View videos and insights from the Wellbeing at Work Conference.
Workplace wellness is any combination of holistic workplace characteristics that support healthy behavior in the workplace, improve health outcomes, and strengthen workplace culture. Workplace wellness practices have been proven to aid in recruiting and retaining highly skilled employees. Practices that support workplace wellness help reduce health risks, enhance productivity, improve employees’ quality of life and happiness levels, benefit the organization’s bottom line, and help the organization recruit and retain top talent (Proto, 2016; Society for Human Resource Management, n.d.).
Workplace culture can be framed as, “The personality of an organization from the employee perspective” (Siu, 2014). More specifically, it is the environment and atmosphere that employees work in, combining the leadership, beliefs, values, attitudes, behaviors, and interactions within the workplace. A positive workplace culture successfully creates a space where employees feel comfortable, trusted, valued, and empowered in their work. An organization’s culture is interwoven into everything they do, stand for, and how they treat their employees (Siu, 2014).
Workplace well-being and culture encompass every topic from physical and mental health to teambuilding, aspects of the work environment, and beyond. Many of the practices discussed will have overlapping benefits, such as improved productivity, retention, collaboration, job satisfaction, mental health, and engagement. We hope this guide serves as a resource for Michigan State University faculty and staff, from leaders to employees, looking to improve their workplace well-being. The WorkLife Office is here to help!
References
Proto, E. (2016, December 1). Are happy workers more productive? IZA World of Labor. https://wol.iza.org/articles/are-happy-workers-more-productive/long
Siu, E. (2014, October 21). It Really Pays to Have a Rich Company Culture. Entrepreneur. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238640#
Society For Human Resource Management. (n.d.). SHRM’s Effective Workplace Index: Creating a Workplace That Works for Employers and Employees. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert-views/Documents/SHRM-NSCW-Effective-Workplace-Index-Summary.pdf