Personal : The social side of employee wellbeing

The social side of employee wellbeing

Social responsibility initiatives can have a positive impact on employee wellbeing. People like to feel proud of where they work, and social responsibility activities that they can get involved with, and that make a positive impact, help to make them feel happy and engaged. And that makes them less likely to look elsewhere for a job. A recent Nielsen Survey found that 67% of respondents preferred to work for socially responsible companies.

How to be socially responsible and boost employee wellbeing

• Allow employees to work on side projects during work's time.
Encourage them to get involved with selecting the organisations groups or causes that will benefit from the various company-supported projects and initiatives
• Forging long term relationships with these organisations fosters a real sense of commitment and over time will give more employees an opportunity to get involved
• Create optional volunteer programmes where employees are able to help in the community, whether local or global, but ensure that the company gets feedback and recognises and rewards a job well done.
• Provide opportunities for training and skills development in areas not necessarily job-related, but which can be used in social responsibility activities.
• Ensure that the activities are fully communicated throughout the organisation, on intranets, social media, etc., to maximise the feel good factor.