Benefiting from Employee Wellbeing Days

Categorised in: Employee Benefits, Employee Wellbeing

For many employees, holidays go by far too quickly. Indeed, with the emphasis being on ‘making the most’ of our annual leave, it usually tends to give little time for staff to rest, recharge, and destress.

This seems to be at odds with the attention that we are now paying to staff welfare. Now more than ever, Employee Mental Health is an issue that companies simply have to prioritise. And this is where Employee Wellbeing Days can be hugely beneficial.

What is an Employee Wellbeing Day?

Essentially, wellbeing days are opportunities for employees to take a step back from work for a day or two (sometimes longer) and just relax. They’re unique from regular holidays as they are designated time-off for staff to focus on their mental health and to get themselves in the right frame of mind for their work.

Is it a popular concept?

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a major rethink into how companies approach employee wellbeing. One consequence of this is a shift in the extent that businesses should aim to promote a healthy work-life balance. Even organisations that have implemented positive and innovative benefit schemes such as Unlimited Holidays have seen that they still need to improve measures that aim to support staff welfare.

Employee wellbeing days have been one answer to this issue. Companies such as Lendlease, LinkedIn, Bumble have now all incorporated the policy, with the latter two going as having full weeks off to highlight the importance of employee mental health. They’ve even given these days creative names such as ‘Wellness Week’ and ‘RestUp Week’ so that staff are made aware of the rationale behind the additional time off.

Have they benefitted employees?

Whilst the policy is still relatively new, the benefits that wellbeing days have had on employees and companies alike are significant. Positive trends that have been observed so far include:

• Reduced Employee Burnout
• Increased productivity
• Higher Employee Engagement
• A Growth in Employee Retention

Of course, however, if you plan on implementing such a policy for your company it’s important to remember that there’s no universal way to get these benefits. A whole week off for every employee might not work for smaller organisations, for instance, so we’d recommend trialling one employee wellbeing day a quarter and going from there.

For more information, see what HIVE360 can do for your Employee Benefits System Here, or Contact Us if you have any questions.