Why invest in employee wellbeing?

A healthy team is a happy team. And a little investment goes a long way when it comes to motivating and engaging employees. 

I’ve experienced first-hand what can happen when our work conflicts with our wellbeing. I’ve also seen how much more productive, creative and engaged people feel when their wellbeing is supported at work. In case you’re wondering, investing in workplace health and wellbeing doesn’t just benefit individuals, it’s also good for the bottom line.

While wellbeing has definitely moved up the corporate agenda, only 44% of organisations have a wellbeing strategy. 70% of employers don’t have a specific budget for health and wellness and only 9% are actively measuring the impact of their wellbeing programmes. 

Effective wellbeing programmes can help foster:

  • A healthier and more inclusive culture
  • Improved employee morale, engagement and productivity
  • Better work-life balance, reduced burn-out, stress and sick days
  • Increased employee retention and lower turnover

If you’re wondering whether employee wellbeing is worth the investment, or you’re making the case to better support wellbeing at work, here’s some food for thought. These numbers paint a pretty compelling picture of the impact an effective wellbeing strategy can have – and as you’d expect from me, the impact of getting everyone moving!

Where to start?

If you’re wondering where to start, start with movement. It can have the single biggest impact on our physiology. It’s the best thing we can do to support our wellbeing.

The NHS calls exercise “the miracle cure we’ve always had.” Whatever your age, there’s strong scientific evidence that being physically active can help you lead a healthier and happier life.

Up to 5 mil­lion deaths could be avert­ed glob­al­ly every year if peo­ple were more active. Our increasingly sedentary lifestyles are a huge risk to our health. Sitting for more than four hours a day can increase our risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, back pain and muscle degeneration. This lack of physical activity is costing the UK an estimated £7.4 billion a year.

Movement can increase productivity and engagement

If you think taking time out to move during the working day will make employees less productive, think again. Physically active employees take 27% fewer sick days. They’re less stressed and report better morale than their less active colleagues.

Wellbeing and engagement go hand in hand too. Employees with high wellbeing are almost twice as likely to be engaged and enjoy their work, making them even more productive than they were already!

Movement supports mental wellbeing

8.2 million work days in England are lost due to poor mental health and stress each year. Increased daily movement can play a significant role in reducing the incidence, and impact, of chronic stress, anxiety and depression – and reduce the risk of their physical manifestations. According to the NHS, physical activity reduces our risk of depression by up to 30%.

There’s a compelling investment case

There’s an indisputable link between employee wellbeing and low turnover. Mercer’s 2017 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plan found employers who create cultures of wellbeing see 11% lower turnover than employers who did little to prioritise employee wellbeing. Given employee turnover costs US employers over $1 trillion a year and replacing a lost employee costs 33-150% of their annual salary, there’s a lot to be said for investing in employee wellbeing.

If that wasn’t enough, according to the British Heart Foundation, the potential economic return on investment (ROI) for a UK business that invests in workplace health initiatives is £4.17 for every £1 spent.

That’s a pretty compelling investment case.

So should your organisation invest in supporting employee wellbeing? Perhaps they can’t afford not to.

PS. Looking to learn more about how we work with organisations to support employee wellbeing and team building? Check out our website or reach out to Karina, our Sales and Engagement Manager. She’s on karina@magicmountain.app and loves a chat!

Picture of Katy, Magic Mountain CEO

Katy, Magic Mountain CEO

Katy is passionate about wellness, loves making things happen and believes that we can all achieve more together. She’s usually found munro bagging with her dog Lucky in the highlands of Scotland.

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