Depending on who you’ve talked to, you might have heard of anywhere from six to nine different dimensions of wellness. This just goes to show that health really isn't one size fits all. There are many different lifestyle aspects involved! And they’re all important for developing a healthy lifestyle.
We’ve gone through the different dimensions of wellness and picked the six that we think directly apply to employee wellness. Be sure to include activities in your wellness program that draw on each of these six dimensions. That way you can really focus on your employees’ overall health and wellbeing without getting tunnel vision on just one dimension.
Occupational
Occupational wellness has a couple of different focus areas. The first is creating a healthy work environment. That can mean reducing stress, staying hydrated at work and staying active in the office. The second focus area involves feeling fulfilled. This means employees recognize the importance of the work they do and see opportunities to further their careers.
Emotional
Emotional health often deals with balancing the different priorities in life. This could include balancing work, volunteering, family and downtime. Being emotionally healthy means being in control of your emotions and feeling good. We also think spiritual health (another common wellness dimension) can be closely associated with emotional health.
Intellectual
The opportunity to learn new things is a huge factor in intellectual health. The best part is, it doesn’t matter what you learn. The act of learning is the most important part. Learning new job skills, vocabulary, life skills, games or fun habits are all ways to further your intellectual health. Even reading regularly—books, magazines, newspapers—can be a great opportunity for learning.
Social
Social health involves maintaining healthy relationships with the people around you. These relationships can help you build a strong support system and get outside of your own head. In society today, social health can also encompass cultural health—another common wellness dimension. In order to develop relationships, you need to be willing to acknowledge and respect the different cultures that other people are part of.
Physical
This one shouldn’t take too much explaining. In fact, many people get stuck in this dimension of wellness when they try to improve their health. Physical health includes everything that impacts how a person’s body physically functions. That can be physical activity, nutrition, hydration and even illness.
Financial
When it comes to employee wellness, taking financial health into account is absolutely necessary. Financial health doesn’t mean being wealthy or making a certain amount of money. It means being financially secure and having the knowledge and ability to manage your money. Providing tools and educational materials to your employees is one way to address financial health.
As you can see, wellness isn’t a one-size-fits-all operation. There are a variety of dimensions of wellness that play a role in a person’s healthy lifestyle.
These six wellness dimensions are essential in ensuring employee wellbeing. Be sure to draw on each of them to create balanced wellness activities for your program.
Which dimensions of wellness do you address in your wellness program? Which do you need to work on?
