Wellness Coordinators: How are you addressing quality of life in your workplace wellness program?
Wellness is more than just physical health. Well-being is multidimensional and comprises six dimensions: physical, social, emotional, intellectual, occupational, and spiritual. It can easily be argued that these six interrelated dimensions play a role in quality of life (QoL).
Wikipedia broadly describes quality of life as “the general well-being of individuals and societies.” Wikipedia describes well-being as “a general term for the condition of an individual or group. For example, their social, economic, psychological, spiritual or medical status; high well-being means that, in a sense, the experience of the individual or group is positive, while low well-being is associated with negative events. ” Obviously, both quality of life and well-being can have a wide range of contexts.
One such context is health-related quality of life (HQOL). Wikipedia describes HQOL as the way in which an individual’s life is “adversely affected by a debilitating weakness that is not life threatening, a life-threatening illness that is not terminal, a terminal illness, the natural and predictable deterioration of the health of an elderly person, an unforeseen mental / physical decline in a loved one, and end-stage chronic disease processes. “
A second context would be the quality of life in action. (WQOL). In the workplace, WQOL is essentially affected by two key areas: the physical environment and the people-related environment. The physical environment is made up of buildings, temperature, comfort, equipment, etc. The people-related environment addresses all aspects of the employee experience, such as workplace relationships, how employees are treated, supported, trained and developed, both personally and at work.
Since tackling costs is a constant factor in the workplace, Debra Dailey, group vice president of global transformation at Sodexo and her colleagues have developed a concept called Quality of Life per Square Foot. This concept addresses the individual needs of employees “in a way that maximizes the effect of the built environment or the services provided inside.”
Sodexo is a world leader in quality of life services that help improve employee well-being, optimize work processes, and ensure the smooth running and safety of all types of workplaces. In its 2015 Workplace Trends Report, based on its nearly 50 years of quality of life research and analysis, Sodexo has identified 6 essential dimensions for quality of life. Are:
• Social interaction
• Ease and efficiency
• Physical environment
• Personal growth
• Recognition
• Health & Wellness
As a workplace wellness coordinator, how could you best utilize these quality of life dimensions within the framework of your wellness program?
Social interaction
Like all human beings, employees need social interaction. Social support is huge when it comes to making and maintaining lifestyle changes. Find ways to incorporate team and group challenges and competitions. And for those of you who don’t like group activities, don’t forget a buddy system.
Ease and efficiency
Since time is of the essence, seek to remove or minimize as many barriers as you can. Make sure employees can participate in your initiatives easily, efficiently, and with minimal disruption to the other requirements of their lives.
Physical environment
Find ways to incorporate the existing physical environment into your programming. Also look for easy, simple and inexpensive ways to modify the existing physical environment to better suit your needs.
Personal growth
Wellness is not just about physical health. Who could you partner with or collaborate with to better address the non-health needs of employees? How could you help improve the employee experience?
Recognition
Recognition is different from incentives. All employees want to be appreciated and truly valued for their contribution to their efforts at work. A simple thank you goes a long way. There are many ways to recognize employees at low and no cost. How many different are you using?
Health & Wellness
While health is important, wellness is about helping employees thrive.
Since quality of life is recognized as an important factor in both employee well-being and employer performance, quality of life must be incorporated into all workplace wellness programs today.