FEATURE INSIGHT
Lisa Gillespie, Moorepay’s human resources director, relates her experiences and provides helpful advice Employee wellbeing – simple!
H istorically, much of our health and safety laws have been designed to force the issue of healthy working conditions into the workplace, whereas now a high percentage of employers recognise that employees who are healthy and content are much more engaged and productive. In fact, when you think about it, we have come a long way from the days when many employees contracted life-shortening conditions in work to a society of wellbeing-conscious employers. At a recent event, some of the delegates were surprised to discover that some employers need to keep health surveillance records for over forty years. I have personal experience of the long-term effects of the disregard of employee health back in the 1950s, having seen this later shorten the working life and lead to the premature death of my step-father from asbestos-related illnesses. managing stress, which remains a huge problem in UK workplaces; it is about the understanding of a wide range of factors which contribute to the overall health and wellbeing of employees. Typical wellbeing questionnaires cover the following criteria: ● physical activity ● healthy diet ● long-term health conditions i.e. obesity, prevention of diabetes, cardiovascular disease ● mental wellbeing i.e. resilience/stress awareness ● financial health I am therefore keenly interested in promoting wellbeing awareness to employers. This is not just about
● social health ● community wellbeing. I cannot cover all in this article but instead will focus on the last two which are very interesting concepts that can have a substantial impact on wellbeing. Firstly, social health is about the interaction of people with each other. It goes without saying, nowadays we probably interact with others tenfold compared to the time before smartphones and social media. We also interact simultaneously with multiple people because of technology enablement. As with most things there is an upside and a downside. Any framework which seeks to create a wellbeing strategy within workplaces must include guidance on managing our virtual world and interacting in safe, positive and healthy ways both inside and outside of work. Social health also describes the ability to adapt comfortably and appropriately to different situations. Think about the challenges employees face in different industries, environments and interactions. At a high level, diversity training is part of the overall ‘appropriateness’ factor but there are many other aspects to equipping employees in the context of social health ranging from team-building tactics to corporate social responsibility programmes. Community wellbeing is an interesting concept and a couple of minutes surfing the web will bring up a myriad of definitions. Most apt, I think, is “a combination of social, economic, environmental, cultural, and political conditions identified by individuals and their communities as essential for them to flourish and fulfil their potential” which
I found on the University of Minnesota’s website. It’s Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ on a macro scale, which is really what this is all about.
Communities thrive and flourish because we are all different. Many
research projects have identified a specific gene, the variant known as ‘DRD4-7R’ that is carried by roughly twenty per cent of all humans, which seems to be present in those with tendencies towards curiosity and restlessness. Many of these studies have found that DRD4-7R makes people more likely to take risks and to explore new ideas, places, foods, relationships, experiences and other opportunities. Those with the gene are generally more likely to seek movement, change, and adventure. This is interesting stuff. We are a long way off understanding why we interact, build and develop but it is worth remembering there is science which underpins the fact that we need to be different to survive. My conclusion is therefore that most of us know what we should and should not eat; what is good and bad in our lifestyles; and how our behaviour impacts others. So I follow a very simple philosophy which is really about encouraging people to be healthy, look after themselves and show they care. This goes a long way to promoting social and community wellbeing. If you have not yet read Danny Wallace’s excellent 2004 book Random acts of kindness , I encourage you to do so. It is packed with the simple genius of what we can do to make our world a friendlier, easier place to inhabit. There is advice in it for workplaces, too; such as, “leave a nice note for the cleaners at work”, “make someone feel important”, “take a morning coffee to a busy receptionist” and, of course, my favourite “if you are a boss, send everyone home half an hour early”. n
...Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ on a macro scale...
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | June 2017 | Issue 31 42
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