How to Create a Lasting (And Effective) Wellness Culture in Your Company

It is as important to evaluate the work environment—which are the employees' perceptions on a day-to-day basis—as well as the company culture

Company employees gather together around a laptop. Pexels

By Rodolfo Oviedo

One of the most recurrent concerns on the part of companies and their collaborators is to identify what actions or initiatives are able to generate a culture of well-being, which is already recognized as a trigger for commitment, innovation, and the generation of value.

It is as important to evaluate the work environment—which are the perceptions of the collaborators on a day-to-day basis—and the culture of the company, because when there are gaps between the two it is a sign of a “theoretical” work culture that is not really being implemented. the practice.

The different perceptions of what each leader or manager has about well-being—including their own—should be reviewed, since according to Gympass data, 50 percent of employees consider that the stress of leaders makes them harmful or ineffective at work.

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A Bank of America report on employment benefits for 2020 was among the first to detect these changes, since by asking employees what contributes the most to their work productivity, mental well-being outweighs physical and financial health.

We are facing an environment where it is important to evaluate an integral well-being and identify those integrating elements that are transmitted efficiently throughout the organization to avoid remaining only on the surface of speech or good intentions. The teams will not remember the words and they will remember the actions. If there is disagreement, it will have a direct impact on mistrust and a decrease in commitment or a sense of belonging.

Some questions that serve for this reflection are:

• Do we have clear actions to benefit the well-being of our collaborators? What are they?
• Do we have effective tools to detect early and avoid burnout in all areas and at all levels of the company?
• Have we clearly communicated if employees have access to platforms or tools that help their overall well-being?
• Do we promote the use of wellness platforms or tools with a comprehensive approach (physical exercise, emotional health, financial health)?

These questions are a trigger for answers that may surprise us due to the diversity of approaches around a priority issue for companies and high-performance teams, with the interest of attracting and retaining talent, as well as strengthening long-term differentiators.

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Postponing this issue on the business agenda will represent a lost opportunity and financial cost. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), work stress could imply—in economies—economic losses ranging from 0.5 percent to 3.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.