When it comes to spending money of the wellbeing of your staff during a recession, how do you make sure you're spending it in the right place? Just throwing money at this area rarely works well because you need to be strategic and work around the specific needs of your workforce. Here are some guidelines that should help you make the right decision with your budget.
How do I make the right decision about what to spend the money on?
Fancy initiatives that cost a fortune are no substitute for targeted initiatives that make a real difference. Bear in mind the following guidelines:
• Use initiatives that get people excited and get people involved
• Incentivise your programme by recognising and rewarding those who take part. This needn’t mean elaborate prizes but cost effective tokens of appreciation or even simply publicly acknowledged success stories that get staff engaged and create a brilliant buzz around your office.
• Think it through and talk it through. The Tonic can help you implement a programme either as part of your current training modules or as stand-alone initiatives.
Read Part 1
Read Part 2
Read Part 3
Monday 15 June 2009
Make Office Wellbeing succeed during the recession Part 5
Friday 12 June 2009
Make Office Wellbeing succeed during the recession Part 4
Money is too tight to mention.
So surely this is the worst time to be seen to be spending money on areas like health and wellbeing in the office isn't it? And how will you be able to justify it to colleagues within the business and if you're a public sector company, how do you justify it outside of the company?
How do we justify the extra spend internally and externally?
If you’re concerned that the money you’re planning to invest in wellbeing will come under scrutiny from your staff or from sources outside the business, particularly the media, make sure that everyone knows the full story. Be transparent about the positive intentions the company has for its culture and its people. Make it clear to staff that you’ve done your research and you’re responding to what you know will improve happiness, motivation and performance levels within your business. Explain to the media how every pound you’re planning to invest in this area is designed to generate many more pounds when it comes to increasing productivity and morale, and reducing absence, turnover and recruitment costs. Wellbeing initiatives create greater efficiency which ultimately benefits everyone. And there's no getting away from that.
Thursday 11 June 2009
Make Office Wellbeing succeed during the recession Part 3
Continuing our series on ways to get your organisation through the recession, one of the most difficult arguments to make when trying to motivate staff with new health benefits is justifying the spend. 'Why can't you just pay us the money you're spending on this scheme instead' is a question you may hear. So how do you reply to that?
Wouldn’t staff just prefer extra cash at the end of the month?
The reason most businesses don’t simply offer more money is that extra pay can be a very short lived incentive while the right wellbeing initiatives provide staff with resources that generate personal benefits way beyond a few extra pounds each month. This is money well spent on building engagement, retention and loyalty as well as providing added value for employees.
Think long term and you'll be rewarded for it. Short term fixes are just that - short term and very quickly taken for granted.
