If you talk to most enterprise-level executives about lessons learned in 2020, don’t be surprised if employee wellness is mentioned—often.
According to the HR.com 2021 State of Employee Health and Well-being study, 63% of organizational leaders agree that mental health is among their Human Resources department’s top five priorities moving forward. And 75% of HR professionals reported in the same study that employee wellness has become more of a priority.
To put it bluntly, if your organization isn’t prioritizing employee wellness, you might soon find yourselves at a competitive disadvantage.
Throughout this past year, we observed that organizations with an effective employee wellness program already in place:
We’re not alone in this observation: A recently published Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends study, entitled “The social enterprise in a world disrupted,” reveals that organizations are starting the shift into a “human-first” approach to decisions—where the impact on employee wellness is a major consideration.
All of this means employee wellness is now more than a “nice-to-have” perk. It must be a major priority, underpinning everything an organization does and serving as a foundation to help your entire organization become more productive, competitive, and engaging.
The Deloitte study indicates that this change is being driven by five trends in particular:
While all these trends share the overarching philosophy of a human-first workplace, the first and fifth trends are of particular importance to HR and wellness professionals, helping them play a much more significant role in enterprise-level decisions.
Let’s examine these in more detail.
The pandemic has taught us many tough lessons. We’ve learned how precious life is, how much we depend on interpersonal interaction, and how much well-being ripples into every aspect of employees’ work lives.
Further, the Deloitte team recommends that companies build well-being into actions, policies, and mandates at the individual, team, and organizational levels.
At the individual level, companies should create an environment where employees are able to set their own boundaries and communicate their personal well-being needs without judgment. They should be included in the design and prioritization of policies and practices that balance those needs with those of the team and the organization.
At the team level, management and employees should connect and leverage their collective capabilities. Managers should be encouraged to learn, understand, and empathize with the well-being needs of their team. Management should empower team members to craft strategies that allow workloads to ebb and flow among the team, so everybody can “pitch in” and help each other out, allowing the team to perform at their best and thrive.
At the organizational level, management must commit—really commit—to employee well-being by keeping it top-of-mind in making decisions. When employees know their organization prioritizes their well-being just as much as profits, they tend to return the favor with increased engagement and performance.
As wellness directors begin to formulate their recommendations for each of the three levels, they must keep in mind that each work environment has nuances that impact employee wellness.
Consider each of these five environments:
In the Deloitte study, analysts recognize the expanded role that HR played during the pandemic—mostly because the main issues companies dealt with pertained to keeping their workforces engaged while working remotely.
This was especially the case in companies that had previously been slow to adopt any type of work-from-home option for employees. Those companies were literally thrust into the unknown, and their HR teams led the way in restructuring those companies to function like before—and in many cases, even better.
In the next several years, companies that want to shift to a “human” foundation will need HR teams with the ability and authority to re-architect work-related challenges to improve resiliency, empowerment, and overall results.
HR organizations must be bolder in their actions and take on an enterprise mindset to help reorganize and restructure with employee wellness as a foundation. The goal is to drive new outcomes, create change, improve productivity, and foster innovation.
Re-architecting requires a new approach to how work, teams and capabilities are structured:
This chart offers examples of how this approach can come to fruition.
If you or your HR organization would like to discuss how you can apply these trends in your organization, WellRight is here to help. We’ve been working with employers for decades to create and implement workplace wellness programs that work.
For more information about Workplace Wellness Best Practices, download our guide today.