Framing Wellness: How to Create Pillars for Internal Communication

Aug 4 / Loren Phillips
When it comes to promoting wellness initiatives internally, employees must be aware of what they have access to, how to use it, and how to integrate it into their day-to-day lives. That's why creating pillars for internal communication is so important. By framing wellness in this way, you can ensure that everyone in your organisation knows about the benefits of your programmes and how they can be used to improve overall wellbeing. Plus, with a clear communication framework in place, it becomes much easier to roll out new initiatives and track their success over time. So if you're looking to create a more holistic approach to employee wellbeing, start by establishing pillars for internal communication.

If you want your organisation to be successful, you need to create a communication framework that integrates with your EVP. The best way to do this is to create pillars for wellness specifically. This way, you can ensure that your messaging is clear and concise and that everyone in the organisation knows about the benefits of your programmes. The advantage of EVP alignment is that your talent pool marketing can also echo your company's commitment to employee health and wellbeing. With a solid communication strategy in place, it becomes much easier to roll out new initiatives and track their success over time.

There are five key pillars that we believe every organisation should focus on when it comes to internal communications: mental health, physical health, emotional wellbeing, financial security and social wellbeing. By promoting initiatives and programmes that support these areas, you can create a simple yet well-rounded approach to employee wellbeing that will have a lasting impact. 

Mental health and your employee value proposition

Mental health is often overlooked in the workplace but is a crucial pillar of employee wellbeing. Stress, anxiety, and other mental health issues can lead to absenteeism, reduced productivity, and high turnover. By integrating mental health into the employee value proposition (EVP), employers can show their commitment to supporting employees’ mental health and wellbeing. This can help to attract and retain top talent, as well as improve morale and productivity. In addition, programs focusing on mental health can help create a more positive work culture and reduce the stigma around mental health issues. When mental health is given the attention it deserves, everyone benefits.

Financial wellbeing and your employee value proposition

Financial security is often cited as a key factor in employee wellness. And it’s no wonder – when people feel like they’re in a stable financial situation, they’re more likely to feel happier and less stressed. This, in turn, has a positive impact on their physical health. On the other hand, financial insecurity can lead to all sorts of problems, both for employees and businesses. Companies must make financial stability a key pillar of their employee wellbeing programs. By doing so, they’re not only committing to their employees’ financial wellbeing but also the long-term success of the business.

Physical health and your employee value proposition

There’s no question that physical health significantly impacts the bottom line. Healthy employees are less stressed, are more productive and have more energy, and companies that promote physical activity initiatives can benefit greatly. In addition, physical health can improve employee engagement and retention, both of which are essential for any company. Investing in the physical health of your employees, for example, by offering smoking cessation or weight loss journeys and support groups to employees, businesses can help to create a healthy workplace environment and improve their bottom line.

Emotional health and your employee value proposition

Emotional health is often grouped together with physical or mental health, but the two need to be separated in order to measure more accurately the quality of employee experience in an organisation. Poor emotional health can lead to physical health problems, and vice versa. For example, feelings of insecurity can lead to high blood pressure, while social anxiety can cause dizziness and stomach problems. It’s therefore crucial that organisations do everything they can to promote emotional health in the workplace.

One way of doing this is by ensuring that employees feel comfortable talking about their emotions, and offering encouragement and support to do so.. This can be achieved by creating an environment where psychological safety is upheld in various forms. For example, employees should feel comfortable openly sharing their feelings and experiences with their colleagues without fear of judgement or reprisal. By promoting emotional health in the workplace, organisations can create more present-minded and productive employees.

Social well-being and your employee value proposition

We know that a large part of learning happens outside of the training room. For any learning event to be deemed successful, we need to be able to prove that the learner can apply the information or newly acquired skills to a range of situations at work. What manner of support are your learners offered outside of the classroom? Have you considered a peer-learning approach, coaching or mentorship?