Fix the ‘E’ in your employee wellbeing Program
This pandemic has fixed an “E” with every aspect of the personal and professional lives of employees. The shifts of the traditional form of working to virtual have created some unconventional changes in the physical and mental health of employees. Driving the motivation and enthusiasm among employees to be healthy physically and mentally is what the organizations are prioritizing these days. The traditional forms of motivation, which include recognition mail, motivational quotes, wall of fame, and rewards, are losing their charm. The increased uncertainty, flexibility at work, virtual team management and the ever-changing environment demand certain initiations by the organization such as motivation by doing or experiencing verbal communications, the organizations are now clubbing such wellness initiations under the umbrella of “Employee Wellness Programmes". The motto is to promote a healthy work environment and culture through effective employee engagement.
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Based on the current scenario organizations have started in-house E-employee wellness programmes to engage an employee at the workplace not only demands strategies based on directive measures or policy of the organization but also calls for an emotional and moral engagement through wellness chart, challenges, a celebration of national & international days, social media wellness engagement, and integral wellness plans. Over that, a few other organizations outsource the wellness programmes to other mental health organizations/ start-ups like “Peak Mind '' who are catering to address the mental health concerns of their clients through different initiatives. As a part of the psycho-education initiative, we are creating mental health awareness through different workshops, webinars, blogs, and e-learning courses for corporate employees to deal with their contemporary problems in their lives. To encourage women employees’ engagement and empowerment we are running a campaign named “Women of India” on our social media handles. Structured life stories of common women, who struggled to achieve their individuality as entrepreneurs or became financially independent, are shared to encourage hidden powers among women.
Live events on our social media handle on employee wellness by experts on different spectrums of work-life are another feather on our cap of employee wellness programmes. Anyone can fall into emotional and psychological vulnerabilities, keeping this in mind we are assisting employees of our clients by one-on-one counselling sessions and with other self-help tools to maintain a healthy state of mind. A daily dose of positivity mailer on different positive life hacks with attractive images is used to share in the mail to keep the morale of the employees high. In addition to that, a chatbot(an AI platform) is in service for the corporate employees to provide verbal assistance based on their emotional issues or concerns. To address contextual concerns like dealing with COVID stress, we are running a helpline number and a WhatsApp chat room for corporate professionals. Conducting experiential workshops on mindfulness techniques, breathing exercises, guided imagery programmes, yoga with the help of experts are part of other preventive services for employees.
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Discipline starts from home, we are proving it to be true. We have started a unique employee wellness initiative for our employees named “happy hours” (an hour on an everyday basis day without phone calls and emails) to bring a transformational change in the policy of break-in between working hours. Leave to maintain mental health conditions, alternative weekend offs, virtual birthday celebrations, are some of our other employee welfare initiatives for effective virtual employee engagement etc.
To sum up, employee wellness programmes are powerful tools that can bring a difference in the physical and mental spheres of employees and their ability to contribute to the organization. The organizations must understand what elements are necessary for the long-term success of a wellness programme and how to carry out the activities to achieve the desired target.
