Marzena and I would like to invite you and your organisation to work together to build a culture of well-being. Our expertise and experience, combined with our deep conviction that well-being is possible but still not present in many organisations, have made us want to steer the development of M-Powered more strongly in this direction. In our blog, there are already many articles on the topic of work-life balance . From now on, we will be broadening this area and bringing you even more knowledge on well-being values, programmes, tips and good practices.
In this blog, I would like to share with you some of the basics, i.e. the main pillars of well-being programmes, together with a true-life example of these pillars being put into practice. Enjoy reading and contact us if you would like to explore the subject more.
Organizational well-being culture needs to correspond with people’s needs. The best well-being programmes are holistic and built on 6 essential pillars:
- Physical – healthy body and healthy lifestyle: healthy diet, taking care of the quality of sleep; regular rest and holidays; regular medical check-ups; physical exercise, etc.
- Mental – developing emotional intelligence, i.e. understanding and managing emotions, the ability to cope with stress, building mental toughness, developing awareness of one’s potential, strengths, and areas for development.
- Professional – preventing and protecting employees from professional burnout, acquiring new skills, lifelong learning, promotional and developmental opportunities, regular feedback from superiors, and opportunities to influence one’s professional development;
- Social – building and developing relationships with others, nurturing inclusion, belonging and communication, experiencing different social roles, developing communication skills and self-knowledge about the most rewarding roles in the group;
- Personal/spiritual – awareness of one’s personal goals (e.g. family, relationship, children), passions and higher needs. A sense of acceptance in this area, development of one’s inner and spiritual life, building self-confidence based on one’s values and life goals. This dimension is also about time for loved ones, family, and friends.
- Financial – feeling solvent, being able to meet one’s needs, feeling secure about the future and making choices to enjoy life.
One good example of a quite comprehensive well-being programme is The #ShellWeCare programme that has been in place at Shell Poland since 2019. In 2021. Shell organised 70 educational sessions on stress management, mindfulness exercises, yoga, and financial well-being. In addition, employees can participate in Mental Health Buddies training sessions. At the end of the year, the company expanded its Employee Assistance Programme. The four-day psychological support was replaced by 24-hour counselling for employees and their families. All materials from the meetings are published on the Better Together platform, which is also a quarterly calendar of events. The platform was launched in July 2020 and had over 17,000 views by the end of 2021.
Another example comes from the European Leasing Fund. Be well at EFL is built around four areas: EFL my place – caring for comfortable working conditions, employee development, well-being and relationships; EFL my passion – caring for passions that contribute to well-being, encouraging the sharing of interests with work friends; EFL my responsibility – pursuing a variety of passions and sharing them with work friends; EFL my family – participating in employee events and taking advantage of offers to spend free time with family. The programme is appreciated not only by the employees but also received the “Family and Human Friendly Company” award.
To conclude I would like to emphasise that as regards well-being programmes it is the quality, not the quantity of proposed activities that really matter. Get to know your employees’ well-being needs and answer them directly. This is the best track you can take.
