Looking after the wellbeing of employees is crucial to running a successful business. Being proactive around wellbeing ensures that staff feel safe, supported, and happy – which means a more productive workplace.
Being proactive around wellbeing doesn’t always mean having a dedicated workplace wellbeing strategy in place. However those with responsibility for employee wellbeing should consider the four pillars of wellbeing in every decision they make.
Here’s our quick guide to the four pillars of employee wellbeing and what they mean for employers. Stay tuned at the end, too, as we cover some commonly asked questions around supporting wellbeing in the workplace.
Table of Contents
What are the Four Pillars of Wellbeing at Work
There are four main pillars of employee wellbeing. These are:
- Physical Wellbeing
- Mental Wellbeing
- Social Wellbeing
- Financial Wellbeing
Whilst these won’t cover every detail of wellbeing in someone’s life, they generally cover the areas of wellbeing that make up the overall health and happiness of an individual. From a wellbeing manager’s perspective, these areas can be used to map out wellbeing in the workplace, and develop an underlying wellbeing strategy.
1. Physical Wellbeing
Physical wellbeing doesn’t just cover whether you’re physically healthy or not (though that is very much part of it). Instead, this pillar of wellbeing looks holistically at the overall physical wellbeing of a person, and how that can impact their daily life.
To give an example, from a physical health perspective, we may ask questions like:
- Is this person a healthy weight?
- Is their blood pressure in a normal range?
- Are their cholesterol levels healthy?
Looking at physical wellbeing holistically, though, we could also consider questions such as:
- How does this person feel when they wake up?
- How would they rate their daily energy levels?
- How would they rate their own physical wellbeing?
It’s a very slight distinction, but physical wellbeing puts focus on the individual as a whole, and not just their health stats.
2. Mental Wellbeing
Mental wellbeing is often a focal point in terms of the pillars of employee wellbeing. Many organisations have mental health plans and strategies in place, with an added emphasis on this pillar in a post-COVID world.
Much like physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing doesn’t just look at whether someone is mentally healthy or ill, but considers the full spectrum of mental wellbeing. This could cover issues such as:
- Does a person have a mental illness?
- Is stress a big part of someone’s job?
- Are some employees experiencing difficulty in their personal lives?
- Are people happy with their working environment?
- Are physical, social, or financial problems causing worry?
Mental wellbeing covers a broad spectrum of issues that apply to everyone, not just those with a mental health condition. This is why mental wellbeing is a top priority for many organisations – especially considering poor mental health costs UK businesses around £51bn per year, according to Deloitte.
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3. Social Wellbeing
Social wellbeing considers whether employees are socially satisfied both at work and at home. Working environment is a big consideration, especially given the rise in hybrid and home working. The nuance here, is not just a question of ‘is this person being sociable or not?’ Instead, it’s about considering the needs of the individual employee, and whether these needs are met consistently, alongside looking out for any changes that could indicate a problem.
For example, a typically chatty and outgoing person could suddenly become a lot less sociable, which may indicate problems under the other pillars of wellbeing.
On the other hand, a typically quiet and introverted person who is quite comfortable working from home might struggle if they suddenly have to start working in an office with other people.
It’s all about the context around the individual and their unique needs.
4. Financial Wellbeing
A continuing increase in the cost of living has pushed employee financial wellbeing into the spotlight. Whilst wages will play a part in an employee’s financial health, there are wider factors that come into consideration, too. These include:
- Financial knowledge (mortgages, pensions, investments etc.)
- Debt and credit
- Budgeting and future planning
Additionally, certain workplace benefits may factor into someone’s financial wellbeing positively, if offered, such as:
- Pensions and benefits
- Employer-provided insurances
- Employer-funded education and training
On the other hand, there are various costs associated with being employed that could affect someone’s overall wellbeing, including:
- Commuting and parking costs
- Needing childcare
- Paying to attend work social events
Financial wellbeing is one of the trickiest pillars of employee wellbeing to consider, as salary plays such a huge role. Digging deeper, though, it’s clear that employers can impact an employee’s finances in other ways, both good and bad.
Looking for some ideas around supporting the pillars of wellbeing at work? Check out our blog post packed with wellbeing ideas – one for every week of the year!
Blog: 52 Ideas for Workplace Wellbeing
Why Use the Four Pillars of Wellbeing?
Considering the points we’ve covered above, it should be clear why the four pillars of wellbeing at work are equally important. That being said, it can be easy to get bogged down in one aspect in particular, whilst neglecting other aspects.
Let’s pretend your business is a building which is held up by these four pillars. If all pillars are strong and intact, your business will stay upright. If one of the pillars is damaged, however, it could break. Whilst this may not cause the whole building to collapse, it could still cause damage to the structure and other pillars.
If all of the pillars are in disrepair or collapsing, then you’ve got a failing business on your hands, that’s in serious need of support.
It’s a basic analogy, but it stands true. If your employees’ needs aren’t met, they won’t work well for your business, and it won’t be sustainable.
Whilst you don’t need to invest in every pillar equally (some of your pillars of employee wellbeing may be stronger than others), it’s important to regularly assess what aspect of wellbeing needs attention. Not sure what your employees need? Try a benchmarking exercise using an employee survey.
Why Wellbeing at Work Matters – The Stats
Supporting the pillars of wellbeing at work is now standard for a lot of business, as they understand the benefits of wellbeing and have the resources to roll out a strategy that supports everyone.
That being said, the case for wellbeing may not be immediately obvious in some organisations or industries. With this in mind, we’ve pulled a few stats from the CIPD Health and Wellbeing at Work Report to highlight the benefits of supporting wellbeing, no matter where you work:
- The average rate of employee absence is 7.8 days of lost working time per year, up considerably from the pre-COVID 5.8 days figure.
- Mental ill health is the primary cause of long-term (four weeks or longer) absence, reported by 63% of organisations surveyed.
- 25% of organisations list stress as a primary cause of short-term absence.
- Whilst 37% of organisations list stress as a primary cause of long-term absence.
- 76% of respondents reported stress-related absence of some kind, with heavy workloads and management styles being the most common causes.
- The vast majority of businesses surveyed (87%) reported presenteeism happening in their business – where staff who are too ill to work productively don’t take a sick day.
- Only half of organisations (55%) provide stress management training for line managers, despite management style being one of the top causes of stress-related absence.
There are a lot of useful statistics in the report, but this list highlights some of the key benefits that investing in the pillars of employee wellbeing can bring to your business. If we flip some of these stats around, here are a few simple solutions to really help boost wellbeing (and productivity) in the workplace:
- Stress is a big cause of both short and long-term absence in workplaces. Teaching employees how to manage stress could help reduce absences at work, leading to higher productivity.
- Line managers (apologies in advance to any reading this!) are a big source of stress at work. Giving managers the tools to support employee mental health effectively could produce a huge boost in employee wellbeing.
- Presenteeism is still an issue in almost every organisation. This has two impacts:
- Unwell employees likely won’t be working to their usual standard, which could affect quality, or even pose health and safety risks.
- There is a risk of spreading illness amongst the workforce, which could lead to further absences or presenteeism.
- Developing a policy for handling employee illness by encouraging them to stay home when ill could help mitigate these risks, benefiting the employee, as well as the business.
How New Leaf Health Can Improve Wellbeing in Your Workplace
Here at New Leaf Health, we’ve been championing the importance of workplace wellbeing for over 28 years. In that time, the landscape has shifted away from ‘why do wellbeing’ towards the challenge of ‘how to do wellbeing’.
The truth is, there’s no off-the-shelf approach that fits every workplace. All of your colleagues have different wants and needs. If you look at a competitor, their employees will have completely different wellbeing needs too.
Supporting the pillars of wellbeing is all about tailoring your approach on a personal level. Apps and digital platforms are great, but they don’t know that Julie in finance is experiencing perimenopausal symptoms, but her doctor won’t take her seriously. Or that Amir in sales has high blood pressure – and he doesn’t know it, either.
We look at wellbeing holistically to help find the right solutions for your colleagues. We underwrite this with four key principles – you could say that they’re our own pillars of wellbeing:
- Equity: health and wellbeing initiatives should be accessible to all.
- Equality: campaigns should respect staff without discrimination around ability, age, culture, etc.
- Empowerment: colleagues should feel empowered by wellbeing, and not dictated to – it should improve their self-awareness, self-esteem, and decision-making around their own wellbeing.
- Engagement: wellbeing is holistic and should involve colleagues in all aspects – it’s about what matters to them.
Want to see exactly how we can engage your colleagues around different topics? Click below to check out our case study from Community Housing, where we helped over 240 employees take control of their wellbeing in just two days.
Pillars of Wellbeing at Work FAQs
Below we’ve pulled together some common questions around the pillars of wellbeing at work and answered them.
Got a question we haven’t covered here? Ask away! Send an email to enquiries@newleafhealth.co.uk and we’ll get back to you.
What are the four pillars of wellbeing at work?
Simply put, the main four pillars of wellbeing are:
- Physical wellbeing
- Mental wellbeing
- Social wellbeing
- Financial wellbeing
Are the pillars of wellbeing at work interconnected?
The pillars of employee wellbeing are absolutely connected. Our diagram above does a great job of illustrating how failure to support one aspect of wellbeing can cause other areas to suffer too.
As an example, if someone is feeling particularly stressed at work (the mental wellbeing pillar), they could engage in harmful coping strategies outside of work, such as using alcohol or drugs to cope. Not only will this affect the physical wellbeing of that individual, but it could also impact their social and financial wellbeing, too.
This is an extreme example, but it highlights the importance of approaching wellbeing holistically.
How does physical wellbeing impact employee performance?
A physically unwell employee simply may not be able to do their job, needing to go off sick. Musculoskeletal issues are an example of this, where a staff member has a physical injury and can’t perform manual handling tasks.
On a deeper level, though, let’s say you have a desk-based worker who has been feeling particularly fatigued for the past month. They’re worried about what’s going on with their body, but they’re struggling to get a doctor’s appointment, which is causing them more stress and worry and, understandably, they’re completely distracted in their job.
This illustrates clearly how the pillars of wellbeing can impact each other, as well as overall employee performance.
What are some ways employers can support financial wellbeing?
Financial wellbeing is always a tricky topic, as employers often think it’s simply a conversation about salary.
Whilst salary plays a part, there are many other aspects of financial wellbeing where employees may struggle, which can be addressed through education and awareness, including:
- Mortgages
- Pensions
- Investments
- Debt and credit
- Budgeting
- Benefits employees are entitled to
There are many financial advisors and educators in the UK that offer workshops around some of these topics. Just be sure to thoroughly research educators, as some may try to sell their services to staff as part of the workshop. This may be something you want to offer, but it’s worth considering.
On the subject of employee benefits, our clients often ask us about this – their colleagues simply don’t know about their EAP or colleague support channels. Our solution? We build it into their wellbeing event. If staff are participating in a stress awareness workshop, for example, we signpost them at the end to their staff intranet, where they can access details about their EAP.
What role does leadership play in promoting wellbeing at work?
Leadership buy-in is crucial to promoting wellbeing and supporting the pillars of wellbeing at work.
Senior leaders must be willing to invest in wellbeing and take it seriously. Change comes from the top down, so if leaders within the business don’t engage, they’ll just act as bottlenecks for delivering engaging campaigns.
A line manager who doesn’t consider employee stress to be their responsibility, for example, will prevent the situation from improving in a meaningful way.
Are there more than four pillars of wellbeing at work?
Whilst the four pillars of wellbeing we’ve covered here are the main ones, there’s a case to be made for several other pillars:
- Digital wellbeing: how overall wellbeing is impacted by the use of digital technology.
- Professional wellbeing: to what extent employees are fulfilled in their professional lives.
- Community wellbeing: how well someone engages with their community, be it at work, or in a wider sense. This is an off-shoot of social wellbeing.
- Environmental wellbeing: another aspect of social wellbeing, this explores how colleagues interact with their immediate environment at work, as well as in a wider sense across the business.
- Emotional wellbeing: a more specific aspect of mental wellbeing that focuses on the emotions of employees.
Ultimately, the pillars are dictated by your workplace culture and the needs of your staff. If you think that a certain aspect of life and wellbeing is crucial to the proper functioning of your workplace, then make it one of your pillars!
My business doesn’t have a wellbeing strategy, what should I do?
The first question to ask yourself is – what do you want to achieve, and how will it help you support the four pillars of wellbeing?
Your organisation may have a real problem with stress. This could be documented through employee annual reviews, feedback through a company-wide survey, or it could just be a general gut feeling.
This is your case for offering mental wellbeing support – now you need to identify the right approach. In our experience, education will empower employees to take control of stress and give them the tools to manage pressure effectively. You may need to offer support at the line manager level, too, to facilitate that full buy-in across the business.
You can apply this approach to the other pillars of wellbeing at work, but developing your own strategy can help to formalise it.
If you’d like advice on developing your wellbeing strategy, we’re here to help. Get in touch with one of our workplace wellbeing experts – send an email to enquiries@newleafhealth.co.uk.