Why Employee Wellbeing Boosts Employee Engagement

By LeAnn Thieman. This was originally published on LeAnn's blog.

Employee well-being and engagement are differen, but related.

Engagement is the strength of the emotional connection employees have with their work, team, company, and higher purpose. Well-being is defined as a state of optimal health, happiness, and purpose.

Research shows that when employees feel they have higher well-being, they’re more likely to be engaged in their work.

​A survey of 1,276 employees across 45 U.S. markets found that 88 percent of employees who cited feelings of “higher well-being” (that is access to healthy options, the flexibility and freedom to pursue them and find balance between work and life, plus a sense of belonging and value to an organization), said they felt engaged at work, versus 50 percent for those citing “lower well-being.”

Moreover, 83 percent of those in the “higher” category said they enjoy their work versus 41 percent in the “lower” one. And 84 percent in the higher category say they’re loyal to their teams, versus 54 percent in the lower camp.

The connection between well-being and engagement may seem intuitive, but there has been little research that statistically relates the two. These findings confirm that helping disengaged employees is in an organization’s control and can actually enhance retention and productivity.

The study found managers can be the biggest obstacles to well-being improvement because they don’t understand its connection to team success or they are unsure about how to talk with their employees about their well-being. Organizations should educate managers about the impact of well-being on employee engagement and give them the tools and support to make it a priority!

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