The Role of Health, Leadership and Management in the Workplace

Working adults spend 60% of their waking hours at work. Currently, 65% of the adult population are participating in the Irish labour force. The foundation of a high performing organisation is grounded in the health of its employees, which is directly linked to a supportive culture which fosters wellbeing in the workplace. Research from the CIPD 2018 HR Practices in Ireland Survey, revealed that the top contributing factors to absenteeism were work-life imbalance (17%), sick pay entitlement (16%), workload (15%) and ineffective leadership (14%). The survey also highlighted the fact that for over two-thirds of organisations the ‘absenteeism rate remained the same in the last 12 months’.

In order to improve upon this performance, companies are taking a more active role in making improvements that are focused on the health of the team. To address these issues, organisations are increasingly exploring solutions to provide a better work-life balance. In order to do this, companies are placing wellbeing as a core pillar of the organisations culture. Management training and development is a vital part of successful implementation and execution. 

Companies are striving to promote a positive and caring culture in order to retain and attract talent, which enhances ongoing corporate competitiveness. There is a complex relationship in the interaction between the workplace, the employee and the manager. Employee health outcomes are directly influenced by how these dynamics work on a daily basis.

Leadership has a responsibility within every organisation to enable and influence individuals and teams. This can be a complex area for leadership and therefore ongoing training and development is required. Teams should be equipped with the skills to enable them to play an important role in the well-being process at work. Demands of leadership in business are great and competitiveness is increasing across all sectors every day. Therefore, it is vital that work-life balance and employee empowerment remain a key area of focus. This may be achieved by connecting employees with well-being opportunities and activities and companies must genuinely care about each individual's well-being. Allowing employees to benefit from activities at work improves the health and wellbeing of an organisation and creates happy, healthy and more productive workers.  Managers play a critical role in providing a supportive safe environment that welcomes and encourages active participation in well-being practices. Leadership should be seen as an enabler because without this support and interest even the best-developed wellbeing strategy cannot be fully adopted and optimised. Quality of life is an all-encompassing area for each of us. By recognising the complexities of the whole person and placing quality of life at the core of talent development, managers will be successful in their endeavours to improve employee well-being. Employees are a company's greatest asset. The best managers recognise that they affect employee’s well-being every day for good or ill and must make it their mission to improve lives, not just performance.

Note: David Casey is delivering the Creating a Culture of Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace session at the Irish HR Symposium 2019 on Thursday 7th March 2019 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Blanchardstown, Dublin. Limited places remain.

For more information on DeCare’s Wellness programs including the New Health and Wellbeing Manager Training contact; Wellness@decaredental.eu and visit www.decaredental.ie for dental plans and corporate dental benefit packages.