Improving staff wellbeing in small businesses: practice examples

This week we’re publishing Small Business Practice Examples, with insights from a range of small businesses trying different approaches to improving staff wellbeing. The practice examples also link the actions to the evidence base on what works.

We know that there are some great benefits to employees, businesses and wider society from better wellbeing at work. There is an existing body of evidence – from the Centre and more widely – on what can be done to measure and  improve wellbeing in the workplace, particularly by addressing:

• health
• relationships,
• security
• environment
• purpose.

Particular challenges for small businesses

For smaller organisations, with a smaller and potentially more flexible workforce, it may seem harder to identify opportunities to improve employee wellbeing or find the time and resources to invest in it – but there are things that small businesses can do and that are not always expensive or complicated.

So back in March we put out a call for small businesses to share their approaches to measuring and improving wellbeing in their teams. After a series of interviews, we’re now sharing some examples of small businesses across the country testing new ideas to tackle issues like:

• staff retention
• embedding new management
• work/personal life balance
• Mental health issues in the workplace

The Small Business Practice Examples report pulls together some of the responses, with the aim of helping employers understand the potential range of employee wellbeing experienced across an organisation. It also helps identify where improvements can be made in the five areas identified above as having the greatest effect on wellbeing in the workplace.