Well-Being: A Strategic Approach
Human Resource professional are spending more time considering the concept of well-being. In fact, much is being written about it as an essential tool for considering how best to support the workforce.
One such article in HR Magazine/UK written by a Business School Professor from Leeds Univ. successfully outlines why this is important to organizations. The author says, “A strategic approach to well-being starts with the overall goals of the organization and an examination of the extent to which existing and proposed well-being initiatives can support the goals.”
His emphasis is on stress, health and employee wellness.
However, I believe it is important that a first step for an organization to develop a strategic approach to well-being must include an internal conversation about what well-being is for our people. Certainly this can include physical and mental health, but it must also include those aspects of life that create personal energy and engagement. Employee well-being includes positive outcomes with their families, careers, financial stability, and spiritual expression (to name a few).
Once this internal conversation has taken place, HR can then audit if/how current workforce support efforts of the organization are coordinated and measured against these broad areas and assess the current relevancy to the employee population:
- Are dependent care supports accessible and making it easier for employees be focused at work?
- Do current flexible work arrangements foster employee work preferences and team work?
- How do retirement benefits, 401-K and other financial supports meet the current economic realities of the employees and their families?
- Does management discuss career aspirations regularly with employees?
To do so is to truly address the well-being of employees and the business overall.
________________________________________________________________
Click here to learn more about the Horizons Workforce Consulting Workforce Well-Being Study, including our process for holding successful internal conversations about well-being and designing effective strategies,
Other posts by Andrea Wicks Bowles
No comments
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Add a comment
No Comments
No comments yet.