Editor's Note: We recently updated this previously published post with new insights. Enjoy!
June is National Employee Wellness Month, and what a difference a year makes! Pandemic-related restrictions are slowly being lifted and life seems to be returning to some semblance of normalcy. There’s no better time to celebrate than this month when employees can once again get outside, resume their routines, and reconnect with friends and family.
Preventive care plays a significant role in your employees’ long-term health, helping them delay (or even avoid) the onset of conditions that can drastically affect their vitality and well-being.
For that reason alone, your company should be encouraging preventive care. But, if you needed another reason, preventive care may help employees avoid the need for medical services, expensive medications, and surgeries—which can result in major cost savings for your health plan.
However, people often have a bad habit of putting off preventive care. And the pandemic, with its lockdowns and restrictions, has only made that habit worse.
Regardless of your industry, COVID has clearly taken a toll on employee well-being. In a recent study, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that more than 1 in 3 U.S. adults struggle with pandemic-related anxiety and depression. A WebMD study also reported that the pandemic has had a negative impact on 77% of the employee respondents’ well-being.
How else has the stress and strain of the pandemic affected your staff and their health care needs? And more importantly, what can your organization do to help?
Information overload isn’t a new concept, but the stakes have gotten higher over the last year.
In early 2020, the pandemic forced entire companies to go remote or downsize in a matter of weeks. Employees took the brunt of the stress, having to suddenly juggle work and home responsibilities at the same time.
Add to that the mother of all information overloads—a constant stream of data about the deadliest global pandemic in over a century during one of the most politically divisive times in U.S. history—and it’s no wonder your employees are overwhelmed.
It’s understandable if you’re not feeling 100% like yourself in 2020. Neither are your employees. In times of upheaval, the “soft” skills we use at work—focus, patience, creativity, attention to detail—can all suffer.
How can we regain our sense of stability?
Editor's Note: We recently updated this previously published post with new insights. Enjoy!
The generational makeup of the workforce is changing rapidly: for the first time in history, four generations of employees are represented in the workplace. Millennials have surpassed both boomers and Gen X to make up the largest portion (40%), while the first wave of Generation Zers, composed of people in their early 20s, are just entering the workforce.
Adult life is busy. There’s work with its competing demands and deadlines, the many chores involved with managing a home and raising a family, social obligations, personal time for exercise, and once in a while, a little bit of relaxation.
That doesn’t leave much time for learning and developing new skills. Fortunately, “not much time” may be all that’s needed.
As the coronavirus began to spread around the country at the beginning of this year, America’s white-collar workers migrated en masse from their cubicles, offices, and conference rooms to their living rooms, dens, and kitchens. Card tables and folding chairs replaced ergonomic office chairs and desks. Smaller laptop screens took the place of multi-monitor setups.
And many of us are still there, working from our improvised home workspaces.
Eating better, working out, getting more sleep … taking care of our physical self is relatively straightforward (even if it’s often easier said than done).
Achieving good emotional health may be a bit more complicated—but it’s just as important as achieving good physical health. And yet, emotional wellness often lands squarely on the back burner, particularly in the workplace. Why isn't emotional health more of a priority for overall employee wellness?
The CEO of the agency welcomes you on your first day and leads you to your workspace. It’s decked out with top-line equipment: a brand-new Mac, an Aeron chair, and a glossy-white desk.
The only thing your new office is missing? Walls.
