understanding wellbeing
What is employee wellbeing?
Employee well-being refers to the overall health of your employees—mental, physical, emotional, and financial—and how their wellbeing across these four pillars affects how they show up at work. With employee burnout hitting record levels in the U.S., wellbeing needs to be a top priority for HR leaders and people managers.
The 4 dimensions of employee wellbeing.
Prioritizing employee wellbeing means embracing a holistic view of your people:
Physical wellbeing.
How’s their physical health? Do they feel physically safe and cared for? Have you established regular health and wellness initiatives that are accessible to all employees?
Emotional wellbeing.
How are your people doing emotionally? Are they experiencing high levels of stress? Does your culture support their psychological safety?
Social wellbeing.
What about employees’ ability to build and maintain meaningful relationships? Do your people feel that they’re part of a team? Do you hold space for connection among employees (e.g. team building activities) so they feel like they belong?
Financial wellbeing.
How are your people meeting financial obligations? Are they burdened by their finances? Beyond retirement savings and base insurance, how do you help your people navigate financial stressors (e.g. financial planning and coaching benefits)?
the numbers
Why modern companies care about employee wellbeing.
Your employees deserve to be well and whole because they are people. Beyond this fact, forward-thinking organizations understand that their people power everything—which is why they're prioritizing employee wellbeing programs.
But too many organizations are still falling short: Gallup reports that fewer than 1 in 4 employees in the U.S. think that their company cares about their wellbeing. That's the lowest percentage in nearly a decade. On the flip side, they found that employees who agree that their company cares about their wellbeing are:
69%
less likely to actively search for a new job.
71%
less likely to report experiencing a lot of burnout.
5x
more likely to strongly advocate for their company as a place to work.
The Mental Health Support Gap.
According to new data from The Harris Poll, 52% of employed Americans believe their employer is not doing enough to support employees' mental health.
This points to a gap between what employees are feeling—especially as it relates to what’s happening in the world—and what many people leaders are doing to support wellbeing within their company.
How 3 companies are prioritizing employee
wellbeing right now.
Improving employee wellbeing is a journey—you likely won't get it right on the first try. The key is to collaborate with your people and experiment with policies that make sense for your unique organization. Here's how 3 different companies are approaching employee wellbeing:
Buffer.
Buffer, a remote-first social media management platform, set out to make sure their perks and benefits fully empower their people to feel their best at and outside of work.
PwC.
The large accounting, audit, tax and consulting firm recently committed $2.4 billion to their employee wellbeing programs.
ImmunoGen.
Biotech company, ImmunoGen, went fully remote during the pandemic, which presented them with an opportunity to introduce new employee wellbeing initiatives that would keep teams engaged and excited.
How Buffer is giving employees more time back to boost wellbeing:
Implementing 4-day workweeks so their people can take more time to refresh on the weekend.
Offering a 6-week sabbatical after every 5 years spent with the company.
How PwC supports employee care through flexibility:
Offering not just the choice to work anywhere, but tailoring work schedules to their specific needs.
Providing two week-long, company-wide shutdowns each year so their people can recharge.
How ImmunoGen keeps their people energized with experiences:
Implementing experience-based workplace wellbeing incentives that focus on renewing overall employee wellbeing.
Employees are sharing their experiences with their peers, showcasing impact and getting teammates excited.
3 strategies to improve employee wellbeing
now and in the future.
Let’s set you up for success. Here are a few strategies you can use to improve your current employee wellbeing program, adopted from people-first organizations around the world:
1.
Hear directly from your people about what they want.
2.
Encourage time away from work.
3.
Build a formal employee recognition program.
why experiences
How you can use experiential rewards to boost employee wellbeing.
Recognition and rewards are powerful tools you can use to show employees they're seen, that their work is appreciated. This acknowledgement can greatly improve employees' sense of wellbeing.
EMPLOYEE WELLBEING RESOURCES
Check out a few more popular resources all about employee wellbeing:
Blog
Your brain on experiences: How to drive employee well-being by focusing on fulfillment
Get insight on how organizations can harness the power of experiences to increase fulfillment and well-being.
Blog
4 strategies to create a culture of wellbeing
Get steps forward to support employee wellbeing from this webinar featuring a panel of HR and company leaders.
Case Study
Energy Renewal by Blueboard fosters employee wellbeing
See how ImmunoGen improved wellbeing for employees in a remote world through experiential rewards.
