The New Road Map To Improve Employee Well-Being

 

A healthy workforce is the foundation for thriving organizations and healthier communities.

 

The New Road Map To Improve Employee Well-Being

 

 

Over two years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a seismic shift in the bedrock of our society. Today, the aftershocks continue to exact a mental and emotional toll on employees and their families. What began as a viral contagion has become a mental health crisis. Recent surveys report that:

·        76% of workers reported at least one symptom of a mental health condition (anxiety, depression), an increase of 17 percentage points in just two years.

·        81% of workers reported that they will be looking for workplaces that support mental health in the future.

·        84% of respondents reported at least one workplace factor that had a negative impact on their mental health.

In their recent study on The C-Suite’s Role in Well-Being, Deloitte shared, “The pandemic has worsened everyone’s health, but executives don’t realize how much their employees are struggling. While nearly 70% of the C-suite are seriously considering quitting for a job that better supports their well-being, more than eight out of 10 global executives believe their people are thriving in all aspects of their well-being.”

Leaders can no longer use this ostrich strategy of burying their heads in the sand when it comes to addressing well-being. Between ‘The Great Resignation’ and ‘Quiet Quitting’, people are voting with their feet. In their 2022 global Work Trend Index, Microsoft found that 53% of over 31,000 global employees said they’re more likely to prioritize health and well-being over work than before the pandemic.

 

It’s time for business leaders to catch up and do what science already knows. There’s a growing body of scholarly evidence-based research, based on three decades of study, that confirms that health and well-being is not just good for people, it’s good for the bottom line.

 

 

Dr. Ken Pelletier, a consultant to the World Health Organization, has spent his career studying the link between employee well-being and business performance. At the inaugural FTR3 conference in Nashville two weeks ago, Dr. Pelletier shared a study that vividly demonstrates this link. The study compared the stock market returns of companies who were C. Everett Koop National Health award winners to the stock market average performance of the S&P 500 over the time period between 2000-2014. The Koop award winners averaged a stock value appreciation of 325%. The S&P 500 average appreciation during the same period was 105%.

 

 

The Framework for Well-Being

 

Last month, United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a new Surgeon General’s Framework for Mental Health & Well-Being in the Workplace. The report highlights the connection between work and well-being. It states, “With more than 160 million people participating in the United States workforce and with the average full-time worker in the United States spending about half of their waking life at work, workplaces play a significant role in shaping our mental and physical well-being.”

“A healthy workforce is the foundation for thriving organizations and healthier communities,” states Surgeon General Dr. Murthy. “As we recover from the worst of the pandemic, we have an opportunity and the power to make workplaces engines for mental health and well-being.” Dr. Murthy shared five essentials “to help organizations develop, institutionalize, and update policies, processes, and practices that best support the mental health and well-being of all workers.”

If an organization wants to improve in the future, its leaders need to know where it stands in the present. As you review the framework and each of its five essentials, pause and reflect: How is your company doing? What’s working well? What could be better?

  

                    

The Five Essentials

1. Protection from Harm

·        Prioritize workplace physical and psychological safety

·        Enable adequate rest

·        Normalize and support mental health

·        Operationalize Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility norms, policies, and programs

2. Connection and Community

·        Create cultures of inclusion and belonging

·        Cultivate trusted relationships

·        Foster collaboration and teamwork

3. Work-Life Harmony

·        Provide more autonomy over how work is done

·        Make schedules as flexible and predictable as possible

·        Increase access to paid leave

·        Respect boundaries between work and non-work time

4. Mattering at Work

·        Provide a living wage

·        Engage workers in workplace decisions

·        Build a culture of gratitude and recognition

·        Connect individual work with organizational mission

5. Opportunities for Growth

·        Offer quality training, education, and mentoring

·        Foster clear, equitable pathways for career advancement

·        Ensure relevant, reciprocal feedback

Reviewing the five essentials and their components may be overwhelming. They’re a gold standard for well-being. You may recognize strengths in some areas, weaknesses in others. Implementing a comprehensive plan to meet all of these needs might seem impossible.

Yet, what do these five essentials have in common? They’re all things leaders significantly influence, for better or worse. When it comes to well-being, leaders make a huge difference, both in what they do and what they don’t do.

You can’t do everything, everywhere, all at once. But in a crisis, it’s crucial to act. So get started.

Don’t Make Well-Being A Guessing Game

Where should leaders start? By taking time to listen to employees. There’s not a one-size-fits-all solution to well-being. For example, one subset of ‘Work-Life Harmony’ is “making schedules as flexible and predictable as possible”. Flexibility and predictability will mean different things to different people.

This is why the Surgeon General’s Framework places “Worker’s Voice and Equity” at the center of the model. Leaders need to slow down, focus, and truly listen to the people they lead. While work in our digital age may travel at the speed of light, human mental health and well-being needs to move much slower. We have to lead at the speed of humanity, by being exceptionally human ourselves.

As Dr. Murthy states, “The most effective leaders express compassion, empathy, and generosity; communicate openly, often, and clearly; and practice human and wellness-centered leadership by recognizing the connection between individual strengths, growth, and organizational change.”

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If a well-being program is going to be effective, it has to meet the needs of the end-user. Well-being isn’t something you go off and heroically figure out in isolation. It needs to be co-created through connection, communication, and collaboration. Well-being, like leadership itself, isn’t about you. It’s about the people you lead.

 

 

References:

 

Hunkins, A. (2022) The New Road Map To Improve Employee Well-Being. [online] Forbes: Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alainhunkins/2022/11/28/the-new-road-map-to-improve-employee-well-being/?sh=63e9ca45ee2d. [Accessed 1 Apr. 2024].