Employee engagement is a top priority for nearly every organization. While foosball, free snacks and other fun perks never fail to put a smile on your employee’s faces, what about when it comes to providing long-term employee happiness and wellbeing? 

Based on findings from the The 2019 Sanofi Canada Healthcare Survey, the advisory board stresses that employers can support job satisfaction by focusing on workplace culture and health benefit plans.

3 strategies that make a positive impact on employees’ job satisfaction 

1. Create a true workplace wellness culture 

The healthiest and happiest companies create a culture that recognizes the value in encouraging people to take care of themselves. The Sanofi Canada Healthcare Survey found  that 93% of plan members would like to do at least one thing to improve their health. 

Two ideas to support employee wellness:

• Build opportunities for self-care into the work day i.e. onsite yoga at lunch, guided meditation, running club
• Provide resources and tools to effectively support employees’ mental and physical health every day i.e. wellness lunch ‘n’ learns, virtual therapy, CBT tools

2. Get a handle on workplace stress

Employees are overwhelmed with 70% of employees reporting they feel stressed and 40% saying they have no work-life balance. It’s not surprising that 34% of 2019 Sanofi Canada Healthcare Survey respondents said the main health improvement they’d like to tackle is stress management. 

Start by doing your research via existing/new surveys, focus groups etc. to understand the top sources of unnecessary stress in your workplace. Potential areas to explore:

• Long work hours and/or inflexible workday
• Workload concerns
• Meeting-heavy corporate culture that cuts into time to meet deliverables
• Lack of psychological safety

Once you have a better picture of the current stress management situation, you can launch the right strategies to make improvements.

3. Enhance mental health benefits

Gone are the days of the one-size-fits-all approach to employee health benefits. Take the opportunity to review the effectiveness and utilization of your current mental health benefits.  

Questions to consider:

• Does it include virtual care for easier and more flexible access? 
• Does it exclusively provide evidence-based therapy that support the range of mental health challenges? 
• Are employees accessing support when they need it and is it helping them return to good mental health?

Your findings will inform how you can restructure or enhance your mental health benefits program to better support your employees with work and life’s challenges.

Book a demo of the Snapclarity virtual mental healthcare platform to see how it will transform your employees’ experience.