The Workplace Wellbeing Tool by HMRC is a tool for employers who are reconsidering their workplace wellness costs and needs, or for any professional wanting to build a case for workplace wellness in their business.
The tool allows employers to see the true cost of poor workplace wellbeing to their business, as well as key figures on wellness initiatives and training. This comprehensive guide will offer you all you need to know to use this tool effectively and efficiently to present your case for change in your workplace.
Some of the common benefits of having workplace wellness training initiatives in place include:
- Reduced absenteeism and presenteeism. If you take care of your employees’ health there is less risk of them needing to take long periods of time off work due to poor wellbeing (absenteeism). Additionally, when they do show up for work, there is more chance they will be in the right mental state to work productively and not suffer from presenteeism (which is when employees are present at work but have low productivity). Read more about how to prevent absenteeism and presenteeism in the workplace.
- Improved morale and staff retention. Company morale is improved by having a more content workforce that are happy to come to work every day. They are also more likely to stay with the company, which saves the company valuable time finding new employees.
What is the HMRC Workplace Wellbeing Tool For Businesses?
According to their website, the HMRC workplace wellness tool was made to assist employers in working out the costs to their organisation of poor employee health and creating a business case for taking action.
Employers can use this tool to:
- Calculate the annual cost of employee ill health, absence from work and staff turnover
- Create business cases for workplace health and wellbeing initiatives
- Estimate the return on investment of setting up a health and wellbeing programme
Read More: How To Improve Mental Health In the Workplace
Guide To Using the Workplace Wellness HMRC Tool
1a: What Are My Costs?
The first section of the workplace wellness HMRC tool is the ‘What are my costs?’ section. This section helps you to work out the costs of poor mental health and wellbeing within your business. For this section, you will need:
- Business sickness absence details
- Employee presenteeism details
- Labour turnover
- Insurance premiums and accidents/injury details
- Other costs associated with poor health and wellbeing in your business
To complete this section, follow the prompts on screen to add key business costs into the spreadsheet. For further information on what each cost means, there are examples and explanations in the spreadsheet, making it even more straightforward for you and your business.
Top tip: look out for the red question marks and the tool guide page for cost explanations so you can be sure that you are entering the correct details.
1b: Summary of Costs
Once you have entered your costs in section 1a, section 1b will automatically update with your summary and total of business wellness costs. Featured in section 1c of the spreadsheet, here is an example of what your summary of costs may look like after you have entered all your business costs.
2a: Why Invest?
The next section of the workplace wellness HMRC tool is the ‘Why Invest?’ section. This section helps you to build a business case for action to reduce the costs of poor health and wellbeing in your business. This means outlining the exact costs, predicted benefits and net benefits of your investment in workplace wellness, allowing you to showcase the potential financial business benefits of your investment to your team or management to argue your case.
Throughout this section you should fill in your business’ details in the yellow-coloured cells. For any additional information you can click on the red question marks or check the example business case page (2c).
2b: Business Case Summary
Once you have filled in this section with all the required information, section 2c: Business Case Summary will update automatically to show you your business case for workplace wellbeing report summary. An example of how this might look once completed, found in section 2c of the spreadsheet, can be seen below.
HMRC Tool For Workplace Wellness: Next Steps
Presenting Your Case
Once you have completed the workplace wellness HMRC tool, your next step is to present your case for change. This can be done in a number of different ways depending on what would be most beneficial for your business and team.
You could show this information as a PowerPoint presentation, a written report or at a team meeting to discuss any gaps/challenges you see for your business and how to overcome them. Your business case for workplace wellness presentation should include:
- Key takeaways, reports and graphs from the HMRC tool
- Detailed breakdown of costs associated with poor health and focussed benefits for your business including impact on:
- People, reputation and culture within the organisation.
- Customer satisfaction.
- Staff retention.
- Employee productivity and well-being.
Finding The Right Workplace Training Programme
Once you have decided how to present your case, you can start researching workplace health and wellbeing training programmes and consider which is best for you. Many companies choose to employ accredited mental health first aid training to boost their workplace wellness with key skills that help their team understand mental ill health.
We recommend that you compare the MHFA training programmes and courses before making a decision on one, as they can vary in length, content and cost. Workplace MHFA mental health and wellbeing training should be focused around the company’s specific requirements and should provide your team with a comprehensive understanding of mental health, signs of poor mental health and workplace wellness best practices.
Invest In Your Workplace Wellbeing Today with Fully-Accredited MHFA Training
At Great Minds At Work, we are committed to ensuring better workplace wellbeing. We understand the strong business case for mental health support, and the wellbeing needs of businesses small and large.
Are you looking to start investing in your workplace wellness and need accredited MHFA training for your team? Look no further than our MHFA courses. With a range of instructor-led online or classroom courses available, we have the perfect course for you wherever you are in the UK!
Get In Touch Today To Get Started!
