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Employee Health and Wellbeing at the Workplace ATMECS – Content Team A company’s success is strongly correlated with the contribution of its employees and their wellbeing. It is critical to prioritise employee well-being and establish a positive work culture to achieve and safeguard success. In this article, we will walk through the significance of maintaining optimal well-being levels for employees. One may also learn how to improve employees’ well-being for the best results in the immediate as well as long run. What Is Employee Well-being? When it comes to promoting satisfaction and delight among employees, employers tend to focus on the physical health benefits. Employee well-being was generally perceived as the mere absence of illness among employees. However, there is a broader perspective to it. Employee well-being refers to the physical and mental state of employees because of the workplace environment. In other words, the term “employee well-being” has evolved beyond the traditional perspective of providing medical care to employees. Employers are now aware of several factors that influence employee happiness and are working to make their workers happier and healthier. Importance Of Employee Well-being With the outbreak of the pandemic, employers worldwide have come to realise how much employee happiness affects company performance and how much empathy matters to the workforce. Reduced Absenteeism and Healthcare Costs The sedentary lifestyle of employees stemming from work from home scenarios has raised the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, and other ailments. Companies, especially in the IT services industry, are taking proactive measures to guard against these challenges and address employee stress and burnout. Employees who claim they are frequently or always burned out at work are also 63 per cent more likely to take sick days. The negative correlation between employee happiness and absenteeism is a significant cost to employers and their reputation in the market. Recognising this, companies have been proactively organising wellness initiatives that make employees feel engaged and part of a larger community and providing employees emotional and mental security. Increased Employee Engagement When wellness initiatives are implemented in an effective manner, employees feel more connected, and consequently, their health improves, and their happiness rises. Companies also use employee rewards and recognition programs to boost employee engagement. Sometimes, HR will need to be careful to neutralise any perceived bias. Consistent, transparent communication about the process of selection or feedback mechanisms need to be in place so that such engagements can be effective in the long term. Improved Employee Productivity It is observed that smokers are twice as likely to miss work, while obese workers miss three to six sick days per year more than those of normal weight. Employees who manage their health and nutrition tend to manage stress effectively, on the other hand, are less susceptible to burnout. Such employees are more focused on their work, and their productivity increases when they make conscious efforts towards their health and well-being. Improved Employee Morale The entire corporate world witnessed how critical it is to maintain employee morale throughout the pandemic. Employee morale can be improved by implementing well-being activities such as mental health workshops or a fitness competition across departments or teams. This fosters a healthy atmosphere while adding a bit of fun and competition into the equation. Challenges in Implementing Wellness Initiatives in the Workplace Following are the typical challenges faced by the companies in executing the well-being initiatives for their team. Setting And Measuring Goals Setting and monitoring goals are one of the most difficult aspects of workplace wellness initiatives. It can be difficult to get a clear picture of your present employees’ well-being. It may be quite a challenge to set KPIs at the organizational level. Not only are such KPIs subjective, but also inaccurate at times. Some employees may be hesitant to react or report honestly for fear of their concerns coming back to bite them. As a result, even anonymous surveys may not provide a whole picture. Creating the right atmosphere where such insecurities are addressed by highlighting the importance of wellness initiatives and their benefits, may be key in overcoming these challenges. Execution Another concern is the execution. Some businesses may be unable to deliver the programs that they promised. If they do act, the resources, and policies they support may not be widely implemented. Seeking feedback and acting on recorded feedback may help better execution. Ways to Improve Employee Well-being While employees have a responsibility to the growth and success of any company, employers have also risen to the call taking active responsibility for their employees overall wellbeing. Here’s some examples: Health Screening Flexible Work Options (Hybrid Working Model) Psychological Counselling Services Encourage Volunteer Opportunities In Conclusion When business leaders invest in developing effective well-being initiatives, most issues that impede employee happiness and performance vanish. Understanding and respecting employees’ boundaries, working habits, requirements and motivations will enable employers to present them with the finest yet personalised opportunities for growth. Communication is a key enabler to establishing this type of a positive work culture. Collaboration and team productivity improvements are automatic when employees feel secure in their work environment. It is also necessary for an employer to reward and recognise employees for their achievements, as such milestones are critical to a company’s success. However, relying primarily on outcomes can be tricky. It is easy to overlook the ideals of respect, personal development, individual effort, and well-being in a target-driven and competitive setting. In addition to recognising staff for their accomplishments the way the organization sees them, requesting the customer and their personnel to commend employees for their effort, patience, and perseverance adds significant value towards employee happiness and satisfaction. Demonstrating people development is a top priority for successful organizations. When employees see that they are first appreciated as people and then as performers, remarkable things happen for their organizations.

Engineering Change – Accelerating Digital Transformation ATMECS – Content Team Industry 4.0 offers several possibilities to today’s modern society. It promises valuable data, lower waste, and higher visibility into the comprehensive value stream for change leaders. New tools and sources of information are available to make processes efficient and profitable. Research and Markets estimate that the digital transformation market will increase by 23% to $3.3 trillion by 2025 (CAGR). However, implementing a digital transformation needs consensus across all levels. Though change leaders are open to new technology engineering, they may have to face a lot of resistance, albeit justified, along the way. For change leaders, efficiently implementing a digital transformation requires exhibiting value and building harmony throughout the hierarchy. The process from identifying a technological need for solving a business problem to efficient deployment is long. Change leaders convert it into a reality when they state their position effectively. Future Themes for Digital Transformation Based on industry data, Gartner research and our experience enabling deep tech solutions and services for our clients, here are some common themes of the best digital transformations that will shape the future. Process Automation and Virtualization A big part of the workforce, across all industry verticals, is seeing a rise in the use of technology to enable process efficiency and promote automation. With better process automation and virtualization, companies are gearing up for the next wave of transformation in their enterprise. AI-based, self-learning robots using assisted technologies like IoT etc., present development opportunities for humans to communicate better by adding granular information. With enhanced simulations and 4D printing, development processes have sped up while improving safety and operational practices. The proliferation of emerging technologies has helped companies navigate tricky labour-related issues and redefine their work methods. Total Experience – Breaking through silo thinking Understanding the voice of the customer is a critical success factor for any business. However, the role of “customer” has expanded to include every individual a company or a brand interacts with. Total experience refers to a blend of customer experience, employee experience, and user experience to state all possibilities and experiences for both customers and employees. With customers and employees going digital, “listening” to the total experience is the next big thing to enhance and improve the sustainability of transformational initiatives. Data Fabric to Enhance Decision Intelligence Companies notice a rising requirement for deeper insights and analytics through data generated by three sources – people, machines, and organizations. Decision Intelligence and Data Fabric are two significant trends that enhance data use effectiveness while easing human-driven data handling jobs. Data fabric integrates data across platforms and users and develops a central source that allows data accessibility anywhere needed. Decision Intelligence, on the other hand, enhances organizational decision-making by implementing Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics to develop an intelligent platform that automates and enhances AI-based decision-making. Software 2.0 With improved hardware, businesses require programs using AI structures and automation to unravel better use cases such as machine-supported simulations and autonomous vehicles to do more without needing manual interference. Software 2.0 replaces programmers with neural networks that use ML to develop software and will remain on trend as its popularity is consistently rising. No-code or low-code setups are already seeing citizen developers take on roles that sophisticated developers once held. Modularized, repurpose-able product features’ engineering will enable companies to achieve greater speed to market. Distributed Enterprise Post pandemic, most organizations have adopted a hybrid approach, making them pivot business models to meet consumer and behavioural changes through remote working. Distributed enterprises allow a distant framework to virtualize consumer touchpoints and enhance relevant technologies. A recent Gartner study states that 75% of companies that use distributed enterprises will grow better than their contemporaries by 2023. Verticals Using Cloud-Native Platforms With the rise in digitalization, companies are moving their legacy applications and work to the Cloud through ‘lift and shift’ approaches. However, that approach does not work for all and typically hits roadblocks on scaling or elasticity. Businesses are adopting cloud-native platforms instead to automate their workloads and tasks and concentrate on competitive differentiation. Technology engineering is becoming increasingly important to help companies grow, develop and reshape the world. “Every company is a technology company” – is the new paradigm for business leaders. Often, however, leaders are left wondering about the gap between innovation and adoption. This is where change leadership comes in. Change leaders with a ‘Product/Service Management’ mindset tend to envision a strategic roadmap grounded in customer centricity and undertake implementations with a ‘no-compromise’ process orientation. These change leaders are champions of industry. Here are some considerations when you, as a change leader, want to implement your next large-scale digital transformation project. Change Leader Caveats Getting Buy-In from Key Stakeholders Digital transformations don’t yield sustainable results when businesses are not aligned on processes and outcomes. Indeed, most CIOs acknowledge improper focus, inefficient executive sponsorship, and resistance to change as major hindrances to successful transformation initiatives. Change leaders articulate the vision for digital transformation in a business structure and the glue for success in transformational initiatives. From acknowledging the employee’s efforts to tracking results, they work between business processes and outcomes. A critical responsibility of change leaders is to achieve stakeholder consensus across different levels of the organization. Change leaders must understand every role in the process chain above and below the surface level. Employees will always be anxious about new technologies causing disruption and making existing processes complex. It is the job of a change leader to build trust and awareness, reduce employee workload, gain consensus, enhance efficiency and effectiveness of daily work. They draft the vision for a digital transformation and support throughout the implementation such that it gets more efficient in the long run. Sponsoring Tools and Technologies that Enable Doing More with Less Digital transformations fall short of expectations when done in a piecemeal approach. Improper or ill-timed process modifications exacerbate the problem of data silos and lead to integration issues downstream. To derive best results, change leaders should promote