Workplace Wellbeing support

Workplace Wellbeing support

The following support and toolkit is available for all businesses, regardless of industry or size.

At a glance you may find the content overwhelming, especially if you're part of a micro or small business. However we can assure you a step by step approach is possible to improve workplace wellbeing no matter your size or industry.

You are free to engage with as much or as little of the support below as you would like.

Our vision

We want to inspire and support businesses and organisations in Northamptonshire to be the healthiest workplaces and champions of community health.  

Given that a full-time employee spends approximately one third of their waking time at work, employers and the workplace have a large influence on employee wellbeing.

If workplace wellbeing is done well, the individual is happy, thriving, and performs well for the business. If it is not done well, they have poor health and wellbeing and perform worse for the business.  

You do not need to spend thousands of pounds to improve your workplace wellbeing.  
Small, low-cost changes can make a big difference to your employee experience in the workplace which in turn can:  

• lower employee turnover rate
• boost employee engagement
• improve customer service
• increase productivity
• reduce sickness absence
• reduce presenteeism 

Best practice

Workplace wellbeing best practice can be put very simply. It is an environment where employees thrive, are accepted for who they are, and can fulfil their potential in and outside of the workplace. 

What Works Wellbeing have looked at research into the factors that influence workplace wellbeing and created a model, which shows five key drivers of workplace wellbeing:

1. Physical and mental health: the workplace needs to meet employees basic needs for food, water, rest; provide support for those experiencing ill health and promote health improving activities. Promoting good mental health is a key part of this, with an organisational culture and recognises the importance of good mental health and offers support for those who need it
2. Environment, which includes the physical environment and ensuring there is an organisational culture which promotes wellbeing, and leadership which recognises the value of workplace wellbeing
3. Relationships: working relationships with colleagues and line managers should be of high quality. The employee needs to feel accepted for who they are, being comfortable bringing their whole self to work, and that they truly belong in their role
4. Security, the employee needs to feel physically and psychologically safe at work and have financial security
5. Purpose: The employee must have clear roles and responsibilities within their job so they know what is expected of them. For an employee to thrive they must also be in control of their work

You can also view a detailed graphic of the five pillars.

Workplace Wellbeing Toolkit

We have developed a Workplace Wellbeing Toolkit which provides a walkthrough of all the things you can do to ensure that you are supporting employees to thrive. 

This includes:

• tools to assess current levels of workplace wellbeing, including an employee wellbeing survey
• step-by-step guidance on best practice in addressing each of the areas of workplace wellbeing
• access to the Northamptonshire Workplace Wellbeing Knowledge Hub
  • the group is:
    • free to sign up 
    • for anyone involved in workplace wellbeing and aims to share knowledge, evidence, and experiences across all topics of workplace wellbeing. 
    • facilitating businesses in Northamptonshire to be the best employers possible
    • uplifting standards of workplace wellbeing across the county and making Northamptonshire a great place to work

Workplace Wellbeing Toolkit feedback

Your feedback is very important to us. We want to keep this toolkit up to date and provide information to you that meets you and your employees needs. By giving us your feedback we can use this to improve the toolkit going forward.

Further support

If you would like to get in touch with a member of the team, please email [email protected].

Last updated 22 August 2024