4 CSR Tips That Help Look After Your Employees’ Health

When most businesses think of corporate social responsibility (CSR), they think of ways to contribute to their greater community. That means they might sponsor community events or donate to local nonprofits. However, businesses sometimes overlook an essential audience that deserves their support—employees.

Whether your business is a hotel, gym, medical practice or school, it relies on its employees to continue running smoothly and profitably. That’s why it’s essential not to neglect this group in your CSR activities. If you’re looking for ways to create a better workplace experience, consider these four CSR tips that help you support employee wellness.

1. Invest in an employee safety solution.

When it comes to employee wellness, your first step is to ensure a safe workplace. You’re probably already following guidelines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), implementing key practices that prevent workplace injuries and illnesses and improve compliance with safety laws and regulations.

Go above and beyond OSHA’s regulations by investing in a workplace safety solution. For example, React Mobile’s tools offer the following features:

• Specific incident location. Pinpoint the location of a distress call down to a specific floor or room number. Track the person in distress if they move throughout or off the property.
• Silent alarm. Bring help without escalating the situation, which is especially useful for individuals in enclosed areas.
• Verified response. Take comfort in knowing when a responder acknowledges your alert.
• Instant activation. Provide per-alert reporting to help managers and property management respond to alerts quickly.
• Confidential operation. Locations are never tracked until an alert is activated, ensuring employee privacy while helping them stay safe.
• Client portal. Access a web portal to view, manage, and configure alerts and panic button hardware to your organization’s specifications.
• Panic buttons. Choose the type of panic button that best suits your needs, including Bluetooth, Cellular, and Long Range Wide Area Network (LORAWAN).

For more information about React Mobile and what its solutions can do, explore client case studies here.

This type of software can be beneficial for all sorts of organizations. For example, hotel staff may need safety software in case they deal with belligerent guests. They may also equip employees with panic buttons in case of a medical emergency when working alone on a floor.

Your employees’ safety is paramount. Without measures to offer a secure working environment, your employees may feel resentful or even frightened daily. These feelings lead to lower employee satisfaction and higher employee turnover, both harmful to a business’s continued success.

2. Create programs for mental support.

According to Double the Donation, 85% of employees are not engaged at work. One of the big reasons for this level of disengagement is burnout and stress—a 2024 poll done by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) reported that 52% of employees felt burned out in the past year, with 33% noticing their productivity suffered because of mental health.

You can support employee mental health by:

• Normalizing mental health conversations. The NAMI poll also found that while 74% of full-time employees in the U.S. think it’s appropriate to discuss mental health concerns at work, only 58% felt comfortable sharing those concerns. Train your senior-level employees and managers on how to talk to their teams about mental health to open these conversations and help employees feel comfortable discussing their concerns.
• Providing sick and mental health days. For many businesses, paid time off (PTO) is limited, and employees may be reluctant to use that time for mental health reasons. In addition to PTO, provide sick days for employees when they’re feeling physically ill or mentally unwell, ensuring they have ample time off to care for themselves.
• Offering mental health resources. Employees struggling with mental health may benefit from resources like a list of nearby counselors or stress management tips. Additionally, ensure the health insurance you offer covers mental health services, such as counseling or therapy.
• Hosting employee engagement activities. Keep employees engaged with dedicated activities, such as additional CSR programs like matching gifts or volunteer programs, team-building activities like escape rooms and dinners, and more. You can even combine activities by following Sneakers4Good’s recommendation to host a 5K that supports social good.

Stressed, disengaged, and burned-out employees lead to lower business outcomes and performance, so provide them with the mental health support they need.

3. Encourage and support physical wellness.

Nowadays, many jobs require employees to sit at a desk for eight to nine hours daily. However, research shows that 31% of adults worldwide (about 1.8 billion people) did not meet the recommended levels of physical activity in 2022. Lack of physical activity puts employees at risk of debilitating diseases, such as heart attacks, diabetes, and cancers.

To support employees’ physical wellness, offer the following:

• Ergonomic office equipment. We all know the pain of sitting in a terrible chair—doing so long-term can wreak havoc on an employee’s spine and general health. Invest in ergonomic office equipment, such as lumbar-supporting chairs, standing desks, and monitors.
• Healthy food options. Provide healthy lunches or snacks in your break room to ensure employees can access nutritious food.
• Robust health insurance. Choose a well-rounded health insurance plan that offers preventative healthcare, such as health screenings and vaccinations, to empower employees to stay in tip-top shape.
• Encourage movement. Empower employees to stay active by encouraging them to take breaks to stretch and walk around. You can also invite them to walking meetings to keep them moving.
• Wellness stipend. As part of employee compensation packages, give them a stipend for gym memberships, yoga classes, massage therapy, and other wellness activities or items.

Additionally, if your employees share any wellness interests, encourage them to form dedicated hobby groups. For example, if you know that many employees are avid runners, encourage them to create a work running club and participate in jogs and races together.

Even if your business doesn’t encourage a sedentary lifestyle, supporting your employees’ physical wellness is still essential. Not only does it show your employees that you care about their health, but it’s also a wise business decision. After all, unhealthy employees are more likely to fall ill, making them more likely to call out and disrupt your business operations.

4. Facilitate an effective work-life balance.

Supporting employee health is the baseline a great employer should be achieving. It’s not enough to simply ensure your employees are healthy—you should also be helping them achieve happiness and satisfaction. The best step toward that is to facilitate an outstanding work-life balance.

Although work is an integral part of their lives, it shouldn’t be your employees’ everything. They may have families, hobbies, and other interests that are important to them. Here are a few ways to help employees foster a better work-life balance:

• Hybrid or remote work. For some employees, the commute is the worst part of the workday. These individuals may live further away from the office, need to pick up children at a specific time, or have other commitments. Instead of requiring them to come into the office every day of the week, perhaps, allow them to work remotely. Or, implement a hybrid work policy, where they work from home part of the week and in the office on other days.
• Flexible work schedules. Instead of requiring employees to work from 9 AM to 5 PM, allow them to adjust their daily work schedule according to their needs. For example, some employees might be happier working from 7 AM to 3 PM or 11 AM to 7 PM.
• Clear work boundaries. Empower employees to set clear work boundaries. These boundaries might include not checking their work email when taking time off or not working past a specific time each day. Respect their boundaries, and don’t expect them to give you their time outside of the workday.

If you’re unsure which strategies to implement, try surveying your employees! Ask them what you can do to support their work-life balance better. Allow them to answer anonymously for more honest feedback. Then, implement the most popular suggestions.

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Building a safe, health-oriented workplace makes for more satisfied employees. After you’ve nailed down your CSR duties to your employees, you can start looking at improving your larger community through philanthropy and other activities!