Employee wellbeing: the industry’s most overlooked staff retention tool
Victoria Brocklesby, COO and co-founder at Origin, explores why employee wellbeing is crucial for keeping staff loyal and engaged and offers her advice for fostering a company culture that prioritises everyone’s health and fulfilment.
Clearly, looking after the mental and physical health of your staff is the right thing to do morally. However, prioritising a culture of wellbeing also offers a host of additional benefits for your business.
With staff shortages continuing to put unprecedented strain on the construction and manufacturing sectors, retaining existing employees is crucial to success. Whilst offering a competitive salary remains important, prioritising employee wellbeing is the single most powerful tool for boosting staff retention.
If your employees are genuinely looked after, happy, and engaged at work, they are far less likely to consider leaving to work for another business. In fact, research by Gallup found that employees who strongly agree that their employer cares about their overall wellbeing are 69% less likely to actively search for a new job.
What’s more, healthy and happy employees are more productive, which will have a direct impact on your profits. Gallup’s research shows that employees who are well looked after are 71% less likely to experience burnout and three times more engaged at work. They will also be safer, minimising the number of incidents and preventable sick days.
Reducing staff churn will also save your business money in recruitment. According to a report by the Society for Human Resource Management, the average cost per hire in the UK is an estimated £3,000. When you consider the employee turnover rate in the UK construction industry is around 20%, this is a huge cost to many businesses.
Putting your people first also pays dividends when it comes to growing your business. Investors are increasingly looking to work only with companies that genuinely prioritise employee wellbeing.
Likewise, many businesses looking for suppliers or trade partners are committed to partnering with firms that operate ethically in all spheres, including how they treat their staff.
How to prioritise wellbeing
So, how do you prioritise staff wellbeing alongside the day-to-day pressures of running a business? At Origin, we believe there’s more to staff wellbeing than offering free fruit or subsidised gym membership, it’s about their entire experience at work. We break our employee care activity into four categories:
- Culture
A positive company culture is essential to employees’ wellbeing. Whilst Origin might be best known for quality to the outside world, internally, culture is our biggest priority.
As a family business, fostering a close-knit community and a sense of belonging has always been key to our success, and we’ve worked hard to ensure this doesn’t change, even as we’ve grown. Whilst we are now regarded as a ‘large company’, we have made sure to retain the family business feel, prioritising our company values of care, trust, and respect. This culture feeds into every aspect of our business and underpins all our other wellbeing initiatives and processes.
- Benefits
Benefits can play an important role in supporting your employees’ wellbeing. But it’s important to remember there is no one-size-fits-all approach. For a benefits strategy to be effective, it must have the interests of your employees at its core.
For instance, there’s no point investing in a cycle-to-work scheme if your employees are all based remotely, or continuing to pay for Friday yoga sessions if there is no take up from the employees themselves. Benefits should cater for your employees’ needs and recognise that everyone is different, with different priorities.
This is the approach we take at Origin. Up until a few years ago, we offered our employees a gym membership package. However, uptake amongst staff was low, and we realised it wasn’t adding value to many of our employees. So, we went back to the drawing board.
After a consultation process, we settled on a cash plan scheme. This takes a more holistic approach to employee wellbeing, by offering gym memberships alongside subsidised healthcare, 24/7 virtual GP appointments, mental health support, and retail discounts.
The package is far more meaningful and benefits everyone, regardless of their interests and hobbies. We’ve also extended the packages to our employees’ families as, by extension, they are also a member of the Origin family.
- Continuous learning
Offering regular training to all employees, regardless of their experience and seniority, not only helps to continually upskill your workforce, but it also goes a long way in motivating employees,
demonstrating that the business genuinely values them and is investing in their development. At Origin, we have recently invested in a new learning management system that allows our employees to complete courses related to their job role and broaden their knowledge in other subject areas, such as mental health.
- Communication
It’s also crucial to demonstrate to your staff that their views are valued. At Origin, we hold regular town hall-style meetings for all employees. During these sessions, staff are able to ask senior members of the company questions, give feedback, and make suggestions. Everyone is listened to, with every idea and concept given fair consideration.
Conclusion
There are an infinite number of ways to ensure you’re looking after your staff’s mental and physical wellbeing at work, and the right approach will depend entirely on your business.
What’s crucial is that the initiatives you do implement are meaningful and designed to genuinely benefit your employees. Those businesses that do this successfully will not only benefit from improved employee retention, but also a happy, healthy, productive, and motivated workforce.
