How to Be a Healthy Organisation

Back in late 2022, we invited guest blogger, David Searle, to tackle the question What is Organisational Health? His insights gave us an introduction to the five areas that drive organisational health and to be honest it couldn’t have been more timely or relevant. There has been so much talk of toxic working environments in the press this year, from the Metropolitan Police to McDonalds. It’s about time more employers started to prioritise their people and looked towards creating a healthier organisational culture. After all, as Maya Angelou’s famous quote goes, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people never forget how you made them feel”.
In this post we’re going to take you away from the traditional signs of a healthy organisation and into the realms of people, culture and support for employee wellbeing. We’re going to explore ways of putting people first, and supporting them to feel valued and cared for.

Health from a business perspective

Google ‘signs of a healthy business’ and on the first page all you’ll see are articles written from a financial perspective. There will be references to financial growth, profit, cash flow, shareholders and balance sheets. It’s all quantifiable and focusing resources on it will likely bring tangible business success. But business health is much more than financial success and growth in numbers. We’ll leave that post to our accountancy friends!
The healthy business we’re referring to is the one where it’s a pleasure to come into work each day. It’s a place where employees are greeted with a genuine warm welcome, people treat one another with respect and are empowered to do their best. A healthy organisation consistently supports employee health and wellbeing in a variety of ways, not just through a few token gestures.

At P3, we believe that a happy and healthy workforce is at the heart of every successful business. Let’s explore what that looks like in practice.

What does a healthy business look like?

• Leadership and management

If we start at the top, a healthy business has emotionally intelligent leaders. These people are good communicators and listeners who are open to feedback. They create a safe environment to work in, empower people to speak up, and inspire their team, valuing both their work and presence. They embody the values and behaviours expected at work, setting an example for their team. Emotionally intelligent leaders can spot when someone or something is not quite right, identifying potential employee wellbeing issues before they impact performance.

• Learning and development

Healthy workplaces are committed to developing their employees. Providing opportunities for learning, training, upskilling, and personal growth can boost our individual wellbeing. When people grow and learn new things it’s generally a positive experience. Investing in personal development makes employees feel valued, engaged and more likely to want to remain with their employer. It can also be a positive draw for recruitment.

• Work environment

What does a healthy work environment look like? From standing desks to designated relaxation areas, healthy food options to on-site fitness classes. Small changes to the work environment can go a long way towards boosting employee wellbeing and building organisational health.

• Trust, teamwork and collaboration

Healthy organisations are good at communicating and sharing ideas. Collaboration is commonplace in teams and cross-working groups. This creates a level of trust and understanding between employees and within teams and departments that keeps people engaged and enhances productivity.

• Culture

All the elements highlighted above come together to create a healthy organisational culture. A culture that’s based on a strong set of core values that everyone understands and displays at work - every day.

When you have a healthy culture people can come and go from the organisation and it will still be successful, because everyone knows exactly what’s expected of them. A healthy culture is stronger than any individual.

Healthy people equals a healthy business

As we mentioned at the top, it’s happy, healthy people that create healthy and successful organisations. Employee wellbeing should be an integral part of your company strategy as an enabler to help your business achieve its business goals.

Your wellbeing strategy might include several of these areas:

• Provision for flexible and remote working

• Financial wellbeing education

• Mental health first-aider training

• Employee Assistance Programmes

• Creating a safe environment to talk about challenges

• Encouraging physical activity at work

• Taking regular breaks and full holiday entitlement

• Enhancing the work environment to promote wellbeing

• Reward and recognition programmes

• Manager training and development

We cover all of these wellbeing themes in more detail in our latest ebook: Physical and Mental Health.

How Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) contribute to organisational health

Employee Assistance Programmes are valuable resources. However, in our experience they are frequently underused or rarely used at all. In many cases, employees are aware of their business EAP provision, but unaware of the variety of support available to them through the programme.

Access to counselling support could be the difference between an employee taking a couple of days off work or an extended period of long-term sickness. According to the Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA), for every £1 spent on an EAP in the UK, employers see an average return on investment of £10.85 in reduced absence, presenteeism and lost management time.

There’s a clear communications void waiting to be filled. Ask yourself, what more can you do to signpost your EAP support and how to access it?

Useful resources for mental health and wellbeing support

Able Futures provides support for mental health at work. Their mental health specialists help employees cope with issues affecting their focus and time at work, such as stress, anxiety and depression. Employers can use their free Access to Work Mental Health Support Service for advice on how to support your people. Take a look at their webinar programme for learning on a range of mental health topics.

Healthy organisation = Profitable organisation

Ignoring health and wellbeing at work leads to the toxic work environments we’ve heard far too much about lately. A robust health and wellbeing strategy will lead to a healthy workplace that’s free of issues affecting performance, productivity and profitability. Put your people first and financial success and loyal customers (also signs of a healthy organisation), will follow.

Further reading

Take a look at our blogs on Emotional Intelligence, Financial Wellbeing 2023 and, hot off the press, our ebook on Physical and Mental Health and Wellbeing.

How we can help

If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this blog, please get in touch with us on 0161 941 2426. We’re here to help.