By Alex Clapp, below, Founder and Director, Claritee Group
Employee wellbeing has been a buzz phrase for a few years now with a lot of services paying lip service to it, doing a bit of virtue signalling around it and feeling satisfied that they’ve ticked that box.
What they don’t realise is that, while this is all well and good, it won’t have much real impact on their people, or their business, in the long term. Employee wellbeing, done right, can truly change lives and I would argue that it could occasionally even save them.
Most of us spend most of our time in some kind of work environment – we are literally soaking up the energy within that environment, the values of the organisation, and the morale among our colleagues.
Every business has its performance targets and of course these are important – after all, without the business growing and achieving its goals, it may one day not exist as an employer. However, what many businesses fail to focus on is that targets are not achieved simply by working hard…..they are achieved by having a workforce that is performing at its best, and feeling good.
We all want employees to give 100% effort to their job…..but do we actually ever help them to do that?
Do we provide them with support and actions to achieve this? And I mean proactively, not reactively. I believe most decent businesses these days will offer to support an individual employee who is struggling with a certain aspect of their work or life.
But how many of them actually took steps to prevent that person struggling in the first place, or to help them understand how to support themselves through tough times before they even happened?
I suspect not many. So how to do it?
I believe giving employees the opportunity to regularly stop and take stock of what is going well in their lives and what isn’t is really important. We have to understand what we’re struggling with in order to make a change, and so many of us keep going on the treadmill knowing there’s something wrong, but never stopping to address it. This is something I believe workplaces can help with.
Regular check-ins with a mentor or buddy at work, someone that you feel you can talk to in confidence, can be really important too, not least because people can often notice the tell-tale signs that something isn’t right.
For example, when I started to have problems with my sight, my mental health dipped massively and the only way I knew how to cope was to drink alcohol…..a couple of years later I’d become addicted to alcohol and everything was on a downward spiral. The tell-tale signs were there – I was withdrawn, lying to those around me and not my usual self…..people knew and so did I, but it was a long time before any of us spoke about it.
I believe that we have to lead from the top and try to show people that its ok not to always be ok and that everyone experiences difficulties at some point in their life. Life is a journey and no journey is ever perfect and it makes a huge different to people if there is a leader who is willing to share a personal story or if a business can bring in an outside example to help share the message that being open and honest can help employees navigate a situation and give confidence that the company will support people who ask for help.
In my opinion, too many leaders – especially men – think they have to show they’re invincible when quite the contrary is true. True strength lies in vulnerability and showing some of our struggles and challenges paves the way for others to feel less alone…..not only that but it generates a deep degree of trust that helps leaders to take their teams with them in a cohesive way as they work together for the good of the business.
My personal passion is around making workplaces more inclusive when it comes to alcohol….in so many companies, it’s assumed that alcohol will be an integral part of workplace social culture. I believe that is changing – every workplace will have employees who don’t drink alcohol, either for religious or medical reasons, but more and more people are living an alcohol-free life through choice…..and that is set to continue into the future.
I believe that workplaces should place less emphasis on drinking alcohol during social events and more emphasis on connection, fun and inclusivity. And I’d love to see education around alcohol consumption being included in workplace wellbeing measures – right now, I feel it’s a hugely under-addressed area of wellbeing within organisations. And there’s a strange conflict where workplaces actively encourage drinking alcohol (and in some case, demonise abstinence) but at the same time offer no support or education around alcohol in their wellbeing strategies.
Employee wellbeing isn’t just a nice to have – if businesses want to retain employees who are happy, productive and well, they have to support their wellbeing. And they have to stay up to date with lifestyle changes and trends.
If they achieve this, they will give themselves the best chance of reaping the rewards through the quality and success of their business, and the impact on the bottom line.
Alex Clapp is Founder and Director at Claritee Group, a leading alternative events provider, supporting business from all sectors with non-alcoholic corporate events and bespoke packages, with more information and 2025 bookings available at https://www.clariteegroup.co.uk/
