Today's growing focus on well-being has transformed employee wellness into core employee demand. The latest Microsoft Work Trend Index notes that robust wellness initiatives are a crucial part of employee expectations from their employers and a demand for flexibility. It plays a vital role in attracting, engaging, retaining talent and driving a robust experience. In the age of work where skilled individuals are challenging to attract and retain, going beyond prescriptive models of employee wellness and focusing on 

With talent attraction, engagement, and retention becoming challenging, companies that can provide the right health and well-being initiatives stand to differentiate themselves and create better experiences for their employees. 

Implement employee mental health programs

While companies across the board have expanded their wellness mandate to include mental health concerns, research shows that employees still face significant challenges. According to the latest World Economic Forum research in 2022, over 49% of employees still feel overwhelmed by a substantial mental overload. Additionally, 46% feel isolated from their colleagues, and 49% believe they are at risk of burnout due to professional or personal mental load. 

Enabling employees to reduce digital exhaustion and burnout today can help create the right environment for them to be engaged and productive. While employee demand for flexible work is today met by most organisations, companies that support such workplace conditions with the right support system stand to differentiate themselves from their competitors. The following helps strengthen your efforts to improve the mental and emotional health of your employees. 

• Encourage Mindfulness in the workplace.
• Create accessible and confidential mental and emotional well-being care
• Work with managers to ensure the destigmatisation of mental well-being conversations at the workplace.
• Identify possible drivers of stress and reduce them.
• Offer ways to recharge employees and help them connect in a digital environment.

Link wellness activities as a key part of EVP and employer brand

Research shows that around 60% of employees surveyed say well-being benefits are a top priority when looking for a new job. To address this need, companies must make well-being a crucial part of their employer brand and EVP.  Linking wellness to EVP and rewarding the right practices helps ensure well-being is celebrated within the company. Ensuring such efforts are part of your employer branding strategy ensures you stand out from the rest.

The potential of impactful and holistic well-being initiatives is leveraged once companies begin to communicate.  Companies need to communicate the work they are putting in to create impactful wellness programs. Not only does this help create better adoption within the company, but it also improves the company's ability to attract the right talent. 

Leaders play a crucial role in setting the tone within the company. Even the best-designed wellness programs might suffer if leaders don't voice their opinions about prioritising self-care and motivate employees to leverage their company's wellness program to better care of themselves. The final key pillar in differentiating yourself as a suitable workplace is ensuring employee experience is central to how you design and execute their different wellness offerings. Empowering employees to pick and choose relevant well-being offerings and providing them with an overall positive experience remains a long way in raising the adoption of wellness programs. 

Diversify offerings and personalise

Financial and emotional well-being are top needs for employees today. By diversifying offerings and offering better financial and emotional well-being support, companies can stand out from the rest. Engagement and retention are critically linked to how included, and valued employees feel in the workplace. Well-being is a tool that cuts across a multi-generational workforce and helps create the right incentives for engagement and productivity. 

In addition to diversifying wellness needs, offering personalisation is necessary to ensure employees can access well-being services that make sense to them. For example, to further ensure companies are creating the right wellness programs that are impactful and effective. Some companies might want to focus on emotional health, while others prioritise consultations and OPD benefits. To cater to all, companies need to personalise their programs to individual needs.

HR leaders today stand a chance of differentiating their companies from other employers by providing a robust yourself from the sea of employers who only focus on healthcare costs by giving employees and job seekers the well-being initiatives they want. Look at employee well-being from physical, financial, and emotional viewpoints to promote wellness and show employees you care. Then, build an authentic culture that values well-being and support, and great hires will follow.

Make wellness a core value

A recent Workbuzz study revealed that a purposefully designed culture that delivers a great employee experience is the biggest priority for job seekers, followed by salary (31 per cent) and interesting work (28 per cent). Flexible working location and opportunities for career advancement (both 27 per cent) were ranked as the fourth and fifth most important considerations. By making wellness a core business value, companies can ensure a concerted effort towards employee well-being and a culture of wellness permeates across the different levels of the organisation. 

Companies can strengthen wellness as a core value by actively empowering employees to take their wellness journeys. Curating group wellness activities, which can further help cement the importance of employee well-being while bringing teams closer. Candidates will see employees working together to reach goals, participating in community events, and advancing the company's mission. You will attract similar talent when your employees embody a company culture that values teamwork, friendly competition, and community.

The way ahead

Workplace employee well-being has also diversified dramatically in the past few years. No more are companies solely focused on addressing just physical healthcare needs but are actively focusing on different dimensions of well-being, such as emotional and mental health, digital exhaustion and burnout, and financial well-being. An impactful wellness strategy leverages technology to provide impactful solutions to not one but a combination of well-being dimensions.