For Employers: The Costs of Taking Your Employees for Granted

Gone are the days when all companies do is to give their staff the right number of leaves and enough compensation. Now, many businesses offer their employees free gym memberships. Most are filling their pantries with healthy food choices and drinks. Employers are now also investing in ergonomic furniture to improve the comfort of their staff while working.

Others went for extreme measures just to better care for their staff. Many hired certified health coaches who underwent rigorous health coach training programs. This is an attempt to help their staff make significant lifestyle changes and improve their health and well-being. Should you do the same and start taking better care of your staff?

The Costs of Taking Employee Health and Well-being for Granted

Employees these days are more stressed than ever. For one, the pandemic made everyone worried about their health. But since money is tough and earning for a living is a necessity, one can’t help but make sacrifices just to be able to feed their family. Simply letting your staff keep their job is not enough to ease their fears. This is why it becomes a must that every business does whatever they can to protect not only their customers but also their employee’s health.

Even without the world health crisis, modern workers are mentally stressed. Some millennials and Gen-Zers decided to leave their position voluntarily. Some companies had no choice but to let go of their younger workers. This is since their mental health already affected their performance.

Failure to prioritize your staff’s health and well-being can lead to performance issues. They will end up stressed and less productive. The quality of their work will be affected and you can end up having more employee absences. This then causes delays in your business.

If you don’t show you care about your employee, they will end up leaving the company in search of better opportunities in other companies. To fill your vacancies, you will need to recruit, hire, and train new staff. You will have a hard time attracting quality talents which can make you settle on individuals who need more training. This only adds to your expenses in the long run.

Another costly consequence of taking employees for granted is that you can’t scale your business if you can’t even retain your best talents. Remember that a company’s potential leaders can come internally. If you can’t even keep them happy, healthy, and engaged, how do you expect them to stay and take over bigger responsibilities for the brand?

How You Can Start Better Caring for Your Employees

Entrepreneurs can use a couple of strategies to make sure they get to properly care for their staff. Aside from the usual compensation and benefits, why not consider working with healthcare professionals? Health coaches, for instance, can help each of your employees better understand how to tackle self-care despite their busy schedules. A nutritionist, on the other hand, can help your staff create the right meal plan to achieve a healthier weight and body.

Since more employees are now mentally-stressed, make sure to craft a mental health plan. If they require a counselor, offering rebates will encourage them to seek help. Get employee feedback to learn about their mental health struggles and ask them for their opinions on how you can address mental health issues among employees. Promote professional and empathetic behavior in the workplace. Encourage your staff to use their paid leaves if they need a mental health break.

If you find that there are many smokers in your company, you can encourage them to join a quit smoking program. Some employees smoke to ease the stress of their daily job. But since this is an unhealthy habit that can affect not just the smokers but the other staff as well, sponsoring programs that aim to help your smoker employees combat their bad habit can be a worthy investment.

According to a study, most Americans don’t get enough exercise each day. This is especially true among office workers who don’t do manual labor. You can encourage your staff to be more physically active by gifting them wearable technologies they can use or joining charity events. You can also add bike tracks in your parking lot to encourage them to ride a bike on their way to work. Consider hosting fun runs every once in a while and encourage teamwork within your team.

Modern entrepreneurs understand that while it is easy to replace employees, it is quite difficult to retain your top talents. It will cost you more to constantly hire new people than to take care of your current workforce. If you want your staff to stay loyal to your company, improve their productivity, and reduce your savings in the long run, invest in their health and well-being.