How Happy, Healthy, and Engaged Employees Fuel Profitable Construction Companies

Story by Gemma Beasley / October 14, 2022

Every organization starts with the overall goal of being successful. To do so, they focus a significant amount of attention on customer happiness, sometimes neglecting employees. Failing to realize that a happy, healthy, and engaged employee goes a long way toward being more than just the right thing to do. It benefits the entire team and sets it up for success.

Prioritizing employees’ well-being can benefit organizations in the following ways:

#1: More productive employees

The importance of employee productivity in organizations is a simple matter to grasp. The more productive your employees are, the more they get work done and the higher the benefits. Employees who are happy with their jobs are less likely to find excuses to stay away from their desks.

On the other hand, stressed-out and unsatisfied employees are highly likely to be distracted from work. For an organization keen on achieving its goals, the simple fact that happy employees contribute to success should be enough motivation to invest in their happiness.

#2: Better-performing employees

The question of how leaders can improve employee efficiency has been subject to many studies, including this recent study by GALLUP. While there are many means of enhancing the performance of your employees, in general, an employee whose well-being is your priority will perform better.

Well-being and performance go hand in hand. It is one of the most helpful tactics at the leader’s fingertips that ends up leaving both parties happy. When the lives of employees improve overall, the organization stands a better chance of achieving its goals, thanks to the better-performing staff.

#3: Less sick days

An employee whose well-being is neglected has a high chance of calling in sick more often than one who is well taken care of. A high number of sick days causes a loss of workplace productivity while also causing you to scramble for an employee that can cover their duties.

#4: Reduces employee burnout

As burnout reaches an all-time high, leaders are left wondering how best they can make a difference. In particular, the changing scope of world work has resulted in more burnout incidents, making it necessary to protect employees.

Burnout occurs after exhausting all coping mechanisms to severe stress. The result could prove detrimental to the employee and employer in terms of reduced performance, feelings of negativity, insomnia, sadness, and energy depletion. Companies can avoid such setbacks by prioritizing employee well-being. Take an active role in preventing employee burnout by reviewing well-being solutions like longer rests and granting sabbatical leave.

#5: Lower employee turnover

Employee turnover is one of the most unprecedented drags on the bottom line. GALLUP estimates that turnover costs employers more than $ trillion a year. As employees leave, replacing them costs your organization more than it would have taken to retain them.

Employee well-being and low turnover are indisputably interlinked. A leader who creates a culture of health will register lower turnover compared to those that do little to prioritize employee wellbeing.

Typical elements of well-being that matter to your employees

#1: Career wellbeing

Career well-being entails how people spend their day and whether or not they generally like what they do. Employers can take the leading role in helping achieve career well-being. You can do so by encouraging a positive workplace culture that prioritizes employee enjoyment. Fostering a working environment that encourages recognition, positive relationships, and communication can significantly enhance employees’ experience in their day-to-day work. You cannot afford to ignore evaluating your working environment in terms of how it impacts employee experience.

#2: Social wellbeing

Social well-being revolves around the interrelationships among your staff members and the implication on their connections and positive interactions. Social well-being has a direct impact on employees’ mental health. That explains why employers need to look at employees holistically. That is, not only should employers consider employees’ physical health but also consider their mental health.

#3: Financial wellbeing

Financial well-being focuses on your employee’s economic stability and standard of living. It considers whether your staff has the financial muscle to provide for themselves comfortably. As a leader, you can achieve financial well-being in various ways, including providing financial products and services such as payroll savings, granting access to regulated advice and starting cost reduction schemes. The right combination will be determined by the level of needs amongst employees and what is feasible for you to deliver.

#4: Physical wellbeing

You can enhance the physical well-being of your staff and create healthier communities by promoting physical activity in the workplace. Since employees typically spend most of their time at work, employers are in a unique position to promote physical activity. Even for staff who work remotely, letting them know that their physical well-being is your priority can have them dedicated to your organization’s growth.

#5: Community wellbeing

Community well-being looks at your employee’s daily environment and its impact on giving them a sense of satisfaction, connection, and engagement with their living areas. Is your company truly a part of the community it serves?

The role of recognition in achieving wellbeing

Employee recognition and well-being are intrinsically interconnected. Recognition has more impact if it meets these five points:

• Satisfies employee recognition needs
• Authentic
• Personalized
• Equitably distributed
• Embedded in the organization’s culture

The ways in which recognition plays an important role in enhancing employees’ well-being are:

#1: Helps employees thrive

A person’s overall well-being can lie in how they evaluate life at a personal level. People are said to thrive when they have a generally positive outlook on their life and the future. For them, life is good, and it’s getting better.

Employees who feel recognized at work will be more optimistic about their life. That explains why they feel valued, appreciated, and confident when executing their duties.

Promoting a culture of recognition enriches your team members’ well-being holistically. It impacts their career aspirations and social connections while giving them a 91% chance of thriving according to GALLUP.

#2: Lifts employees’ spirits

Recognition can lift your employees’ spirits and positively affect their daily feelings. That can be seen in their emotions, overall outlook, and energy levels. Even though each person has bad and good days, one is said to have achieved well-being when they have more positive and fewer negative emotions.

One way in which recognition triggers positive emotions is that it concentrates on what employees do best at a personal and professional level. The encouragement given publicly or privately by a leader gives them the resilience needed to handle a difficult day. In other words, it can make the difference between bad and good days.

#3: Protects from burnout

Burnout is one of the biggest challenges facing employees in the modern workplace, especially as work dynamics continue to change. Today’s work environments are less forgiving and have become faster with high pressure, prompting the World Health Organization to classify burnout as a syndrome.

A burned-out employee has less productivity, will start looking elsewhere for a job, and will take more sick days. When these employees are genuinely recognized, it can lighten work and make it easier for them to show up. Recognition not only makes them proud but also gives them the strength to continue and try to do better.

#4: Magnifies social wellbeing

People need each other because that connection establishes a sense of belonging. Having strong relationships at the workplace helps with employee engagement and inclusion. When an employee does not have social connections at work, negative results can be seen in performance and well-being. Such an employee would be disengaged, start looking for a new job, and struggle to work.

Fostering an environment of solid social ties at work is imperative for performance, productivity, and well-being. Organizations are more likely to take social well-being seriously if they want employees to be their best selves and give their best at work.

You can achieve social well-being by getting personal while maintaining a professional boundary, encouraging collective ownership of social well-being, making friends by being a friend, promoting friendships by leveraging technology, and using recognition programs to spark friendships.

What should leaders do?

As a leader, you can take the following steps:

Step 1 – Maintain a strategic approach to recognition

Step 2 – Invest smartly in wellbeing

Step 3 – Make recognition an integral part of well-being practices

Step 4 – Upskill managers

Step 5 – Lead by example

In summary, well-being and recognition go hand in hand. An employee who receives the recognition that meets the five core elements of good recognition is likely to register high well-being levels. Such an employee would be happier, healthier, and more engaged in their work. Companies benefit from low employee turnover, high productivity, and increased efficiency. Recognition may have seemed like an unnecessary undertaking for leaders, but it can turn out to be the cornerstone of their success. And the best thing about this is that recognition is something a leader can impact on immediately.

Categories: Hiring Insights, Leadership Insights

Tags: Leadership