The Covid-19 pandemic has had a dramatic impact on work over the last year, with most HR professionals agreeing that it has significantly reduced employee wellbeing. Even so, more than four-fifths of HR professionals say their organizations have generally done a good job safeguarding employees during this crisis.
Although this period has included some major shifts in how organizations address employee well-being, it has also helped justify approaches that were established well before the pandemic and that will continue after it is over.
Generally speaking, the concepts of employee well-being and employee wellness have evolved over the last 20 years. Today, the concept of well-being encompasses not only physical and mental well-being but also social, financial and environmental well-being. Employee wellness programs have been expanded to reflect this more holistic idea of well-being. In addition, the term “employee well-being programs” has become much more widely used than it was 20 years.
Employee well-being is increasingly linked with employee experience, which is another more expansive concept that has grown more important in recent years. Indeed, the HR Research Institute’s most recent study of employee experience has found that about three-quarters of HR professionals report employee experience is more important than it was three years ago and that organizations are expending considerable effort on those enhancing employee experiences. These experiences are believed to impact a range of other positive business outcomes including recruitment, retention, engagement, performance and productivity.
To learn more about these issues, we undertook this study to determine the current state of employee well-being and how organizations have trying to influence and safeguard well-being in recent times.
To read The State of Employee Health and Well-being 2021, click here!
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