Scales to Measure Employee Wellbeing

Workplace wellness programs are gaining popularity as businesses deal with an ageing workforce, high obesity rates, physical inactivity, and unhealthy diets. Worldwide, there is a prevalence in the rise in chronic disease risks like diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. Employers value having healthy employees who are fully engaged, content, energetic, and dedicated to their roles. 

While employers should not dictate what office workers eat or how much they exercise, they can offer guidance, education, skill-building, and support programs. The employees desiring to adopt healthier eating habits and increase physical activity can embrace these. This approach is not about interfering in workers’ lives. But rather about fostering a supportive environment for their efforts towards a healthier life.

These initiatives are undoubtedly beneficial, but simply having them in the workplace is not sufficient. While it’s true that more employees now have access to wellness initiatives, meditation apps, nutritional workshops, and online mental health services, it remains uncertain how many are actually utilising these resources. 

This article will explore the different scales for measuring employee wellbeing.

Importance of Measuring Employee Well-Being

Many employers rely on traditional wellness programs without a clear strategy to measure the impact on employees’ wellbeing. Tracking physical health, such as checking things like your weight or the number of steps you take in a day, is quite simple and factual. On the other hand, understanding how people feel about programs designed to keep them healthy (like exercising or eating well) requires more effort. It involves knowing what they think and how they see these programs, which can be different for each person.

Evaluating how employees perceive their work-life satisfaction and wellness requires acknowledging the deeply personal and subjective nature of these feelings. Despite the challenges in quantifying these sentiments, organisations can employ methodologies to gain insights into how employees generally view and feel about wellbeing initiatives. 

How to Measure Employee Well-Being?

Measuring employee well-being is crucial for both individuals and organisations. It helps track progress over time. It also allows employers to assess and determine if employee health, both physical and mental, is improving or declining. There are many ways to do this, and here are some of them:

A Wellbeing Survey

An employee wellness survey, also known as a wellbeing survey, looks at different aspects of how employees are doing. 

Some are: 

• How often are people absent from work?
• How many leave their jobs?
• How engaged are the employees?
• What might be causing health problems?

Survey feedback can show if people are working too much, feeling stressed from work, or just not happy overall. 

Points to Remember

Keep the employee wellbeing survey short and precise. If it takes too long, people might not finish or give meaningful responses. When surveying employees, focusing on what’s essential is a good approach. One can save other questions for later surveys. 

When asking employees about their overall health and well-being, one can include questions like:

1. How do you feel right now?

2. Does your workplace support your overall wellbeing?

3. Do you have good office equipment, and what do you need to work, both at the office and at home?

4. Do the benefits from your workplace help with your wellbeing?

5. How can your workplace help make you healthier?

6. Can you have a balanced lunch during work hours?

7. Are there healthy snacks available at work?

8. Do you get breaks from your computer during work?

9. Does your workplace offer good wellness resources?

10. What wellness initiatives would you like to have at work?

Absenteeism and Turnover

How happy and healthy employees feel at work is closely tied to the number of sick days they take. To measure how well employees are doing, you can keep an eye on absenteeism and turnover. For absenteeism, count the days employees are not at work, whether they plan to be away or not. It gives you a good look at how often people are absent.

To track turnover, you need accurate records of hiring and firing. Pay attention to both voluntary (when someone chooses to leave) and involuntary (when someone is asked to leave) turnover. It helps understand why employees might be leaving. Lastly, keep an eye on the overall retention rate or the percentage of employees staying with the company. 

In a survey, ask the team how they feel physically, emotionally, and mentally. Compare their responses to the number of days they’ve taken off. If they report feeling unwell, but there are very few sick days taken, it may suggest that employees are working when they shouldn’t be, known as presenteeism. It is a scenario when people are still working when they’re not at their best, something to look into at the workplace.

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Productivity

How well a business does is connected to how its teams are doing. To understand how employees are feeling, look at how productive they are. To measure productivity, check how much work is done in an hour. The best way to collect this data is by using time-tracking software. It helps see how much time employees spend on tasks and how much work they get done. This information helps calculate productivity rates.

Another way to measure productivity is by looking at sales numbers. It’s essential to consider the nature of the job to assess how productive someone is in their role accurately. However, sales is also a variable of other parameters like product lifecycle, demand, economic condition, seasonality etc. So, one must consider these factors when figuring out how productive someone is.

Physical Health Metrics

Keeping an eye on employees’ physical health with wellness programs is an efficient way to measure wellbeing. These programs include things like health check-ups, fitness challenges, and workshops. They all help improve employee health and mood. Wellness programs go beyond just medical benefits and insurance. They take a complete approach to address different parts of physical health and overall wellbeing.

A crucial part of these programs is health check-ups. These regular check-ups help employees keep an eye on and take care of their physical health. They often include screenings for things like blood pressure, cholesterol, and body mass index (BMI). By giving employees information about their health, organisations help them make wise choices and take steps to stay healthy.

Open Conversations in the Workplace

Measuring wellbeing may involve sharing personal information, but employees might hesitate if the organisational culture doesn’t encourage it. To create a supportive environment, it’s crucial to normalise discussions about well-being. Encourage managers to schedule regular one-to-one meetings, emphasising that these sessions aren’t solely about work but also include personal check-ins to understand how team members are feeling. These conversations can occur digitally through platforms like Teams, Slack, or WhatsApp, providing an effective way to stay connected.

The Final Word

Once you’ve gathered insights from your employee wellbeing survey, it’s time to take meaningful action. Poor employee health can negatively impact engagement and productivity, so it’s crucial to address the identified issues through tailored wellness initiatives. Opt for an employee wellbeing platform like HealthifyMe to empower the subscribers to manage their health and wellness actively. From personal training to metabolic health trackers and diet consultations, HealthifyMe offers a diverse range of options.

Research Sources

Employee wellbeing and employee’s happiness: a study of an Indian university