Where are you on the Wellbeing@Work Journey?
The Wellbeing@Work Journey is more predictable than you think.
As a Psychologist who started their career working in the field of stress, performance and mental toughness twenty years ago, and how having come full circle, via many years in the field of assessment and leadership development, I've noticed something. The journey organisations go on when it comes to embedding an understanding of stress, wellbeing and performance into their business tends to be fairly predictable. There is a Wellbeing@Work Journey.
Having worked with businesses on the full end of the spectrum, from the willfully ignorant/macho culture of 'wellbeing is for wimps' through to those winning awards for their work in this area, we've seen the good, bad and the ugly! We’ve also learnt that there are certain problems and frustrations that come along at predictable times. More importantly, there are also ways of overcoming these, if you know the journey ahead of you.
Here are the five stages:
1. Not my problem.
For many businesses, the corporate wellbeing journey often starts with a lack of awareness or interest regarding the wellbeing and mental health of employees.
However, there are two camps that operate in this space, and whilst both fail to make the connection between wellbeing and enhanced business performance, they function as quite different beasts.
The fist was probably completely unaware or ignorant of anything wellbeing related pre-pandemic.
The chances are that staff wellbeing was not something that the business ever had much cause to think about. Of course, every so often the occasional employee would bring 'their problems to work with them' and would go 'off the boil' for a while. This might lead to a manager having a 'quiet word', but on the whole, a bit of flexi-time, a decent Christmas 'do' and a fully stocked office fruit basket was seen as a reasonable level of commitment to supporting the employee experience.
Probably an SME in the private sector, until recently this kind of business had no idea that wellbeing was a 'thing'.
The second organisation that sits here on this first step of the Corporate Wellbeing Journey are potentially a much more nefarious bunch.
These organisations are big enough to have a HR Department, who have probably been fruitlessly trying communicate to the Board the benefits, but also responsibilities they have as an employer, when it comes to stress and wellbeing. However, any activity they do in engage in when it comes to wellbeing is a cynical tick box exercise – to either meet shareholder expectations or to boost the employee brand on the candidate attraction front. Deep down – or maybe, evenly openly – those at the top of these organisations have a ‘wellbeing is for wimps’ mindset. They believe in 'survival of the fittest', see anything people-related as 'pink and fluffy', and see anything to do with wellbeing as not their responsibility.
Initially a bit more difficult to spot, this organisation may have many of the wellbeing initiative boxes ticked – pre-pandemic office fruit bowl, resilience workshops, Mental Health First Aiders, occupational health department, employee assistance provider, online wellbeing hub, etc. They may even have a number of articles on their website outlining how committed they are to supporting their employees through these 'difficult times'.
However, this commitment to wellbeing is just skin deep, and the unwritten culture of the organisation reflecting the true feelings of those that lead the business. From articles that have appeared in the press recently, Brew Dog, with the open letter from their staff decrying the toxic culture, despite ticking all the wellbeing boxes would seem to be a text book example of this type of organisation. Recent statements from Goldman Sachs with regards to working hours, would also seem to be another example.
2. Sticking plasters and panic stations.
At this next step on the Corporate Wellbeing Journey there is a recognition that something needs doing but a lack of clarity as to what that should look like. The business may have already upped up their benefits package and commissioned a series of resilience workshops for the staff. They may even trained up a few Mental Health First Aiders. However, change at this point is often a knee jerk reaction, as they don’t know what they don’t know.
Working with a relatively blank slate on the wellbeing front, there is an increasing sense of urgency to do something meaningful to improve the employee experience. Deep down they likely knew that the resilience workshops they rolled out were a temporary and insubstantial sticking plaster – trying to cover up the cracks caused by the need for a fundamental cultural or structural change – but saw doing something as better than doing nothing. Possibly hoping to buy themselves sometime whilst they figure out if they can tackle the more systemic causes of the problems they perceive.
With potentially both budget and resources allocated, this emerging willingness from the top, the challenge for this business is to direct them where they will make the most difference.
3. Time to join up the dots.
Later down the line, a business realises that maybe wellbeing really is a ‘thing’. Top management are bought in, and investment is being made. They’ve rolled out workshops, pimped and personalised their benefits package, and have introduced an Employee Assistance Programme (EAE). People are seeing and now believing that there is a genuine commitment from the business for their personal wellbeing.
However, despite the commitments and investment are in place, but for some reason they don’t seem to be seeing the true change or benefits they expected to see.
The problem is that despite a range of resources now being in place a failure to join them up, or too much emphasis at the individual, rather than organisational level, is likely limiting the impact of this good work.
There is a risk at that this stage that commitment to wellbeing from the Board is tentative and a lack of visible return on investment may cause a ‘wobble’ and result in a failure to commit to the cause long term. A proper wellbeing strategy, that links into the wider business objectives is needed to progress from this stage.
4. Mind the Gap.
We've got past the potential wobble, there is a proper strategy in place, and the impact from better workplace wellbeing is being seen. The organisations is genuinely on its way to creating a 'wellbeing culture'. The numbers look good, attrition and sickness absence are down, employee engagement and performance is up.
However, a capability gap has emerged. There is a growing realisation that maybe the leaders in the business don’t have the skills or capability to support to commitments to wellbeing that have been made from higher up.
We know that managers are the linchpin to having high performing teams. We've heard it time and time again. People leave managers, not companies. The problem is that most managers can go over 10 years before receiving any meaningful training on how to do the job well. A review by Harvard Business Review uncovered that the average age of first-time managers is 30 years old, while the average age of those in leadership training is 42.
With all of that in mind, it is no wonder that managers are considered woefully equipped to take on the responsibility of being able to meaningfully discuss and support their team when it comes to wellbeing. The business needs to invest in upskilling its managers before it can progress to the next stage in the Corporate Wellbeing Journey.
5. Smashing it. Keep going…
Finally, we arrive a ‘destination wellbeing’ and it’s a great place to be. The weather is lovely, the view is fabulous and everyone is enjoying themselves. The business has achieved the heady heights of creating and embedding a wellbeing culture into the heart of the business, and they are seeing the benefits. Reduced absenteeism, great retention, a desirable employer brand, enhanced productivity, and increased profitability.
The priority here is to keep evolving and refining the great work they've been doing. Also, an unexpected challenge can emerge here.
In striving to do so much for their people when it comes to supporting their wellbeing, some companies can unintentionally dis-empower their staff. In other words, they've accidentally taken on the role of 'parent', thinking about, and taking on more responsibility for an employee's wellbeing, than they staff are taking for themselves. The challenge here is to re-balance the relationship back to being a partnership with equal responsibility being taken.
Knowing these predictable stages on the Wellbeing@Work Journey can guide you towards identifying the key priorities and pitfalls for your business as you work towards achieving better business through better wellbeing.
The harsh truth is that one end, a lack of employee wellbeing will cost a business money. At the other it can make a business money. The decision for you as a business, is which end would you rather be at?
What next?
Workplace Wellbeing Healthcheck
If improving the wellbeing of your people is something that has been on your mind, why not start by having a Wellbeing Healthcheck?
It's a short 5 minute questionnaire that helps you to take stock of what you might already be doing when it comes to workplace wellbeing, as well as identifying gaps and opportunities for improvement.
Click here to start.