Drewberry Bends Over Backwards for Employee Wellness

Once upon a time, wellness among employees was seen as a ‘nice to have’, an extra add-on that could be slotted into a day where there was time. Today, however, it’s rapidly becoming a ‘must have’ if firms want to keep top talent and attract new workers.

In an era of Glassdoor, a site that allows employees to anonymously review their company and its culture, can you afford to not be doing enough for your workers?

Yet while paying for employee benefits can be a great start to securing employee wellness — especially when benefits such as Group Life Insurance, Group Sick Pay Insurance and Corporate Health Insurance come with popular employee assistance programs — it’s far from the only option companies should consider.

That’s why, ever keen to lead by example, Drewberry has roped in a teacher, unrolled our mats and got down to the bendy business of corporate yoga.

Why Yoga?

While people tend to think of yoga as a test of flexibility, it’s ultimately about so much more. Yoga is about a rebalancing of mind and body through movement and poses, offering a holistic approach to improving both physical and mental health combined.

Yoga has been proven to improve not only balance, posture and flexibility but also lung capacity and to reduce anxiety and stress, making it the perfect way to protect against the rigours of the modern working world.

Today’s jobs can not only be mentally taxing but physically taxing; just because fewer of us in the UK are in manual roles doesn’t mean working can’t give us the odd ache or pain.

Sitting for long hours at desks is bad for posture and overall cardiovascular and musculoskeletal health, so yoga is a great way to limber up after work and get the blood flowing again to parts of the body we neglect by sitting all day.

Why Companies Should Offer More Than Just Employee Benefits

Employee benefits are great; this cannot be overstated. Depending on what you choose, a proper employee benefits package can offer your workers Life Insurance, Income Protection, Critical Illness Cover or Private Health Insurance all paid by you, the employer.

This takes a weight off employees’ minds and is a cost they then don’t have to worry about meeting themselves.

Employee benefits have been shown to reduce rates of sickness and absenteeism and even improve workplace productivity and staff morale. This is especially the case when coupled with all of the support that often comes with such a program, such as employee assistance programs offering:

• Legal, medical and financial advice
• Counselling / cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) face-to-face or over the phone
• Bereavement counselling
• Online and over the phone information and guides.

However, while employee benefits have a lot of great things going for them, and certainly benefit people up and down the UK every day, it’s not always enough to offer them alone.

Workplaces and bosses need to do more to actively improve workplace wellbeing and positivity, whether that’s arranging ‘listening seminars’ with employees so that workers feel heard and their views are respected or getting teams involved in social activities to improve communication and morale.

It might even involve unrolling a yoga mat of your very own.

Downward facing dog, anyone?

About Drewberry

Our goal is simple: to improve our clients’ financial wellbeing.

We help our clients take control of their finances by building lasting relationships where we support them to make informed decisions.

We provide financial advice services to individuals and businesses throughout the UK. Whether it’s setting up personal insurance to protect your lifestyle, managing your pensions, investments and other assets to improve your financial future or setting up employee benefits for a company, we’re here to help.