Especially now: stay fit & connected!

Attention to fit & connectedness starts on the first working day of a new employee. Look ahead then, this is the best form of prevention. Preventing problems is better than intervening when things go wrong. Getting an unmotivated employee enthusiastic is difficult. And you can't repair a worn-out back. The sooner attention to prevention starts, the more results there are.

By: Sandra Engelbertink, Human Resources

Yet it often turns out that prevention is given less priority. The more attention you pay to prevention, the greater the chance that your employees will stay healthy, be more productive and that you as an employer will also spend less on (absenteeism) costs.

The pandemic makes it a challenge to stay healthy, fit and connected to each other. What are the challenges and what can you do?

Employee Challenges

Provide sufficient insight into what is going on with your employees. How are your employees doing and what do they need? Not only does this provide new insights to operate on as an employer, it is also often a means of communication in itself. In this way, you show as an employer that you consider satisfaction and vitality to be important topics and that you are actively working on them. That alone often has an activating effect on employees to take action themselves.

From results to plan

Put the results of your research among employees under the light: what are you doing at the moment and what could you still focus on? Take into account what could still come to your organization and employees in the future. How are the market and the activities developing? What are current trends in the field of fit and connected? What is coming your way in terms of collective labor agreements?

But also consider peak moments in production, staff shortages and hybrid working that lead to work pressure, stress and burn-outs. Or the aging and graying of the population that shift the pressure on physical strain.

Self-direction and specific desired behavior

The employee also has his or her own responsibility. And although that term gives the impression that 'self-direction' arises from the employee himself, many employees could use some support in this. Employers sometimes struggle with this, because how do you make a subject like sustainable employability, where the urgency is only visible far into the future, practical and understandable for your employees? With various clients, we looked for solutions together with employees on how they are and remain 'fit for your job'. Interesting out-of-the-box ideas emerged for maintaining knowledge and skills and remaining physically and mentally able to perform the work. It would be great to do this with FHI members in inspiration sessions in 2022!

As an employer, you can already take a big step in the right direction by staying away from vague goals and descriptions. You can easily indicate what the concrete behavior is that you want to see from employees. Small things can already trigger concrete behavior, such as exemplary behavior and the role of managers. Recognizing signals from employees and conducting the conversation based on those signals is more important than ever, we notice at many companies.

Put prevention at the top of your priorities

What makes focusing on prevention difficult is that the urgency is not always immediately visible. But as described at the beginning of this article, it is very important. And if you think about the subject for a little longer, you will also see how urgent it can be. So don't wait any longer, do some research, make a plan, but above all, get started right away! Do you also want some support? Together with Personnel Affairs, we will be offering workshops in 2022 in the field of sustainable employability, vitality and future-oriented personnel policy. Keep our agenda keep an eye on it and email us if you would like to see certain topics on the agenda (jori.hoving@fhi.nl)!