In the face of crisis, a culture of health is key for business resiliency
Regardless of the current state of your organization, instilling a culture of health may help weather the current and future crises.
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the work landscape and shown employers across all industries how vital employee wellness is to business continuity, performance and success. But how can employers help their employees stay healthy and productive as many adjust to remote environments or evolving local policies around the pandemic?
The answer may lie in workplace culture. It can transcend the office walls and is the go-to playbook for organizations regardless of whatever the working environment may be. A research review conducted by the Integrated Benefits Institute found that drivers of a culture of health, particularly leadership and co-worker support, are positively associated with employee engagement in wellness programs. We suspect that when a workplace culture values the health of its workforce, employees will be more engaged at work, utilize workplace wellness programs, and adopt healthy behaviors. In turn, this can support a healthy workforce and simultaneously cultivate productivity during times of crisis.
Related: Employees want a company culture that makes them feel connected
Today, many employees are balancing work and home responsibilities all while dealing with compounding stressors that come with a global pandemic, civil unrest, and financial recession. Corporate cultures that consider employee health a core value, taking a holistic and integrated approach by supporting mental, physical, and financial health, may be better off during these unprecedented times.
Regardless of the current state of your organization, instilling a culture of health may help weather the current and future crises. Here are some considerations for employers that can be actionable regardless of current business operation status:
Align the health of the workforce with the core values of the firm
This helps leadership, managers and employees link their own behavior and health care choices to the company’s mission, whether they’re remote or in the field/office.
Make the business case to obtain leadership buy-in
Current events have really accelerated the awareness and prominence in priority among employers to innovate and reimagine employee health. A strong business case to leadership for effective health programs can mean the difference between full company support behind programs that effectively meet the evolving needs of the workforce and programs that are just being offered to keep up with the latest trends. This can be done through strategies like emphasizing the program’s value to the business and not just net costs, leveraging success stories from employer peers and soliciting employee feedback which can also emphasize that leadership is weighing in on employees needs and concerns.
Cultivate models of healthy behavior
Integrating health into an organizations’ core values is reinforced when leaders, supervisors and peers endorse healthy behaviors through their words and actions. Strategies for this include encouraging leaders and supervisors to participate in workplace health programs, incorporating health engagement approaches as part of supervisors’ planning, and socializing the health promotion experience through group-based, mutually supportive activities whether it be virtual or in office.
Make the right choice the easy choice
Employees are more likely to adopt healthy behaviors when barriers to participation, including stigma, costs, and work scheduling, are addressed and healthy choices made accessible through company policies, endorsements and tailoring. For example, resources and safety/health updates related to COVID-19 may need to be delivered differently for employees working in the field than those who are working remotely or in offices where they can easily access an online repository of information.
In light of today’s circumstances, business leaders cannot afford to ignore the value of a healthy workforce. We are learning more and more about the intrinsic link between business operations and employee health every day. Fostering this link–making employee health a core value of business–may be the best way to withstand current and future upheaval.
Erin Peterson, MPH is a researcher with the Integrated Benefits Institute.
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