According to a recent report by PwC, one in five employees indicates they are likely to switch jobs in the next 12 months, with another 35% of respondents planning to ask their employers for more money during the same period. Knowing this, leaders are charged with providing and offering the best working conditions and benefits packages to attract and retain talent.
To do so, employers should make sure they are creating and promoting a culture of well-being, facilitating open communication, and reevaluating processes and technology. This can help ensure employees are receiving personalized service and understand that they are appreciated and valued within the organization, which can ultimately lead them to become more satisfied in their roles.
Create And Promote A Culture Of Well-Being
Historically, companies have promoted wellness in the workplace as a part of their health insurance benefits. Employees today are more attuned to their holistic well-being and the stress that comes from any job. This means employees and prospective new hires are paying closer attention to the role of the job and the impact that potential stress of the role may have on their life. Employees are asking, “Is employee well-being truly part of your work culture?”
True well-being is an inner state of mind that can be characterized as feelings of strong emotion; a key subset of well-being is happiness. Rather than being an objective measure of wealth or other resources, overall well-being is a subjective measure that can be determined through an employee responding to surveys about how they are feeling about work and the workplace culture.
Facilitate Open Communication
Employers must create environments that facilitate open communication for employees who work at the office, at home or via a hybrid version of these situations. Each of these audiences works differently, feels stress differently and should be addressed differently. For example, company benefits and HR services tend to be an area of confusion for employees and their families. This confusion can lead to added stress if employees feel uncertain about how to inquire and enroll in specific benefit programs or what benefits they have and how to use them. Open communication requires easing the two-way, one-to-one communication journey between the employer and the employee so their concerns can be addressed. This opens up pathways to reach benefits providers more easily and quickly.
Additionally, employers are working with a wide range of age groups and varying backgrounds. Open, personalized communication is critical. This enables employers to address a multigenerational workforce and craft specific messages for Baby Boomers, Millennials and Gen Z, or, for instance, individuals with specific needs (e.g., based on socio-economic, disability or chronic conditions).
Reevaluate Your Resources And Tech
Understanding the need to create a culture of wellness and facilitating open communication requires reevaluating your current processes and tech to see if they’re still meeting this demand. HR leaders of an organization should push timely information and content to individual employees, specific groups or the entire company to drive participation in key programs. Aggregate all employee-facing HR, benefits, communications, wellness and healthcare services into a unified interactive dashboard and experience. Employees have grown more accustomed to digital experiences in their daily lives; they should be able to leverage technology to get the most out of their benefits, too.
As employers continue to evaluate how to best attract and retain qualified employees, investing in and integrating the right process and technology is going to continue to be critical.
Employers have quite a bit of work ahead of them to demonstrate that they care for their employees. But as they explore solutions, they must create and promote a culture of well-being—one that facilitates open communication to better help sustain happy, supported employees.
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