Companies aren’t only competing for customers and clients, they are competing for the gold-standard players in the labor market as well. The terms company culture, employee well-being and work-life balance populate most job postings today, as employers hope these perks will draw top talent. But are employers truly investing in employees?
Not all perks are created equal. In fact, most employers tend to focus on offering surface-level perks – perks that might look flashy and exciting but don’t provide much value to employees. Ping-pong tables and pizza lunches are enjoyable, but they don’t compare to a long-term plan to actually invest in employee well-being. Create a company culture that supports growth and well-being, and turn your employees into raving fans.
Benefits of investing in employees
Companies like Google, Microsoft, HubSpot and Zappos have long been known for investing in employees. They realize that making employee well-being a part of their company culture has numerous benefits that make it worth the initial cost.
- Strong company culture. You can’t have a strong company culture without well-balanced and healthy employees. If the individuals who make up your team are not operating at their peak, your team as a whole never will either.
- Higher productivity. Multiple studies indicate that happy, healthy and engaged employees are more productive and reduce costs in a company. Employees with more positive experiences at work were “much more likely to report significantly higher levels of discretionary effort,” according to the Employee Experience Index, the workplace quality measuring tool developed by IBM and Globoforce.
- Better employee retention. Additionally, 33% of employees said poor well-being had been a factor in leaving a job, as revealed by research by PwC, a consulting and professional services network. According to the same study, 24% of employers say that employee turnover is the #1 challenge to their people strategy. Improve employee retention and avoid costs down the line by investing in employees.
Investing in employee well-being means indirectly investing in your company’s productivity which could lead to big returns down the line. Neglecting to support employee well-being could mean losing employees – especially strong employees who may expect more from their workplace, knowing that they could likely find it elsewhere. This then translates to time, money and resources lost in the effort of hiring new employees and training them.
How to improve employee well-being
Many employers mistakenly believe that investing in their company culture and employee well-being means providing a kitchen stocked with snacks and a foosball table. And while these things are nice to have, they are nearly meaningless if you’re not investing in employees with more substantial cultural support measures.
1. Focus on growth
What will truly improve employee well-being is to invest in their growth and development, inside and outside of the workplace. Growth is one of our Six Human Needs and is essential to living a fulfilled life. It’s also becoming an in-demand workplace attribute: 87% of millennials rate “professional or career growth and development opportunities” as important to them in a job. When you provide opportunities for growth, you show your employees that you care about them beyond the duties of their job.
“Progress equals happiness.” – Tony Robbins
2. Host events
In order to create an environment focused on progress and development, consider providing ongoing professional training. In today’s remote-work world, online events like a lunch-and-learn session with a financial consultant or an internal expert are a great way to invest in employee well-being while also providing a bonding experience. You can also pay for online courses or send employees to digital conferences that give them a chance to expand their networks and establish themselves as industry insiders, and even as experts.
3. Encourage self-care
Encouraging employees to focus on self-care is one of the easiest ways to invest in employee well-being. Add guidelines to your employee handbook and create policies for flexible or unlimited time off. You can even provide free yoga classes once a week where employees can learn strategies to destress and refocus. Google offers free haircuts, discounts on massages and paid parental leave among many other wellness benefits. Make employee well-being part of your company values – then make sure you live it every day.
4. Create a flexible working environment
Work-life balance has always been important, but it is even more so today. Many employees are working from home – and their spouses and children are at home too. In the modern world, investing in employees often means understanding their situation and allowing them flexibility in their schedules. Google was the first major company to extend its work-from-home policies during the pandemic, and is already planning to make many of its positions permanently remote or a combination of remote and in-person.
5. Get employee feedback
How do you determine the best ways to invest in employee well-being? Just ask. Before it created its new policies, Google conducted an internal survey to ask employees how they felt about remote work. Then it acted on the results to give employees what they want. You don’t have to be a tech giant to benefit from employee feedback – even small business owners can use free online tools to conduct surveys.
Start to implement your company wellness program today with help from the Tony Robbins team. Schedule a session with one of Tony’s top trainers who will lead your employees through team-building and goal setting exercises to jump-start your journey to an unshakable company culture.