*This article was last updated October 2020.
There is an assumption that creating a competitive, cut-throat workplace improves productivity, performance levels of your employees and overall success of the organization. But contrary to popular belief, fostering these negative environments in your workplace can actually cost your company money.
Four ways kindness impacts your bottom-line
550 million workdays are lost each year due to stress on the job
60 to 80 percent of workplace incidents (e.g. disagreements with coworkers) are attributed to stress
80 percent of doctor visits are due to stress
Workplace stress is linked to health problems ranging from metabolic syndrome to cardiovascular disease and mortality
Source: The Harvard Business Review
According to LinkedIn.com External Site kindness isn’t a sign of weakness — on the contrary — it’s a sign of strength that improves overall health and emotional well-being in the workplace. When your employees experience kindness in the workplace they see an increase in energy levels, positive perspectives and well-being.
3 tips to promote kindness in your workplace
- Reward good work and celebrate success. A simple ‘well done’ or ‘thank you’ in recognition for good work can be worth more than monetary awards.
- Compliment coworkers. Whether they have a new haircut, pair of shoes or crushed a sales pitch, let them know you noticed.
- Stop rumors. If there is chatter at the water cooler about others in the office, stop it right in its tracks.
Eighty-seven percent of organization cite culture and engagement as one of their top challenges.
Source: Deloitte
Bridge the culture gap in your workplace
Get a deeper look into your company culture with SALVEO Partners' Thriving Workplace Culture SurveyTM (TWCS). With this survey and the help of your Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield well-being consultant, you can get a better understand of your employees' current levels of engagement with your company culture, and other distinctive influences that relate to their overall health and well-being. This survey is based on the latest workplace culture research. It measures for both organizational and employee well-being as well as the strength of current culture and desired culture. Not to mention, it's completely confidential, which ensures your employees will answer honestly.
What are the benefits of adding TWCS to your workplace?
- Sustainable change. The survey highlights areas of current or desired alignment, allowing you to build on the cultural strengths of your organization.
- Future focused. Receive analysis and reporting that addresses an overview of strengths and weaknesses of the culture and how employees view their work. Additional analysis is available upon request, such as Millennial analysis.
- Increased alignment. Receive a blueprint for where to focus all cultural improvement efforts that will benefit both the organization as well as the employees.
A holistic workplace well-being program
A healthy workplace is more than encouraging your employees to eat right and exercise more. With Wellmark employer well-being and consulting services, you get a more holistic approach. Our focus and expertise is to create engaging well-being solutions to meet your organization’s unique needs by focusing on the six elements of well-being: financial, emotional, physical, social, community, and career.
So, whether your employees need to focus more on kindness and gratitude and less on stress, our health and well-being consultants can help you find the right combination suite for your workplace because we have data and insights on your employees that you might not have in-house. Our team can serve as an extension of your workforce to provide expertise in creating engaging solutions to meet the unique needs of your workplace.
Interested in learning more? Fill out our form to receive a free complimentary consultation Opens in a new window with one of our well-being experts. Once you complete the form, you'll receive a copy of our Well-being that works guide. From there, we can work with you to determine which solution that best solution for your employee population. Or, you can email us at blueatwork@wellmark.com and we'll connect you.
