How SMEs can prioritise employee wellbeing and create a positive culture

Workplace wellbeing benefits can help reduce absences, speed up the return to work, improve morale and make your business more attractive to job candidates. Providing access to wellbeing support helps your people feel valued and supported at work. Almost three-quarters (72%) of SME employees say they find their wellbeing support useful, with over a third (36%) using it every month. Your wellbeing benefits might include things like online counselling or virtual training sessions to help employees manage their mental health. Other popular benefits include private healthcare and telephone GP services, which can give your employees speedy access to healthcare when they need it most.

Looking after workers’ wellbeing can help businesses save money by reducing sick days, improving productivity¹ and reducing employee turnover. With the average business spending £6,400² per head to recruit and train new employees, keeping your top talent on board has big financial benefits. According to UK workers, their employee benefits package is the third most important factor when choosing a job, behind only salary and flexitime arrangements. When budgets are tight, investing in wellbeing can be a great way to enhance your employee benefits package, offering an alternative to a pay rise without breaking the bank.

1 https://www.cusp.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/pp-wellbeing-report.pdf

2 https://www.nerdwallet.com/uk/business/cost-of-hiring-someone-uk

To make meaningful changes to employee wellbeing, SMEs must open a dialogue with their people to understand what they need to feel happier and more productive at work. Typically we find that mental health is one area where you can make a real impact on a modest budget. UK SMEs lost around £11bn to mental health absences in 2022, but there are lots of options to help support your people. Telephone counselling, Mental Health First Aid and our exclusive Smart Wellbeing platform all provide employees with valuable wellbeing support, with minimal admin for business leaders or HR teams. The most sought-after benefits as voted by employees are:

• Private health insurance
• Access to counselling
• Mental health days
• 24/7 GP service
• Health check ups

These are some of the least expensive yet most valuable benefits for SMEs to put in place, so they’re a great way to make your investment in wellbeing work harder for your people.

To make sure you’re getting the most value out of your investment in wellbeing you can:

• Ask your people what they need. A wellbeing survey the simplest way to make sure your workplace benefits are valuable, yet only around 1 in 3 SME employees say they’ve filled one in.
• Measure what’s working well and focus your efforts. Your employees’ needs will change over time so you might need to replace lesser-used benefits with more relevant options.
• Make sure everyone’s aware of the benefits you’re offering and how to access them. This might include a regular update for managers so they can share new information with their team.

Get in touch to chat to one of our Health and Wellbeing Consultants who can guide you through the best options for your business, or try our tailored digital wellbeing programme — Smart Wellbeing.