Employee Well Being

Organizations are placing more emphasis on employee well-being as “employee well-being has a significant impact on the performance and survival of organizations”. (Grant, Christianson, and Price, 2007, p.51). Well-being can be divided into psychological, social and physical well being(Grant, Christianson, and Price,2007) and by promoting well-being a happier and healthier pool of employees can be nurtured. These staff are proven to be more productive and they reduce costs incurred by high absentism rate and illness. (Baron,2006; Grant, Christianson, and Price,2007)

Company that relies heavily on computers and has long office hours is identified to be a growing industry that is associated with the increase in Work Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs) and “these companies account for 30% of the total injuries cases in 2005”(Robertson,Ciriello,Garabet, 2013, P.73). Furthermore, prolong usage of computer which is also on the rising trend will result in more employee developing Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) such as eyestrain and blurriness. (Robertson,Ciriello,Garabet, 2013; Anshel, 2006). All these conditions compromise the well being of employees which in turn reduce their productivity and happiness. International Business Machines corporation(IBM) is one such example where employee tend to spend long hours in office with computers due to the nature of their job. Hence, this paper serves to explore how enhancing physical environment can possibly benefit both employees and employers of IBM who value employee well-being by creating a healthier working environment which generate higher productivity and greater happiness.

Mendlowitz asserted the importance of “having a neat, clean and comfortable work environ...

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...06, p.24). Hence, improving the physical environment should be done to enhance employee’s well-being and their happiness.

In conclusion, it is observed that there is a positive correlations between improving physical environment and enhancing the well-being of employee. Consequently, the happier and healthier workforce is able to generate greater productivity. One of the factors of great concern to managers is probably cost. Paragraph 3 addresses this concern by establishing the fact ergonomics is not always costly, where simple modifications can be equally effective. Furthermore, if we factor in the benefits we do realize an improved physical environment actually generates cost-savings with a positive benefit-cost ratio. Hence, with these in mind, suitable changes should be made to the workplace of xxx to produce a happier and more effective workplace.