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Workplace Wellbeing

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Throughout your journey in developing your Healthy Workplace wellbeing programme, you will have prioritised wellbeing topics that your employees and your organisation find particularly important.

This section provides information, tools and resources, national strategies, workplace policy-building tools, and community links specific to these key wellbeing areas.

Understanding that individuals are inextricably linked with their environments, the information contained within each wellbeing area is offered in a way that addresses multiple levels. We offer guidance on actions that can be taken at the organisational level and at the level of your individual employees. The most successful initiatives address components at each of these levels.

CIPD Wellbeing Pyramid. Top tier: Engagement. Middle tier: Well-being. Bottom tier: Culture, Leadership, and People Management.
CIPD Wellbeing Pyramid

Individual initiatives should always be implemented within the context of a Healthy Workplace.

You may come to notice that many wellbeing areas are intertwined. For example, Smoking and Alcohol and Drug campaigns can be connected with stress management and mental health supports.

Likewise, nutrition and physical activity can have implications on mental health. In this way it’s important to make each individual initiative part of a broader workplace wellness programme that is part of the organisation’s strategic plan. Indeed, this is shown in the evidence to improve success and sustainability of workplace wellness efforts.

Furthermore, an overall workplace culture that encourages employee participation in wellness initiatives is integral to engagement and success. In other words, these individual initiatives should always be implemented in the context of a Healthy Workplace.

The Get Started portal of this website provides all the information you need to create your Healthy Workplace.

Lastly, it’s important to consider Ireland’s Wellbeing Framework. This framework outlines 11 key wellbeing dimensions that are integral to living healthy and fulfilled lives.

Wellbeing Framework for Ireland's 11 wellbeing areas.
11 Wellbeing areas from the Ireland’s Wellbeing Framework

As you can see, the workplace plays a role in each of these wellbeing areas and is therefore crucial to the wellbeing of the people in Ireland. Our recommendations aim to thread through as many of these wellbeing dimensions as possible so that the time your employees spend at work, is a time of encouraging and protecting their wellbeing.

Mental Health

Mental Health

Good mental health sets the foundation for our overall sense of wellbeing; it is the lens through which we experience our lives and underpins our perceptions and our behaviours. Mental …

Spoon, apple, and fork

Healthy Eating

Healthy eating is one of the pillars of health and wellbeing, and the workplace can often be the place where employees eat most of their food, making it an ideal …

Stretching

Physical Activity

A workforce that is regularly active is a workforce with lowered risk of chronic conditions such as heart attack, stroke and diabetes. Exercise has also been shown to improve mood …

Alcohol

Alcohol and Drugs

An alcohol and drug free workplace is a safer, more productive workplace with lowered risk of chronic disease and mental health difficulties in your workforce. Apart from the legal duty …

Smoking

Smoking

Creating a smoke-free workplace protects the health of all workers. Smoking and second-hand smoke is a leading risk factor for many chronic diseases. Apart from the legal duty to protect …

heart

Health and Safety

It is important to note that the standards on workplace wellbeing referenced on this site are voluntary and not required by law. Statutory requirements do exist which ensure employers provide …

Resources

Manager Training

Alcohol Focus Scotland has many training opportunities to support managers in addressing alcohol and drug misuse in the workplace. These may be helpful.

Stretching at the Workstation

This is a valuable resource from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety that offers advice and tips on stretching at the workstation.

Irish Heart Foundation Resources

The Irish Heart Foundation’s workplace physical activity programmes provide the support, training and resources needed to help workplaces encourage their staff to get more active.