Did you know that 70% of employees have seen an increase in productivity due to wellbeing policies? With poor employee wellbeing factors making even the smallest of daily tasks hard to deal with, how can you expect employees to thrive if they are not in top form? In this article, we explore how employee wellbeing impacts productivity and what it looks like for organisations to excel in this area. By understanding why employee wellbeing is important, how productivity is defined in the workplace, and shining a light on the correlations between the two, employees and business leaders will benefit in many ways.
What do we mean by employee wellbeing?
Even though the days of the pandemic shone a bright light on this workplace term, we can assure you it has played a role in the performance of employees for a long time. Forbes stated that ‘the future of work is employee wellbeing’, which we wholeheartedly agree with at There Be Giants.
Workplace wellbeing is intrinsically linked to an individual’s physical, mental and social health. Your business is essentially a large machine, and employees are the oil that helps the cogs to turn; with this in mind, you can quickly understand how employee welfare impacts the overall operation. An entire business can suffer without the right oil or not enough of it.
In the UK, 50% of employees have experienced burnout, and one-third of employees cite wanting more help for their wellbeing in the workplace. Wellbeing looks different in every person, which is why organisations need to bear this in mind and have frameworks in place for assessing and managing the different forms of mental and physical stresses.
Why is employee wellbeing important?
You may be thinking, what impact does an employee’s wellbeing have on their tasks at work? For organisations that choose to turn a blind eye to employee welfare, problems can quickly start to arise. The reality is that employee wellbeing is one of the most important issues within a workplace; without the brains behind the operation, a business cannot function at 100%. Some of the reasons why workplace wellbeing is key:
- Improved levels of employee wellbeing result in better attendance and overall improvements in employee engagement.
- Teams that are feeling good will be more mentally agile, which improves creativity, competitiveness, and innovation.
- Employees are more likely to reach their targets if they feel great; this is one of the fundamentals of setting employee goals, as motivation levels can also suffer without a succinct alignment.
What is productivity?
Before we look at the link between employee productivity and wellbeing, let’s chat about what productivity is. Productivity is often unique to every business as it can be measured differently. Anything from total output to speed of results can indicate productivity levels for a business. High productivity levels can also represent a good employee experience as it shows staff have the tools they need to thrive. Other workplace productivity forms can be defined as engagement levels, quality of work, resource allocation and the success of development plans.
The link between employee wellbeing and productivity
You will probably have already gathered many links between employee wellbeing and productivity. If staff are mentally and physically strong, they can give more to their job; this results in higher output levels, quality of work, and a more positive attitude to tasks, which make for strong company results. Daily working life will be hard for employees struggling with low levels of wellbeing. Signs such as increased sickness, lack of communication, and signs of bad physical health can all signal warning flags for operational success.
How to improve the link between productivity and wellbeing
If you want to build a more inclusive culture in the workplace that improves wellbeing and, as a result, heightens productivity, you should act now before it’s too late; preventative measures will benefit the business in the long run. A healthy workplace culture and behaviours are essential for growth, and a business can become resilient against challenges due to its strong workforce. 
Here are some ways you can improve the link between productivity and wellbeing:
- Create an open-communication culture that encourages employees to share any problems they have. As an extension, resources should also be available to support in times of need – this could include in-house counsellors or even outsourced support.
- Reinforcing break times is also important; taking a break from work is essential, and no employee should be expected to work without one. If an employee sees that management is leading by example and putting their health first, they will likely follow suit.
- Setting realistic goals is critical as it demands employees to assess what they can commit to. This could highlight wellbeing issues they didn’t know about and encourage change.
- Rewarding good results is also important as it mentally reinforces that good comes from achieving high levels of productivity.
The importance of wellbeing benefits
The best way to ensure employee wellbeing leads to productive outputs is by integrating wellbeing benefits into company operations. 86% of employees say they would leave a job if their wellbeing was not being supported. In 2023, having wellbeing benefits available is just as important, if not more important, than the salary. For companies that don’t put employee wellbeing at the centre of everything, it could be more than productivity that stands to suffer.
In summary
Hopefully, now you understand how closely linked employee wellbeing and productivity are. Without a business investing in its employees’ wellbeing, it cannot expect to have a strong workforce constantly working at 100%. However, with a culture focused on wellbeing and its resolution, productivity can be almost guaranteed.
Conclusion
How does employee wellbeing impact productivity? In many ways! Finding a way to manage the wellbeing of an entire network of employees is a complex task, but it is made possible if the right framework is in place.
Find out how to get the most from your employees