Well-being at work

The new year often energizes us to strive for positive change in our lives. If your career is involved in your aspirations, it might be useful to make well-being your priority. The CIPD explains that “an integrated approach to health and well-being can nurture heightened levels of employee engagement, and foster a workforce where people are committed to achieving organisational success”¹.

We asked our own HR team to share their thoughts on different areas of well-being and how to start addressing these in the workplace.

Will Cleare, Head of HR for Europe, first explained that there are three types of well-being: physical, mental and financial. In order to make the biggest impact on well-being, all three must be addressed, because they all overlap. That’s why our latest Wellness Fair invited suppliers who focus on improving mental and physical health, as well as workshops aimed at helping individuals better manage personal financial matters.

The Wellness Fair promotes well-being by offering a range of free sessions to all employees. Last year, these included cycling, massage and advice on pensions. The sessions, ranging from 15–60 minutes in length, give employees an impression of the practical things they can do to improve their well-being. Lucy Rigby-Clarke, HR Administrator, can personally advocate for the benefits, having taken up yoga following our 2017 Fair. 

Whether or not employees choose to follow-up on these activities, the Fair helps raise awareness of the importance of well-being. We asked the team if HR should be responsible for championing well-being at work. The answer from Will was a resounding “yes”. He explained that improved well-being increases employee engagement, enabling employees to better focus on their work and give more discretionary effort. 

We asked if there’s anything people outside the HR team can do to improve well-being at work. Will noted that sharing our own experiences with well-being can help colleagues find something that works for them. 

Activities that improve your well-being can vary from those of your colleagues and this may be related to your personality. To find out more about well-being in the workplace and how this relates to your MBTI personality type, download this report.

[1] CIPD (2016), Growing the health and well-being agenda: From first steps to full potential, accessed January 2, 2019 <https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/health-well-being-agenda_2016-first-steps-full-potential_tcm18-10453.pdf>