When it comes to employee wellness, a lot of the discussion centers on physical wellness: encouraging employees to increase their physical activity levels, develop healthier eating habits, getting more sleep, etc. In addition to being easier to relate to, these kinds of wellness initiatives produce results that are not only easier to see and quantify (weight loss, lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, etc.), but also easier to link to business outcomes, such as reducing insurance costs and absenteeism.
Ignoring emotional health – both on a personal level and on an organizational level – can have consequences that are much more concerning than a few moments of awkwardness, such as higher rates of employee burnout, interpersonal conflicts, and decreased productivity. “Emotionally unwell” employees can also spread their personal feelings of stress or unhappiness to other members of the organization, even those they don’t directly interact with, infecting the overall company culture.
EAPs are employee benefit programs that provide workers with resources and tools to help them deal with personal problems (addiction, debt, family issues, etc.) that may be affecting their work performance. More actively promoting the EAP to employees, both on a global scale and individually to those managers are concerned about, is a simple but effective way to enhance emotional wellness with very little additional expense.
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