Employee Healthcare Without Employee Self-Care Is Only Half-Care
Many California companies spend a lot of time thinking about their employees’ healthcare, but too little time focusing similar attention on employee self-care. Employees who show up to work everyday face a whole range of challenges and stressors both in the workplace and after they clock out. Unless employees have the tools and support they need to deal with the stress and challenges that are an inevitable part of work and life, they can wind up falling behind at both.
For employees, the consequences of not taking care of themselves can be debilitating and even catastrophic. For employers, failing to take affirmative steps, including workplace wellness, to improve employee self-care can lead to lost workdays, higher attrition rates, lower productivity, and reduced employee engagement.
Paying attention to employee wellness can thus pay dividends for San Diego County employers and employees alike. But what is self-care, why does it matter, and how can your company do a better job of encouraging employee wellness among your workforce?
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What Is Employee Self-Care?
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines self-care as: “what people do for themselves to establish and maintain health, and to prevent and deal with illness.”
Self-care involves taking care of one’s physical, mental, and emotional health, all of which are necessary for well-being, happiness, and productivity. Taking care of yourself includes many things we do (or strive to do) for ourselves regularly, such as:
- Exercising
- Eating a healthy diet
- Improving our strength and balance
- Addressing mental health issues
- Seeing a doctor regularly
- Dealing with stress in a positive rather than a destructive way
While the WHO has no official definition for “employee self-care,” it means more than how a company’s workers take care of their well-being. The term also includes how the company contributes to those efforts. Caring for your employee’s well-being means going beyond the bare legal minimum of providing employees with a safe workplace.
Why Does This Matter?
Are miserable employees the kind that customers and coworkers enjoy working with? Do employees who are overwhelmed by stress and anxiety have the focus to do their jobs or even show up as they should? Will an employee who feels lethargic or fatigued all the time be as productive and engaged as you need them to be. Would you expect an employee who feels like their employer doesn’t care about their well-being to stick around when another opportunity arises?
The answer to all of those questions is, of course, no. Employers who help with employee self-care can help themselves:
- Lower turnover rate
- Reduce employee burnout
- Lower healthcare costs and insurance rates
- Improve focus and productivity
- Promote better teamwork and client relations
- Increase employee job satisfaction
How to Promote Self-Care
There are plenty of simple and cost-effective ways to encourage, promote, and support employee self-care. These can include:
- Ensuring that employees have ample water available at work
- Wellness incentive programs
- Providing healthy food options in the breakroom
- Partnerships with wellness businesses like gyms, yoga studios, or fitness centers
- Offering stress management and time management courses
- Providing mental health resources and emphasizing the importance of mental health
- Furnishing your office with ergonomic chairs and desks
- Encouraging employees to get enough sleep
- Planning fun and stress-relieving activities
- Recognizing employee achievements and providing positive reinforcement
- Allowing for flexible work schedules or remote work
- Promoting the use of any wellness programs offered by your group health insurance company
Employee Well-Being Works Hand-in-Hand With Employee Healthcare. To Learn About Your Company’s Group Health Insurance Options, Call Preferred Insurance Today
Promoting the wellness and health of California workers – and doing so in ways that promote the wellness of a small business’ balance sheet – is at the heart of what we do at Preferred Insurance. After all, providing good employee health insurance proves to be a huge step in providing employee self-care!
As an experienced California small business and individual health insurance broker, we help small business owners navigate the complicated landscape of group health insurance coverage. We take the time to listen to your concerns and learn about your business so that we can offer you the most affordable coverage options with the best benefits for your workforce.
We’ll answer your questions, save you time and money, and provide you with the personal attention and support your small business needs and deserves when it comes to group health insurance.
Call Preferred Insurance to schedule a free consultation about your small business or individual health insurance needs.
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