Your employees are looking for support. When considering a change in work environment, 60% of respondents to a recent survey said having a team that cares about their wellbeing was a key driver.1 And 40% of employees admitted they would leave their current job if there was a lack of support for wellbeing.2

The focus on wellness in the workplace is evolving. A wellbeing strategy is no longer a “nice to have” if you want to attract new talent to your organization and retain and engage the employees you currently have. And employers are taking note.

An employee wellbeing strategy considers how the workplace can impact and support the “total health” of their employees – including physical health, mental health, financial health, work health, and life health. Many organizations offer wellness programs to support the different facets of health, such as extended health benefits, EFAP, disability, and financial savings or pension programs.

However, a wellbeing strategy is more than having wellness-focused programs. It is about understanding the health risks within your organization, having the right programs and tools available to address these health risks, and leveraging these programs so that employees have the knowledge and tools to be proactive and manage their own health and wellbeing. Promoting your EFAP, offering wellness education sessions, or implementing wellness initiatives may contribute to meeting the objectives of your wellbeing strategy, but these actions in and of themselves are not equivalent to having a strategy or making wellbeing a business priority. Simply announcing a new focus on wellbeing isn’t enough. Employees want to feel supported and empowered by their workplaces. They want a culture that values their wellbeing and a workplace where they have permission to prioritize their health and take care of themselves in every way.

Regardless of how big or small your organization is, an employee wellbeing strategy will help you to:

  • Make evidence-based decisions by using your available health data
  • Provide consistency of focus to get everyone on the same page, speaking the same language
  • Involve your employees in the decision-making process

Supporting Individual and Organizational Health

A wellbeing strategy involves a two-pronged approach. To support the individual health of their employees, employers need to provide resources, tools, training and campaigns to meet the employees’ needs and support identified health risks of their employee population. At the same time, organizations need to ensure that their workplace has foundational elements in place that foster a culture of health and wellbeing, such as effective policies, governance and processes, and committed leadership. Without organizational health, an employer cannot effectively support individual health.

As we emerge from the last few years and into post-pandemic recovery, we expect to see:

  • Increasing disability costs for mental health
  • Increasing addictions
  • Increasing employee burnout
  • A workplace culture that includes virtual components
  • A desire to find meaning and purpose in one’s work or a sense of belonging with the workplace
  • A shifting of life priorities

Workplace wellbeing needs to be recognized and addressed as a business issue. Organizations need to be thoughtful and intentional. Developing a wellbeing strategy helps to build a program that is both meaningful to employees and supports the business needs of the organization.

HUB International’s employee benefit specialists consult with employers of all sizes and in all industries on every aspect of employee benefits program planning and management.

1 PWC, “What 52,000 people think about work today: PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2022,” May 24, 2022.
2 Benefits Canada, “Employees seeking enhanced well-being resources, employer recognition: survey,” May 18, 2022.