It’s a tough time to retain employees. With the Great Resignation in full swing and “quiet quitting” sneaking onto the scene, workers are taking a stand against the hustle culture that has ruled companies for decades. They feel their basic wellness needs aren’t being met, which makes them frustrated and disengaged at work.

This takes a significant toll both on employees’ personal health and your organization’s bottom line. However, there is a remedy: creating a culture of wellness. When you prioritize employee wellness it can boost morale and engage your team members because they know you care about their overall health, not just their productivity.

We believe that better humans make better leaders, and in this blog, we’ll show you just how much employees agree. 

The Cost of Hustle Culture

Modern workers are rebelling against the traditional model of workplace culture. They recognize that living to work, instead of working to live, doesn’t support their wellbeing. This “hustle culture,” as many call it, can cause significant physical and mental health issues that up and coming generations are refusing to compromise for the sake of a job.

With this realization, employees are expanding their personal definition of “well-being” to include job satisfaction, work-life balance, safeguards against burnout and more. Recent studies have shown that modern employees would rather find a new job than stay in a role that’s unfulfilling or doesn’t offer a healthy balance, even if the pay isn’t much better.

This willingness to jump ship and leave companies puts businesses in a bind. According to Gallup, the cost of hustle culture is in the billions. Their study found that businesses have seen:

• $322 billion in lost productivity and turnover costs globally due to employee burnout

• $20 million in lost opportunities per 1,000 workers because of struggling or suffering employees

• 15-20% of payroll going to voluntary turnover costs due to burnout

The answer to these huge losses is to prioritize employee wellness. Organizations need to create a culture of wellness that focuses on supporting employees in their professional and personal endeavors.

What Is a Culture of Wellness?

A culture of wellness encompasses every aspect of your employees’ wellbeing. It’s not just offering free gym memberships or mental health days. It’s creating a company culture that prioritizes wellness initiatives, encourages healthy habits and consciously tries to eliminate workplace stress.

The more you invest in a wellness culture, the more employee engagement you’ll see overall. When people feel happy and have the space to pursue a healthy lifestyle outside of work, they have more energy and enthusiasm to bring to their professional roles. 

Before implementing any measures to adjust your company culture, it’s important to understand how your team members are currently feeling. You can use a company-wide survey to collect opinions about how well your organization addresses employee health and creating a productive work environment. These answers will show what areas your team is especially struggling in, giving you a heading for your first steps toward a better workplace. 

As a leader in this situation, it’s important to remember that you’re not only there as a business associate; you’re the guide for your team. It’s critical that you remember you’re not only developing people’s professional skills, you’re also helping them fulfill their wellness needs. 

The 5 Wellness Needs

We learned from Maslow that every person has the same basic needs. However, people’s five wellness needs aren’t a hierarchy. They need to be equally balanced for someone to feel happy and fulfilled both in their professional and personal life. 

There are five basic wellness needs:

1. Career – employees need to enjoy their job and feel engaged with their organization, as well as understand their role within it.

2. Social – people need a reliable social network, whether it’s in person or online. Employees are naturally looking for meaningful friendships among their coworkers that can offer support when needed.

3. Financial – employees need to earn enough money to meet their basic needs and have an effective way of managing it so they can plan for their future.

4. Physical – people want to have the energy they need to accomplish their job and have time to take care of their physical health.

5. Community – people should enjoy where they live and work and have access to a healthy community.

With the 40-hour work week, many people feel like they spend more time with their coworkers than they do with their families. If these five wellness needs aren’t met in the office, people might struggle and feel like they spend all their time doing something they don’t enjoy.

Leaders should keep these wellness needs in mind to ensure they’re helping their employees fulfill each one to the best of their ability. As your team’s wellness needs are met, they’ll feel more engaged at work and ready to contribute to your organization’s success.

Building a Culture of Wellness

Now you understand the importance of creating a healthy workplace and how it benefits both you and your team. The trick is knowing how to create this culture of health in your company.

There are four critical aspects of wellness culture that every leader can address to transform their organization into one that prioritizes employee wellness.

1.) Reducing Stressors 

What stressors you focus on will depend on your organization and team. Stress comes from a variety of sources in a person’s life, such as their finances, work schedule and personal habits. There are a few questions that you can ask yourself and your employees to determine what stressors might be affecting your team’s work:

• Are your employees paid enough to provide for their basic needs?

• Do your employees feel they have demanding work hours or flexible schedules?

• Do your employees regularly feel burnt out?

• Does your workplace offer opportunities for making healthy choices during the day? (fresh fruit in the breakroom, nutritious options in the vending machine, etc.)

A person’s workplace should be somewhere they feel comfortable and supported. Identifying what causes employees to feel stressed and finding reasonable ways to resolve those issues can greatly benefit your team’s overall wellness.

2.) Encourage Movement

You’ve probably heard that “sitting is the new smoking.” Sitting all day can cause obesity, chronic diseases, high blood pressure and a host of other health issues. That’s why workplace wellness in part depends on physical activity.

Encourage your employees to move throughout the day. You might offer standing desks to those who want one or alternative work spaces where they move around the room as they collaborate. You could even allow paid breaks throughout the day for employees to go take a walk around your organization’s campus. 

These are all great ways to help team members clear their heads, renew their energy and stay focused during the day by supporting their physical health.

3.) Foster Community

Emotional wellness is highly valued by the modern worker, which is why they often seek community in their workplace. It’s important for leaders to take an interest in each of their team members and create spaces for them to get to know each other outside of work. When people are friends with their coworkers, they’re much more likely to collaborate and challenge each other for the benefit of the company.

There are many ways to foster community in your organization. You could schedule regular wellness activities such as fun runs or community walks that employees can sign up for. They get to see each other outside of the office, participate in the greater community and represent the company all at one event.

Even encouraging coffee chats between team members can go a long way to build community in your company. It gives people the opportunity to get to know each other better in a low stakes environment. This helps them to build trust with each other and feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves.

4.) Enable Employees to Have a Say in Their Future

Above all else, people want to have a say in their future. They want to feel like their career goals are recognized and know that leadership will help achieve them. Talk to your team members about their professional goals and desired career path. Help them create a plan and develop the skills they need to get there. 

Instead of placing people on menial jobs, which many feel should be automated anyway, give them creative and strategic roles in your company. Show them how their work contributes to the big picture. Ask them if their role reflects their passions and how they’d like to make the organization better. 

When you give your employees agency in their own future, they’re much more likely to stay with your company. They’ll see that their leaders are invested in their professional development and feel excited about their career path with your organization.

Great Leaders Build Great Cultures

A culture of wellness is more than onsite health screenings or incentives. It’s about providing for your team’s core needs — mental, physical, emotional and financial. Offering a culture of wellness will attract top talent to your organization and help you retain the great employees you currently have. But to build this culture, you need exceptional leaders.

We believe that great leaders build a coaching culture in their organizations that prioritizes employee wellness and growth. Learn how you can start building a coaching culture in your organization today.