When leaders take employee wellbeing seriously, it shows their employees that they value them. Moreover, more and more research around the world suggests significant correlations between healthy employees and a healthy, profitable business.
92% of professionals believe it’s important to work for an employer who provides a workplace wellness program. If you aren’t investing enough in healthier employee habits, then you may be seeing a reduction in productivity and morale.
Three Things on the Minds of Keep Business Leaders
What exactly causes lost productivity? With a large and diverse staff, it can be difficult to pin down what is adversely impacting an organisation. Both physical and mental health are important for business productivity. Health challenges, team challenges, and an unhealthy business culture can all contribute to a negative dynamic.
Health Challenges
Absenteeism and presenteeism are both driven by employee health challenges. Absenteeism is obvious: calling out excessively. Presenteeism is less so: being present but unproductive.
When your employees aren’t healthy enough to attend, it sends everyone else scrambling.
But what causes these health issues? It’s a variety of problems, but it can be addressed through better wellness initiatives. Many employees deal with chronic diseases, and overworked employees are more likely to experience problems such as exhaustion and fatigue.
Work-related stress will eventually lead to anxiety and depression, and mental health issues can be just as damaging to productivity as physical health issues.
Team Challenges
Employees are less likely to be present and productive when they have no team identity or when they find themselves struggling to make decisions as a team. When team communication is difficult or there are internal conflicts to deal with, employees feel less eager to participate.
Employees don’t leave a business; they leave a manager: studies have shown that employees who exit out often do so because they have a poor relationship with their direct superiors.
Unhealthy Culture
When a business has an unhealthy culture, employees will feel unmotivated and uncooperative. They will avoid taking responsibilities and initiative. They may feel socially stressed and experience a lack of empathy for other employees and clients.
Unhealthy culture has often been attributed to high stress in fields such as the medical industry, in which doctors and nurses burn out despite being motivated, capable individuals.
But how does an organisation identify an unhealthy work culture? Generally through the satisfaction and happiness of their employees. When a business notices a downturn in employee satisfaction, productivity, and attendance, there’s generally an answer.
Improving Organisational Culture through Physical and Social Activities
Prioritising employee health can improve an organisation’s culture in many ways. Not only will employees be naturally healthier and happier, but they will also see that the organisation is putting their health at a priority.
Healthy, inspired employees are able to work closely and empathetically together, encouraging team-building.
Introducing the 10,000 Steps Program
Around 23% of adults are not physically active enough. Being physically active reduces physical and mental health risks, making employees less likely to get sick while simultaneously boosting their mood.
The 10,000 Steps Program is aimed at strengthening employee health and social connections, having employees work together to achieve measurable, gamified fitness goals. Through an engaging and creative, themed experience, employees are motivated to increase their levels of healthy activity.
Work cultures that put employee health and fitness a priority are naturally more productive, and creativity and innovation can increase by up to 72%.
What Makes the 10,000 Steps Program Highly Successful?
The 10,000 Steps Program goes beyond other fitness programs. Through the addition of advanced technological solutions, the entire process is more transparent, engaging, and entertaining.
Integration with wearables, advanced mapping, themed installations, and advanced team management features makes it easier for the 10,000 Steps Program to engage employees and get them involved.
The key to a successful fitness and health program is to make employees truly enjoy the process. With a competitive, creative environment, employees will be more likely to drive themselves towards success.
The 10,000 Steps Program: The Process
In teams, employees track their daily step totals in an attempt to conquer the virtual challenge map. The program can be customised to the business and the employees. The aim is to achieve 10,000 steps each day of the challenge.
Employees can enter their steps manually on the challenge website or connect a Bluetooth device to sync their steps wirelessly. At the end of the challenge, the teams that did the best will get prizes. Employers are able to provide prizes that best suit their employees.
Healthy People, Healthy Profits
Improving employee engagement gets great business results. In fact, employee wellbeing leads directly to better ROI: with every dollar spent on a wellbeing program, a business can save $2.73 and reduce absenteeism.
Happy, productive employees are going to seek out opportunities to improve themselves, as well as being innovative and creative in terms of the organisation’s own processes and potential for improvement.
Many successful organisations have found that investing in people creates the best opportunities for their business. Loyal, driven employees are able to improve all levels of an organisation’s activity, protecting the organisation from the high costs of apathy and churn. Healthier organisations are likewise able to acquire and retain the most talented employees.
Step Up: Take the 10,000 Steps Challenge
So don’t delay. You can start curbing your employees’ unhealthy habits today with the 10,000 Steps Challenge. By getting your employees up and moving, you can encourage them to make healthier decisions overall. You can even integrate the step challenge with our workplace wellbeing program called Vitality Hub.
As employees start becoming more conscientious about their health, other healthy habits will follow. Eating right, getting enough sleep, and being more active will make employees feel motivated and productive at work, leading to a significant increase in the organisation’s bottom line.