; and as few as 15% of organisations can do this in real-time.
Evidently, there is an urgent need for employers to address this situation. As investment in wellbeing initiatives continues to rise, HR and Reward professionals will face growing scrutiny to demonstrate the impact that their programmes are delivering, not just in terms of wellbeing itself, but the knock-on effects on employee engagement, productivity and retention.
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