Partner Article

Staff performance and health ? a winning combination

Employee benefits experts at Edenred have identified the top four trends in staff wellbeing.

With athletes gearing up to deliver their best performance during the Games, many businesses are turning their attention to how to look after their staff to ensure they can maximise their performance.

Based on its work with companies across the UK, Edenred has highlighted four trends in employee wellbeing which are important for all HR professionals to consider in developing a strategy to support their organisations.

1) Redefining employee wellbeing : ways of supporting physical health - and, more recently, mental and family wellbeing - are now core parts of benefits packages. Organisations are increasingly recognising the financial health of employees also has an impact on performance and are investing in financial education programmes.

2) The growth of formal wellbeing programmes: smart organisations are moving from reactive well-being programmes which focus on fixing stress or absence to those which identify and remedy key wellbeing issues through new proactive benefits and reward.

3) A need for non-traditional tactics: massage, company fruit days and company choirs do not figure high in the annual Employee Benefits Research – they may not even be right for your organisation – but there is a clear trend towards finding fresh non-traditional benefits to support wellbeing.

4) Linking policy, wellbeing and benefits: companies are taking a closer, more integrated approach to well-being, ensuring HR policy, management and benefits are aligned to wellbeing objectives and supporting an environment that enables performance.

Andy Philpott, sales and marketing director at Edenred, comments on the company’s findings:

“As organisations and employees face more pressure in today’s ‘more-for-less’ environment, having people who can stay focused and on-task at work matters more than ever.

“Wellbeing may be regarded is a fluffy preoccupation in some quarters and that could even be the case in your company. However, smart organisations realise the critical role it plays in delivering employee engagement and business performance. The challenge is to ensure reward and benefit plays a full role on the agenda.”

Edenred offers solutions for employee wellbeing programmes including cycle to work schemes, eye care vouchers, luncheon vouchers and carer vouchers as well as options such as gym membership within flexible benefits and voluntary benefits packages.

See www.2012performance.co.uk/category/wellbeing for further details.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Emma Ward .