1 in 4 employees say their workplace offers no wellness programs

There appears to be a disconnect between employers promoting their wellness programs and staff actually taking them up on the offer.

According to research by Winc, one in four Australian workers say their workplace offers no wellness programs or support related to wellbeing.

Speaking on a recent HR Leader webcast, in partnership with Flare and Winc, Carl Buik, director of Bulk Health, said organisations are in a unique position to promote their wellbeing benefits more effectively.

Mr Buik, who has worked with Winc on its latest work in exploring wellbeing in the workplace, says in addition to the one in four finding, the research also found three in four workers think there’s more room for their organisation to improve the ways they support wellness of their people.

“What's interesting with these insights is that when I work with organisations who are seeking to enhance how they look after health and wellbeing, I frequently find that a lot of them have tools already available and support already available for their people, but they really let themselves down in how they communicate about it,” Mr Buik said.

“In fact, many times I've worked with an organisation where we've done a bit of a health and wellbeing audit to have a look and see what support is provided and available within the organisation, the HR leaders themselves are often surprised at what they already have available within their organisation.

“So, the message here is that while there may be new solutions and different things to look out there to better support your people, it's also worth just considering taking stock of what do you have and look at how are you communicating that and how are you implementing your support offerings to better reach your people”

According to the Winc research, 37 per cent of workers are aware of their organisation instilling mental health programs – or employee assistance programs (EAPs). However, the figure should be much higher, flagged Mr Buik.

“We know that the number of workplaces that have an EAP program, for example, is much higher than 37 per cent. So, again, it's not that the services aren't necessarily available all the time, but how it's communicated and how people are made aware of this,” he explained.

“While an EAP might not be the only solutions needed for a mental health and wellbeing program, if it is a benefit or a service that you've got in place, it's not effective if it's not communicated and people aren't aware of it.”

So, how can leaders be better about promoting their wellness programmes?

Mr Buik shared his 6-stage approach:

1. Prioritise workplace wellbeing with your exec and leadership teams
2. Assess your organisations’ ‘wellbeing experience’ with a data-led approach
3. Design a strategy to guide your success
4. Deliver your wellbeing action plan and collaborate with stakeholders
5. Evaluate your strategy and output
6. Evolve the strategy and plan to adapt to emerging needs and opportunities

“What you don't measure, you can't manage,” Mr Buik said.

“Wellbeing strategies have often been developed without evidence, but time and time again I've witnessed that the most effective strategies are developed with data. So this is through collaboration with your workers, whether that be through surveys or focus groups or even interviewing your execs for their perspective on different needs.

“But also, don't forget, workplaces are sitting on a big bank of data. It's not necessarily always about collecting new data because that can take a bit of effort, but having a look at your safety data, injury data, absence records, your EAP data; sometimes that can be a really easy start rather than having to collect new information.”

To view a play-back of the webcast featuring Mr Buik, click here.