By Cliff Stevenson, Principal Analyst, Talent Management and Workforce Management, Brandon Hall Group
Brandon Hall Group completed its 2018 Wellness & Well-Being Study in March of 2018, and in the course of reviewing that research, I thought it might be a good time to revisit some of the predictions based on our 2017 research to see how well I anticipated workforce needs for this year.
Here is what I wrote at the time:
In terms of technology, there are well-being solutions that are already offered as stand-alone products, and well-being modules and add-ons exist for most of the major HCM suites. Those offerings will continue to expand, and the data and analytics garnered from those technologies will begin to be integrated with other HCM data to both measure effectiveness of programs, but also to provide insights into driving forces behind retention, internal movement, and diversity and inclusion. There are some legal barriers to using some of this data now, but state-level cases have already begun to clear the way for more ethical use of personal data for business-level decision making, which will continue into the next two years.
The legal questions are still being sorted out in U.S. and international courts, and certainly GDPR, which took initial effect in May of 2018, had an impact on the data gathered using this technology. But there is still much to discover in that area.
What is being discovered is in the space where well-being meets diversity and inclusion. Listening to Arlene Cash from Carolinas HealthCare during Brandon Hall Group’s 2018 HCM Excellence event, I was fascinated by their efforts to provide authentic experiences to their employees to help them understand the impact low incomes and low-income areas have on employees. Carolinas HealthCare set up activities like poverty simulations, bus trips to grocery stores in low-income areas and group learning on cultural biases. It struck me that much of what was happening as part of their cultural competency outreach also involves a lot of key areas in well-being: social adaptation, financial well-being, and community involvement.
That’s part of what makes well-being so much more than the transactional activities associated with traditional benefits and wellness; well-being crosses over into what is commonly described as the “employee experience,” a concept that is all-important for today’s younger, more tech-native (but also somewhat more isolated) workforce. It is no surprise that well-being is becoming one of the hottest topics in HCM at the moment. Nothing defines the future of work quite like it.
–Cliff Stevenson, (Twitter: @CliffordDarrell) Principal Analyst, Talent Management and Workforce Management, Brandon Hall Group
For more information on Brandon Hall Group’s research, please visit www.brandonhall.com
