Company culture can be the difference between employees loving to show up to their jobs vs. dreading coming into work every day. Your culture can affect your employees' health, but did you know that employee health can also have a direct impact on your culture? It's important for businesses to understand the relationship between employee health and company culture in order to encourage positive outcomes for each. Let's take a closer look at four ways employee health impacts company culture.

1. Energy & Outlook

Some of the greatest company cultures run on the sheer energy and excitement of their people. When people are healthy, they are typically getting enough sleep and eating in a way that fuels their bodies and minds.

They come to work ready to dive in, and they are able to maintain a consistent level of energy throughout the day. They also tend to be more upbeat with a positive outlook. Their enthusiasm can be extremely contagious, leading to a culture of positivity.

The opposite is also true. Unhealthy employees may come into work tired and have a hard time making it through the day. Their low energy can lead to low job performance and negative feelings toward their work or workplace. Negativity can spread even faster than positivity. Click here to learn more about the ROI of a healthy workforce.

2. Job Performance & Satisfaction Rates

Healthy employees tend to outperform their unhealthy counterparts. When employees are performing well in their roles, they typically have higher job satisfaction and believe in the purpose of their work.

This type of enthusiasm for work performance can lead to a culture of cooperation and healthy competition. Those that are doing well in their roles may receive more recognition, tips/commission, or opportunities for promotion, spiraling up to even higher satisfaction.

Unhealthy employees struggling in their roles may experience resentment or distrust with low levels of job satisfaction. If the majority of your workforce is unhealthy, you may have a culture of underperformance and a difficult time motivating dissatisfied workers.

3. Employee Engagement & Loyalty

CustomInsight defines employee engagement as the extent to which employees feel passionate about their jobs, are committed to the organization, and put discretionary effort into their work.

Healthy workers are often more engaged, and higher engagement leads to increased loyalty to the company. Seventy-three percent of disengaged employees are actively looking for new jobs, compared with 37% of engaged employees.

A culture of loyalty within your workforce allows your company to benefit from higher retention rates. Your employees will be happy to live by the company values and mission and be proud advocates for your amazing brand and products.

On the flip side, unhealthy employees tend to be some of your most disengaged. Even still, the disengagement may be difficult to detect. Their productivity is probably suffering while they are looking for other jobs or feeling obligated to show up to work when they are unwell.

Disengagement can spread or produce animosity within a team if others are picking up the slack for a disengaged coworker. If an employee has reached a point where they are searching for other jobs, they may already be a critic of your company, sharing negative views with others.

Along these same lines, the benefits you offer your employees can contribute to your overall employee health and attrition/retention rates. Here are some benefits to consider offering that can positively impact both areas.

4. Stress & Anxiety

Stress and anxiety have a reciprocal relationship with employee health. A less stressful workplace can lead to better health outcomes for employees, and healthy employees experience less stress and anxiety.

Too much stress is detrimental to productivity. It can also lead to stress-related physical responses like heightened blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration which should be reserved for high-pressure situations. 

Healthy employees are usually better able to manage and control their stress levels and responses and seek treatment for conditions like anxiety. Unhealthy employees may have a difficult time self-regulating their stress and anxiety. Here are some tips how to help your employees maintain positive mental health.

A couple of stressed out individuals here and there may not have a huge impact on your company culture, but where this can become really problematic is if a manager is one of the people experiencing unhealthy levels of stress and anxiety. They tend to pass that on to their entire team through micro-management and unclear expectations. If most of your employees are stressed out, your company culture is probably either very weak or includes major distrust and dissatisfaction.

Conclusion

It's important to keep in mind that your company culture can encourage and contribute directly to your employees' health and wellness. If your company is in need of a culture shift, start from the top-down. Get management on board with making healthy decisions. Encourage health-conscious personal actions throughout the ranks, and you'll be on your way to a healthier workforce and culture of wellness in no time.