Derval O'Rourke: Workplace wellbeing is a buzzword — here are steps employers should take

In a time of blurred boundaries in a post-pandemic world, employers have a responsibility to prioritise employees wellbeing, Derval O'Rourke writes

'If employers can get that workplace wellbeing
dynamic right, they’ll be saving resources and
benefiting lives.'

Never has the world of work changed so drastically in such a short period of time as we’ve seen within the past three years.

Thinking back to just before covid hit our shores and upended all our lives, just 7% of the Irish workforce reported doing any work from home.

Now, one in three of us work from home at least one day a week, according to the latest Census figures.

But while blended working and working from home have brought benefits, they have also brought challenges, not least in the area of health, wellbeing, and fitness.

The trend towards a blurring of the boundaries between work and home that came with covid fascinated me but also gave me concern: people initially felt like they had to be “always on,” and of course there was all that extra screen time, with impacts on everything from eye health to posture to fitness levels.

But I think those blurred boundaries ultimately made people feel like they had to get better at managing their wellbeing within their working lives, because they were working so often and work had become such a big part of their lives.

I started working in the wellbeing space when I retired from athletics, and 10 years ago, it felt like wellbeing itself was just becoming a wider discussion in Ireland.

I came from a world of professional sport, where the wellbeing of sportspeople was massively important because it could impact on performance, but the wellbeing of friends of mine who were not in sport didn’t seem to be too much of a consideration in their workplaces.

Fast forward 10 years, and ‘workplace wellbeing’ has become a big buzzword.

There’s a mounting expectation that workplaces and employers share in the responsibility for their workers’ wellbeing, leading to a whole new wave of workplace wellbeing offers. I launched my own health and wellbeing offering called SAOL in November alongside my business partner Greg O’Gorman, which offers employers and employees live classes and access to expert coaches and workshops on issues such as mental health, financial wellbeing, and stress management.

In fact, 76% of employers agree that they have responsibility to support employee mental health in the workplace, according to the Healthy Workplace Ireland Report. So there’s an onus on employers to ensure workplaces are somewhere that the mental and physical health of their employees is going to be considered.

I think the vast majority of employers now recognise that making an effort to support employee wellbeing is going to have a positive impact on their work performance, employee retention, and absenteeism rates.

However, only 20% of workplaces report setting aside any budget for wellbeing initiatives even though they ultimately can work out to be a money-saver for businesses. Alcohol-related absenteeism alone costs the Irish economy €195m annually, for example.

The Healthy Ireland at Work national framework for healthy workplaces 2021–2025 is a clear indicator that the government is also taking workplace wellbeing seriously.

Not only does it promote wellbeing within working hours, but also recognises that habits and norms established in a work environment can create knock-on impacts in other areas of life.

“It is widely acknowledged at international level that the workplace is an ideal setting to promote employee health and wellbeing, providing multiple benefits to employees and employers, as well as broader social and economic gains,” Public Health Minister Frank Feighan wrote in his introduction to the national framework.

People spend a large proportion of their lives in work.

It’s time to recognise that we can’t switch off who we are and how we are feeling for that time, and there is a crossover between wellbeing in the workplace and wellbeing at home. All of us deserve to feel well and to be healthy and happy and work has become a really important driver of that.

The Healthy Ireland at Work framework sets out a vision where wellbeing is valued and supported at every level in society.

It sets out several important key principles to engage and empower employees, and, vitally, recognises that there is no health without mental health, which often gets overlooked in favour of initiatives that prioritise fitness, nutrition and other more tangible areas of wellbeing.

At SAOL, we consider the pillars of wellbeing to be fitness, nutrition, mindfulness, financial wellbeing, career guidance, mental wellbeing and work-life balance.

For employers, I think there are three main considerations in how to integrate these pillars of wellbeing into their workplaces.

The first is time. As an employer, how much time do you have to devote to different initiatives?

What are the quick wins that could be making a big difference to people without using up too much of that vital resource of time?

The second consideration is expertise. Whatever you are doing, is it expert-led? I would argue that that really adds value for people, while also ensuring that the guidance and advice is safe and effective.

The third is community: people want to feel part of a community and to feel connected, and isolation is a big risk factor to wellbeing. So if you can do something that transforms a workplace into more of a work community, that is going to massively improve workplace wellbeing.

If employers can get that workplace wellbeing dynamic right, they’ll be saving resources and benefiting lives. Let’s make 2024 the year of workplace wellbeing.