Employee Health and Wellbeing
Introduction
This report examines research relevant to the topic of Employee Health and Wellbeing. I have chosen the attendance management topic as it has had a significant impact on Burton as a business since 2018 across all 4 UK sites. The findings of this research will potentially be used to implement a project plan to be considered by management. According to the CIPD, organizations which invest in employee health and well-being lead to reduced sickness absence. (CIPD, 2020). All employees must understand the importance of health and well-being at work. In this report, a deep dive into its benefits will be provided using the research focusing on attendance management.
Stakeholders
Stakeholders must be identified before the implementation of any Well-being initiatives, and it is essential to ensure that all are kept informed during the process. Not all stakeholders will require the same level of commitment; however, those who will be highly influenced will be monitored closely. Some examples of those with close involvement are HR Managers and the Senior Leadership Team.
In any organization, workforce reduction, changing work patterns, and high uncertainty levels are common. If an organization has poor leadership in implementing change, it can lead to stress amongst the workforce. Therefore, it is the employer’s responsibility to make sure that all employees are well handled at work to put them in the right mind for work. This is one way to improve workforce productivity. Managers should also look to lay sound practice principles to help maintain well-being at the workplace. For a healthy working environment to be created and maintained, all the internal and external stakeholders at Burton must work together. This acts to facilitate a strategic approach to provide necessary support and wellness programs. It also helps in generating awareness amongst all the employees at Burton. Although the project will mostly involve HRManagersandtheSeniorLeadershipTeam, other stakeholders such as employees, union representatives, hospital authorities, communities, and families should also be included. The senior leadership team should be involved in all the programs and projects (local and national) that are put in place to promote the well-being and health of the employees. They should also make sure that the workplace has a supportive environment in all aspects. Union representatives should ensure that employees are aware of the benefits of healthy living in the workplace. Lastly, the employees can contribute by taking part in programs that improve the workplace’s health situation (ClarkeandHill,2012).
Literature Review:
Well-being at a workplace ensures the safety and productivity of the employees.The wellbeing of workers also helps determine the success level of the organization. In this study some components of developing favorable workplace wellbeing primarily focusing on attendance management will be discussed under the light of Burton and its organizational structure.The analysis on stakeholders in the report comprising of employers, employees, senior management ,Human resourcespecialists,and unionrepresentatives. The report will be provided in light with four scholarly sources that deal with employee health and well-being. The sources being used are well equiped with case studies concerning employee health and well-being.Fromthese sources, it has been noted that anxiety, stress and depression are the primary indicators of poor health and well-being of the employees. This shows that the workplace does not have the required conditions fit for pisitive employee proliferation. These conditions are the main cause of poor work attendance thus reduced productivity in the company. Shedding some light on employee stress, it could be caused by bad working conditions, overworking, and poor renumeration as compared to workload. This adds up employee expenditure due to costs of seeking treatment outside work premises. In the end, this brings poor work attendance which in turn reduces company productivity. To avoid this scenario, the company should conductsurveystoanalysetheemployeesandunderstandtheirproblems. The company should alsomonitoritsvalues,workplaceculture,andmanagementpracticesthat may be a barrier to positive employee development. In most cases, these are the primary causes of stress to the employees.TheHRdepartment should also spearhead policiesthat focusonimproved communicationatworkplace. The policies should be tailored to fully include the employees to better the chances of consulting when major problems occur amongst the workforce.
b.1
According to CIPD’sHealth and Well-Being at Work survey, it was evident that most organizations are proactive in ensuring employee well-being. The positive findings indicate that in 2019, the average level of employee absenteesm was (5.9 days per employee per year) which was the lowest rate ever recorded by the survey. It was also noted that organizations are now increasing their focus on the mental health of employees which is the most common cause for longterm employee absenteesm. Most of the companies have put in place mitigation processes in place to increase the awareness of mental health conditions in their employees. However, the survey also shows that most of the companies do not equip their employees with enough training to counter mental health cases. According to this survey, organizationsthat are more proactive in employee well-being issues, are in a better position to achieve positive organisational outcomes as compared to organizations that are not proactive.
b.2
Attendance in any company can be affected by employee satisfaction, either positively or negatively. Negative outcome are vitalsignsthatindicatethat the well-being of employees is not good. Employees that are not well at a workplace extend the issues they have to their productivity. Their productivity go down and thus affect the productivity of the whole organization. This happens because the employees are less motivated to go to work. Therefore, this directly affects the overall attendance of the workforce. An absent employee’s place has to be covered by another present employee. This is a trickle down effect since the employees covering up for those absent get overworked. This then demotivates them as they are over exhausted and thus not well. Therefore, these employees result to absenteesm and thus affecting the whole organization. Whenemployeesaresufferingfromissues silently,itisobviousthattheperformancethey give to the organizationwillsubstantiallyreduce. The performance will reduce due to less motivation. Less motivated employees tend to be absent at work due to lack the right mental state to perform optimally. In most cases, the well-being of employees is paramount to the organization and its management. However, most of the employees are reluctant to discuss their problems with the people in authority thus leading to negative productivity. Furthermore, some organizations are not fully equiped to deal with such problems which is quite disappointing(Fischer,2014).Companies should work towards building favorable employee wellness interventions in order to positively impact attendance. In attendance management, positive attendance results to increased organizational productivity. This creates a win win situation for both the organization and the employees. The organization gets to make better profits while the employees get better renumeration and care. These secondary findings could bring positive impact to an organization like Burton seeking to improve their employee satisfaction thus positive work attendance.
b.3
In all organizations driven by the belief that employees are the most crucial part of the internal well-being of the company always realize positive production results. Such organizations are so keen on the well-being of their employees at all levels. Employees reciprocate their work attendance trends according their well-being at work. All organizations should work towards ensuring that employees are well both physically and mentally. If an employee is not physically fit, they may not be in a position to attend work regularly. The absent time maybe spent visiting a doctor to seek medical attention. Employees that suffer from workplace stress may endup in depression thus not being able to attend work. This overall affects the organization’s attendance percentage. Organizations that look to positive productivity should work towards building logicalbusinesscases forwellnessinterventionsfor theiremployees so as to cultivate a positive employee attendance. In these interventions, the organizations need to include the costofboth the physical and mental healthissuesof their employees(Mowday,PorterandSteers,2013).Organizations should also be very keen on revising their work designs. Improving work designs is crucial in reducing potential risks at the workplace. This is a basic way of ensuring good employee well-being. This works in such a way that, injured employees cannot attend to work thus bringing a negative attendance trend to the organization. In turn this brings reduced productivity in the organization. According to research, the managementofanyorganizationthat wants to succeed mustbeproactivein the adoption of policiestoimprovethe safetyandwellbeingof their employees (Hymel,et.al.,2011).On the other hand, employees should also strive to help their employers take care of them. They should seek education on promoting better health at work in order to maximize their work attendance thus productivity. If both parties meet halfway on the issue of workplace well-being, both parties benefit.
b.4
In any organization, implementing initiatives to take care of the safety and well-being of the employees always enhances their productivity positively. In one area that the initiatives positively impact is reduction of company production costs that happen due tofrequentabsenteeism. The organization having to pay employees on sick leave directly affects their financial ability negatively. Therefore, employee well being initiatives are a positive for the organization at any time. It should not be a topic to be debated on but rather organizations should take it as their duty to take good care of their employees. This is directly in line with investing in improvedsafetywithintheworkplace to counter absenteesm. Furthermore, investing on your employees acts to motivate them thus curbing talent leeching(DeNeve,Diener,TayandXuereb,
2013).