Page 3 - Keeping Employees Happy, Healthy & Productive

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE A CULTURE OF WELLNESS?
A wellness culture is one in which employees’ physical and mental health is prioritized. In some ways, it’s easier to define it by what it isn’t:
• Staying late every night to get things done is not wellness culture.
• Not having sufficient paid sick time to stay home when contagious is not a wellness culture. • Insisting that employees be reachable by cell phone at all times is not wellness culture.
Having a wellness culture means understanding that a five-minute break to walk around the block helps you get more done. It means that there are healthy snacks in the break room. Wellness culture supports workers mentally, emotionally, and physically.
One of the most important aspects of wellness culture is that management leads by example. It is not enough for management to say that employees should use their vacation time or only stay late for genuine emergencies. If leadership is working 100-hour weeks and is constantly frazzled, employees will assume these are empty words.
Employees need to see senior staff taking their full lunch hour, taking advantage of wellness facilities, leaving on time, and taking a much- needed vacation. Burnout can happen at any level, after all.
Wellness culture directly affects the health of employees and their families. Investing in wellness reduces turnover, improves productivity, and increases engagement and loyalty.
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