5 ways to support employee wellness in 2024

Any successful small-to-medium business (SMB) leader understands that having the right employees is critical. 

And since your people are the most crucial asset in your company, maintaining their wellness benefits employees and lead to a productive and engaged workforce.  

Ignoring employee wellness is one of the biggest mistakes organisations make. It’s why 70% of HR leaders agree that employee well-being is on the agenda of their senior leadership team.

But what do we mean by wellness? 

Employee wellness is about how their life is going. It includes all the important things about how people experience life–from physical and emotional health to social, occupational, and environmental health.

That said, employee wellness data is quite bleak. A study by Gallup shows just a third of employees are thriving in their health and well-being. Even more, employee stress levels are at a new all-time high. 

Learn five ways to support employee wellness here. Help your people feel fulfilled with their work and personal life.

5 ways to support employee wellness

Since 91% of organisations say that there is a link between work and the wellness of employees, making sure you give the proper support at the right time is essential for maintaining a healthy workforce.

When your employees feel their best, they perform their job well. Workers are engaged, less likely to feel burnt out, and less stressed. 

Naturally, this starts with effective organisational strategies. Let’s look at the five ways every manager or business owner can support employee wellness in 2024.

1. Develop a well-being strategy

Any successful change starts with a clear strategy. A well-thought-out strategy gives employees direction about the who, what, why, and when. So, implementing change without a clear plan is like putting chlorine in one half of a swimming pool–unproductive and ineffective!

A well-being strategy focuses on your workforce's financial, physical, social, and emotional well-being. It should consider instant help and longer-term protective measures to help employees thrive at work, like making sure staff are responsible for reporting stress and ill health to management as early as possible.

Your strategy should also explain how employees can access help, who to go to for help, and advice on timescales. 

Empower your employees to share their ideas and opinions to create a happier and healthier workplace. Develop a well-being strategy for your business and safeguard employees’ health and well-being. Ensure everyone knows how to access wellness support when needed–reducing delay by minimising the risk of escalating difficulties.

2. Role model healthy boundaries

Employee wellness starts with you. Role modelling healthy boundaries and making conscious decisions motivates and inspires others to follow.

A word of warning. Healthy boundaries mean different things to different people. Personality, personal circumstances, and culture can challenge role modelling healthy boundaries. The demands of work should not affect home life. 

Let’s say a team member wants to stay late to finish a project. Role model good practice by explaining how overworking can harm their health and agreeing to a later deadline.

Inspire your people to set healthy boundaries for themselves by:

• Saying no to anything you feel is inappropriate. Answering phone calls or replying to emails late evening doesn’t role model healthy work patterns to employees. Set high standards for maintaining wellness by saying no to unhealthy work practices.

• Expressing your feelings responsibly. Uncaring or uninspiring leaders are among the top three reasons people leave their jobs. Use positive language to overcome issues at work. Phrases like “let me find out more” rather than “I can’t do that” are friendly and supportive ways to share your thoughts without being counterproductive.

• Being open and transparent. Make your expectations clear rather than assume people will figure them out themselves. Role model open communication and encourage collaboration amongst team members by empowering them to share their feelings without fear of reprisal.

• Owning up to mistakes. One in three people doesn’t trust their employer. Given that everyone makes mistakes, address problems directly with the person involved rather than with a third party to build trust. Maintain confidentiality and build trust amongst employees by admitting when you’re wrong. 

3. Tailor wellness support to individual needs

Offering every employee support based on individual needs can be costly and unrealistic. Nonetheless, there are ways to tailor support to help your employees improve their health and well-being.

The after-effects of the pandemic, increase in the cost of living, and poor health are three factors contributing to employee wellness in 2024.

As challenges affect every employee differently, creating practical wellness support is essential to target issues that employees want. And the only way to develop effective employee wellness strategies is through a data-driven approach. It’s why business leaders say making data-driven decisions is one of their top HR trends for 2024.

Comprehensive HR metrics and analytics will give you real-time insights into employee performance, absenteeism, and turnover–allowing you to offer tailored wellness support based on facts. 

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Create bespoke support for each employee with a range of well-being strategies. Older employees, for example, may need help with retirement planning–allowing them to make the right decisions about their future. Equally, team members returning to work following a period of ill health may require access to counselling support.

Make sure your employees' wellness support is flexible and responsive to meet the needs of your workforce with robust HR reporting tools.

4. Allocate dedicated time to check in with workers

Worryingly, a recent survey by CIPD showed 79% of HR leaders reporting some stress-related absence in their organisation over the last year. And that figure rises to 90% in larger organisations with more than 250 workers.

So how can you identify stress in your workforce? And more importantly, how do you make sure you can find time to tackle issues affecting employee wellness?

One way is to allocate dedicated time to check in with employees. Employee check-ins can be informal and formal discussions. Informal conversations are often spontaneous and occur at the water cooler or over lunch.

Whereas formal check-ins are usually planned. Conversations happen through scheduled meetings, such as performance reviews and one-to-one meetings, or by using technology like Slack or email.

Find out how your employees feel with a cloud-based HR software solution like Appogee HR Success. Arrange employee meetings seamlessly with time and attendance tracking and show your team you invest in technology to support their health and well-being.

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5. Set clear employee goals and expectations

When was the last time someone asked you to do something, and you needed clarification about what they asked?

Unclear communication can make you question your own decisions and feel inadequate. Feeling inadequate can make employees feel insecure and hostile toward their peers and management–causing staff to shut down and affecting productivity.

Let’s put that into practice and say a team member has identified a goal to improve their time management skills. Without clarity around the purpose, expectations, and a realistic method of enhancing their skills, progress can drift, and results cannot be measured successfully.

Set your employees up for success with goal management software. Empower team members to set their targets while making sure targets align with company strategy. Help employees stay on track and measure their progress–increasing employee engagement and giving them a sense of accomplishment.

How Appogee HR Success can support employee wellness for your organisation

There’s no doubt supporting employee wellness creates a healthy working environment and improves the quality of working lives for all.

Promoting a culture of well-being doesn’t need to be complicated. Here are three ways Appogee HR can help you create a well-being strategy and support your people to thrive.

1. Monitor employee absence and sickness types with online sickness management software. Find out whether individual employees or whole teams have patterns of sickness that can be reduced by changing working patterns or access to specialised support, like physiotherapy or financial help.
2. Track employee workloads and ensure team members aren’t overloaded with work tasks. Time and attendance tracking features will give you a complete picture of employee working hours–making sure they meet their contractual arrangements.
3. Signpost employees to available help and support. A secure document management tool can store all company policies and important documents, such as your well-being strategy and referral forms for accessing support.

But don’t our word for it! 

Environmental technology company SEM Energy implemented Appogee HR Success, so employees can manage their leave allowances and make informed decisions about planning holidays.

Since looking forward to a holiday can boost employee happiness, Vicky Madigan, HR & Business Coordinator, says, “The fact that our staff can update their details and see their leave information has reduced the number of queries from employees and managers alike.”

Invest in your employee’s wellness

Whether you want to invest in a culture of employee well-being or just make some small steps to improve the support you already have, the five steps listed here are critical for maintaining a healthy and engaged workforce. 

Want to learn how Appogee HR can help your organisation support employee wellness? Start your 14-day free trial or book a demo with a member of our team HR Transformation team.