The Covid pandemic placed fresh emphasis on the importance of employee wellbeing, with organizations expanding programs designed to help people cope with the stresses of the pandemic.  Research from the University of East Anglia finds that these programs could also help employees with their social relationships as well as with their wellbeing.

The researchers worked in partnership with insurance company Vitality and found that when employees engaged with wellbeing programs, they also experienced improvements to the quality of their relationships with colleagues.  This translates into improvements in their job satisfaction and wellbeing in the long term.

“While organizations may adopt these programs primarily to target employee health and wellbeing directly, we found that employees’ social relationships also benefit,” the researchers say.

“When organizations invest in wellbeing they communicate care for their employees and this is reciprocated with more respectful interpersonal interactions. This in turn significantly reduces the onset of workplace bullying and improves longer-term mental and physical health as well as job satisfaction.”

Benefits of wellbeing

The researchers collected data from Vitality’s annual Britain’s Healthiest Workplace study, which offers a comprehensive dataset on organizational performance on a range of wellbeing metrics.  In total, the researchers assessed data from 64 organizations featuring nearly 8,000 employees who were engaged in a range of programs, including those designed to support healthy behaviors or prevent chronic disease.

The researchers believe their findings that such programs can have benefits over and above the intended gains to the health and wellbeing of employees should encourage managers and organizations to consider investing more in such schemes, especially in the wake of the pandemic.

“These findings are especially relevant for managers to consider as organizations develop new patterns of working in the post-COVID era,” they say. “People’s wellbeing has been significantly affected by the pandemic. Investing in HWPs brings both relationship and health benefits that can help support employees adjusting to the new normal.”

“This study confirms just how wide-reaching the benefits of implementing employee health and wellbeing programs can be. There are numerous positive consequences of wellbeing interventions—beyond the obvious intended benefits—for the organization and its employees, and wider society.”