8.2 Benefits and costs of maintaining workplace wellbeing

Every organisation depends on having healthy and productive employees, so if you support the wellbeing of your staff, they are far more likely to achieve your business goals. As noted in the introduction to this course, in the HE sector, those goals affect not just the employees of your organisation, but also your students.

Jisc’s 2021 report, Student and staff wellbeing in higher education, highlights four principles for wellbeing in HE:

• Wellbeing is for everybody: a whole population approach – We are all affected by our mental wellbeing and that of others.
• Wellbeing is a lifelong project: a whole life approach – Wellbeing doesn’t start when someone becomes an undergraduate and stop when they graduate or become an employee. It needs lifelong learning and lifelong skills development to build resilience.
• Wellbeing is embedded in all activities: a whole curriculum approach – Universities are health organisations as well as learning organisations. For individuals to thrive and learn, health gain cannot be separated from learning gain.
• Wellbeing is a collective endeavour: a whole university approach – The whole-university approach values the contribution of all. It moves mental wellbeing away from being the sole concern of student health and mental health support services and involves the entire community. This takes sustained effort and leadership.