The Importance of Fostering Healthy Organizations
If you’re concerned about improving employee productivity and keeping your company competitive, it’s time to consider how you can develop a healthier organization today. When you look after your workers, they’ll be more engaged in the process of looking after your business.
This article explores the impact and framework of fostering healthy organizations, with suggestions and strategies for you to implement today.
Impact of a Healthy Workplace on Employee Well-being
A healthy workplace affects employee productivity and is crucial for the overall success of your business. Polling organization Gallup explains that the five elements of employee well-being are:
- Liking your career so you are more motivated to achieve goals
- Physical health to enable you to carry out your work tasks
- Having a sense of community so you like where you reside
- Social connections with supportive relationships
- Financial stability for reduced stress and better security
Regarding worker well-being, Gallup indicates that when employees thrive in all five elements of well-being, they are twice as likely to report they adapt well to change, which is an essential characteristic of companies that need to be agile and responsive to market conditions.
Some 81% of them will be less likely to look for a new job during the next year, 41% of them will be less likely to call in sick and about 27% of were less inclined to switch jobs during the previous year. This means that striving for a healthy workplace will naturally boost productivity and the success of your company, as employees feel their well-being has improved.
Gallup noted that when workers feel that their employers care about well-being, 71% are less likely to report feeling burned out, and 69% will be less inclined to find a new job. They are three times more likely to be engaged with their work.
If you’re concerned about finding new workers as your company grows in size or scope, keep in mind that employees are five times more likely to recommend your company to others to work at, when they think management is paying attention to their well-being.
It’s also worth noting that workers who find their organization to be healthy are more engaged with customers, more productive, and contribute more to the bottom line. Meanwhile, leaders who promote a healthy environment discover that their organizations experience fewer safety incidents.
Practical Framework of Strategies for Maintaining a Thriving Organizational Structure
The top concerns of employees include:
- Work in an organization that provides accessibility and equity for each worker
- Focus on human-centered leadership where managers take the time to ask about their well-being and mental health
- Emphasize open communication between leadership and workers
- Provide expanded coaching services to workers
- Offer equitable and fair compensation to everyone
- Ensure workers have a chance to grow and progress in their career
When you address these concerns, you’ll be well on your way to a framework for maintaining a thriving organizational structure where workers and managers are on the same page.
To that end, consider that Microsoft asked workers about productivity and compared the data to what their leaders perceived about how productive their teams were, they found that 87% of workers reported they were productive.
But only 12% of management were of the same opinion about their employees’ productivity, reports Entrepreneur magazine. The disparity in how workers and leaders viewed their productivity is worsened when you factor in companies that mandate their employees return to the office instead of working from home, which became more popular during the global coronavirus pandemic.
As a result, workers typically felt that company owners were rewriting the terms of their employment, eroding trust. Indeed, just 3% of employees working in low-performance organizations report that they trust senior management. Making matters worse, with less trust, approximately 64% of workers said they felt they were being micromanaged, which had a negative effect on their mental health.
But at the same time, about 54% of C-suite leaders say they do not think they should offer mental health benefits, according to Entrepreneur. It explained that globally, 70% of people struggle with their mental health to the tune of $1 trillion in lost productivity in the global economy due to employees’ depression and anxiety.
It might be time to rethink your approach to mental health benefits to improve the overall health of your organization and retain workers. Otherwise, as more workers quit, you’ll have to devote increasingly higher amounts of time and other resources to recruit, onboard and train the replacements, which impacts morale as well as your bottom line.
Strategies to make your organization healthier
Research which factors will best promote a healthy workplace from top to bottom. This includes fair compensation, enhanced trust between workers and leaders and availability of mental health resources and access to healthy lifestyle programs. Make a point of promoting open communication between management and workers.
Partner with a professional employer organization
Companies that need assistance in creating and maintaining a healthy organization often find it beneficial to outsource human resource services that can provide HR services and technology to support better organizational health, so they can focus on their core business strengths and goals.
Reduce overtime
You want to promote a healthy work-life balance to keep workers from feeling burned out, which may motivate them to seek employment elsewhere.
Rely on objective key performance indicators
As you identify and then track KPIs, you’ll measure how effective your initiatives are in promoting a healthy organization, with regular feedback to help adjust your strategies as needed.
Improving Your Organization’s Health Helps Prevent Worker Burnout
To support your goal to improve productivity while avoiding worker burnout, it’s crucial to take steps to foster and maintain a healthy organization.
Employees will thrive when they see they are being compensated fairly, have a clear path to grow in their career, and feel that they enjoy open communication with leaders. When they feel better about their position in the organization, they’ll be more inclined to stay on the job, as well as recommend friends, family and colleagues to working there too.
⸻ Author Bio ⸻
Ben Bishop is the Director of Digital Marketing at Insperity, an HR solutions provider. He has more than 15 years of experience within the industry and focuses on reaching the right people and providing them with the best HR services.
