Taking a Step Towards a Successful Workplace Wellness Programme
Mental Health in the workplace, Work-Life balance, Well-being at work – These are not just sound bites or HR trends, but rather topics of the utmost importance for both companies and employees. As such, what can companies do to promote and implement them?
In its Mental Health Action Plan 2013 – 2020, the WHO states that good mental health enables people to realize their potential, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively, and contribute to their communities.
While the World Economic Forum states that the following steps can be taken by an organizations to promote a healthy workplace include:
- Awareness of the workplace environment and how it can be adapted to promote better mental health for different employees.
- Learning from the motivations of organizational leaders and employees who have taken action.
- Understanding the opportunities and needs of individual employees, in helping to develop better policies for workplace mental health.
- Awareness of sources of support and where people can find help.
- Involving employees in decision-making, conveying a feeling of control and participation.
- Programs for career development of employees.
- Recognizing and rewarding the contribution of employees.
As outlined above we can see that well-being at work is a dynamic system which requires contributions from both the employee and the organization.
With that in mind, this is where SAP SuccessFactors Work-Life comes into play. SAP describe SuccessFactors Work-Life as a cloud-based solution designed to help strengthen employee satisfaction, well-being and health by enabling employees and managers to explore aspects that affect their well-being holistically and get personalized, just-in-time insights and recommendations for improvements.
While not a new solution, (it was first launched in 2018 winning the HR Innovation Award in the HR Transformation Category) it doesn’t seem very widespread amongst SAP SuccessFactors clients. However, its significance and relevance has never been more apt.
Workplace wellness has moved center stage with many employers introducing wellness programs and initiatives which are designed to attract talent and also designed to proactively address absenteeism in the workplace. Employers are now realizing that adopting an integrated approach to health and well-being in the workplace may be the best way forward from a business perspective.
SAP SuccessFactors offers organizations the tools to promote a healthier workplace and allows them to invest in the wellbeing of their employees, which in turn increases their productivity. The comprehensive solution takes a holistic approach to wellbeing, addressing five personal well-being areas: body, mind, connections, resources, and motivation.
So, what does SAP SuccessFactors Work-Life offer and how does it enable organizations achieve the steps listed above?
It provides an array of functionalities, which include:
- Well-being Assessment – The employees can undertake assessments on their well-being and use them as feedback to the company. This tackles point 1 through 3 as listed above.
- Digital and personalized coaching – After creating a profile and answering some questions, employees receive ongoing content and personalized proposals fitted to their priorities which can help increase employee well-being and goes towards addressing point 4.
- Create quick polls – The company can get real time feedback from employees by sending them polls, involving them in the organization and bringing them a sense of participation as stated in point 5.
- Integration with other SuccessFactors modules and functionalities which in itself address points 6 and 7, making a case for further benefits of a full SAP SuccessFactors HCM suite.
Finally, all of the data gathered by SuccessFactors Work-Life is available in reports. This allows companies to compare data from different groups, connect employee satisfaction levels over time to specific topics, improving HR decisions and driving company’s policies and investments in a more targeted way. All of this reportable data is completely anonymized, protecting employees privacy as per GDPR regulations.
Bruno Merces is an Electrotechnical Engineer with a Masters in Telecommunications. He has 4 and half years of experience with SAP SuccessFactors where he is an expert in the areas of Employee Central, Time Off and Data Migration. He has taken part on projects in more than 8 countries and in industries such as Energy, Tobacco, Dairy, Construction, Banking, Entertainment and IT.
In conclusion, SAP SuccessFactors Work-Life proves to be a tool with the capability to help employees improve themselves, unlock their potential, empower their decisions and engage them with the company. All of this leads to improved health for the employees which in turn will result in lower turnover rates for the company, lower absenteeism and more productive employees.
Therefore I truly believe this is an application which adds value to both the company from an organizational point of view and to its employees, both at a professional level and at a personal level.
“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”
Bruno Merces is an Electrotechnical Engineer with a Masters in Telecommunications. He has 4 and half years of experience with SAP SuccessFactors where he is an expert in the areas of Employee Central, Time Off and Data Migration. He has taken part on projects in more than 8 countries and in industries such as Energy, Tobacco, Dairy, Construction, Banking, Entertainment and IT.
