Could you believe that 2022 is already halfway over? With six months left in the year, now is an excellent time to modernize employee experience in light of changing workplace dynamics.

Unexpected work-life integration and social isolation have transformed employee engagement and experience over the past two and a half years. A report by Well Right states that it is crucial to prioritize personalized employee well-being if you want to boost employee productivity and business ROI. The global pandemic also revealed a flood of new information about personalized employee wellness and how to define mental health at work. Personalization describes the growing requirement for companies to provide a wider variety of advantages to their employees.  Personalization makes employees feel special or valued.  Especially in the post-pandemic era where businesses have been forced to make the transition to the remote and hybrid model and are now having to focus on the employee experience in order to get ahead of their competitors and build customer loyalty. According to People Keep, companies that offer personalized employee well-being have an advantage in regards to employee retention in today's competitive workplace. However, a lot of companies still don't prioritize employees' mental health at work.

In this article, we will explore the importance of personalized employee well-being, its benefits and how it helps companies to enhance employee retention.

What Is Employee Well-being?

Employee well-being can be defined as a critical element of positive work culture and successful organization. It is all about your employees' overall mental, physical, emotional, and financial well-being. It is influenced by a number of factors, including their workplace culture, interactions with teammates, the choices they make, and the resources and tools they have at their disposal. Employee well-being is significantly impacted by hours worked, remuneration, and workplace safety. Organizations that encourage employee well-being help keep a happy and productive work atmosphere while also making it easier for employees to control their workplace stress levels.

Research conducted by Gallup in 2019 found that more than 87% of the workforce are not completely satisfied with their jobs and organization. Inadequate management, lack of right employee support, poor knowledge management system and an absence of employee wellness initiatives are the key reasons behind this. As a result, all of these will negatively impact employee engagement and mental health. When organizations fail to prioritize employees' well-being at the workplace, they are likely to be hit by top performer burnout rates and high employee turnover rates.  There is no doubt that ever since 2020, employees have faced various challenges due to issues with remote work, uncertainty about our futures and jobs, and other issues like inflations etc that affect their mental peace and hinder their productivity level. An efficient employee well-being program can help in this situation.

Benefits Of Prioritizing Employee Well-being Programs

When employees have access to well-being initiatives, it will help them to stay healthy, reduce stress, and enhance overall wellbeing. There are many various wellness programs, some of which place more of an emphasis on physical fitness than others do on mental health. All these programs will be conducted by the employer.

Here are some reasons why developing an employee well-being program is crucial:

1. Boost employee productivity
   
   
2. Enhance employee experience and engagement
   
   
3. Improve employee satisfaction
   
   
4. Reduce employee absenteeism
   
   
5. Lower employee turnover rates
   
   
6. Ensure work-life balance
   
   

Now that you have a better understanding of employee well-being, let's look at how it helps companies retain top talents.

What Is Employee Retention?

Employee retention is an organizational goal that allows employers to keep top talent and maintain a healthy work environment with minimal employee turnover. Here are the reasons why it’s so important in this ever-changing workplace.

1. Existing employees are well adapted to your work culture
   
   Needless to say, when a new employee is onboard, it will take time for them to get acclimatized to a fresh or foreign work environment. This learning curve takes time away from productive tasks and is an inevitable part of onboarding a new hire. However, retaining existing employees doesn’t have to lose potential productivity as they are well accustomed to the workplace and can maximize their efficiency pretty quickly in a new role or on a newer project.
   
   
2. Avoiding onboarding costs
   
   Attracting top talent is expensive and can prove to be a time-consuming task and may sometimes lead to crippling vacancies that reduce the company’s overall performance. Each employee you onboard are essentially an investment as a huge amount of time and resources must be spent on getting them up to speed with the rest of the existing workforce, and having a high employee turnover rate means you’ll have to keep making recurring investments into onboarding for new employees in order to fill the gaps left behind by ex-employees.
   
   
3. Team building and group cohesion
   
   Suppose someone’s been working as part of a particular team or group for a significant time. In that case, chances are that they probably understood each other’s weaknesses, and strengths and can communicate effectively and be more efficient as a team. This team spirit and unit cohesion is something that cannot be substituted and is a crucial backbone for any high-performing business as employees that work together can occasionally fill each other’s roles in times of emergencies, serve as a morale booster to their team and help fill in the gaps that might be too large for just an individual to complete. While it’s true that new hires may eventually develop team cohesion, it comes at a great cost in lost time/productivity to the business.
   
   
4. Industry knowledge and experience
   
   Every industry has a few unspoken rules, tricks and tips that cannot be found in any guide or book and are naturally cultivated by the workforce over several years. This insight can be valuable in guiding a new business or helping an established one through more challenging times. Seasoned employees will be well versed in these methods and can pass their acquired skill sets onto the new hires over time, veteran employees can act as an essential source of guidance, and therefore their loss is damaging to a company as they might lose out on these industry tips and tricks and have to repeat the process of trial and error to find out what works, all over again.
   
   
5. Potential candidates for upskilling/HR investments
   
   Organizations know their employees better than anyone else. As a result, existing employees are far better candidates for upskilling than new hires as you've probably been able to gauge their performance, work ethic etc. after an extended time and can then make a well-educated decision on whether a particular program or course might be beneficial to an employee or not.
   
   
6. Establishing a reputable brand image
   
   A low employee turnover rate gives a business an excellent work environment, helping attract new talent and giving a sense of pride and accomplishment to the existing workforce. It is an undeniable part of company identity and forms a greater sense of belonging.
   
   

How Personalized Employee Well-being Enhances Employee Retention?

Organizations must ensure a seamless employee experience in this ever-evolving work culture by offering employee well-being programs and other benefits and incentives. Employees who feel their needs are neglected; they will look for other companies. Offering wellness perks is one of the most effective methods to retain your staff. Because it directly impacts output, engagement, and work satisfaction, employee well-being is a crucial component of any business –regardless of its industry.

In an Employee Benefits Trends Study conducted by MetLife in 2022, more than 52% of employees responded that health and wellness initiatives like gym memberships are essential. Only 33% of companies claim to have or intend to provide these benefits. Wellness initiatives can also motivate employees to take better care of their health, lowering health risks and healthcare expenses. This will help them stay productive whether they are working remotely or at the office. When employees start enjoying their work culture, they are more likely to stick with the company for years and refer others to it.

Following are some of the employee well-being programs that will meet your organization’s requirements and attract your employees.

1. Personalized healthcare
   
   Each employee is different and may have different healthcare needs. For example, people with disabilities who might need physiotherapy or expensive equipment not covered under traditional healthcare schemes may be forced to take on huge medical expenses or reduce productivity. In this hypothetical scenario, a personalized healthcare plan would include their specific needs and ensure that the third-party company or internal HR team is well informed about potential expenses and can support the employees during their times of need. Another trend that’s become popular in recent years is to have a medical plan that can cover multiple members of a family and not just the employee, in general, it’s a huge stress relief for anyone with elderly parents or young children, as they know that in the event of an emergency, their loved ones are insured and won’t be subjected to surprise medical bills or expensive surgeries. This will significantly increase employee retention as favorable healthcare programs ensure great peace of mind for employees, knowing they will be taken care of by their company.
   
   
2. Personalized schedules
   
   With the hybrid workplace environment becoming increasingly popular, employees have pushed employers for more flexible working hours. Employers must respond by meeting these demands or coming to an acceptable compromise such as letting employees pick their time slots. This allows them to construct their personal schedules around these times and gives them the freedom to strike a better work/life balance.
   
   
3. Personalized upgrade/upskill plans
   
   In order to keep up with the times and maintain pace with the ever-growing competition, it is inevitable that a business will have to upskill its employees in order to remain competitive in the future. Offering employees with the skills they want to invest their time into will ensure a better learning experience, ensure that an employee stays motivated and competent, thereby greatly reducing the chances of them leaving their current workplace.
   
   
4. Personalized benefits
   
   The goal of personalization is to ensure that benefits needed by the employee are given to them. For example: Some companies offer frequent flier programs or credit card offers that are optional but available for activation. Yet most people might not have much use for these and might need something else like: Paternal/Maternal leave or a car insurance plan, a subway pass etc. In this case, the effectiveness of the same number of resources being spent on each employee is greatly maximized as they address exactly what problems an employee has without wasting assets on unnecessary benefits that might be unused.
   
   
5. Personalized HR support
   
   Having an HR team that is employee focused and centers their needs as a top priority is essential in retaining talent. Modern HR service desks like Rezolve.ai offer conversational AI-powered smart chatbots that allow employees to get quick and easy solutions without having to wait for tedious HR processes, fill lengthy documents or take time off from their regular schedules to get issues settled. Employee retention is increased when workplace frustration is greatly reduced.
   
   Read More: How Rezolve.ai’s HR Chatbot Provide Instant Support?
   
   

Conclusion

The key to retaining employees for a long period is understanding and catering to their specific needs and always giving them that sense of importance and belonging in the workplace. Employees have distinct requirements and preferences for their desired job in the rapidly changing workplace. Companies that provide a range of perks, such as employee wellness benefits, are more likely to draw and keep top talent. A successful employee well-being program adopts a holistic strategy that considers your employees' physical and emotional health, stress management, and initiatives that foster inclusion and belonging.