Current State
Employee wellness and well-being is taking on an increasingly important place in the Employee Value Proposition (EVP). Respondents to Brandon Hall Group™’s HCM Outlook 2024 study overwhelmingly identified reinvesting in wellbeing as a top-three future of work initiative for their organizations.
Complications
Competing organizational priorities further complicate the focus on wellness when only 52% of respondents identified it as an important/critical people strategy. Well-being and wellness may be on the radar, but they are far from a clearly defined priority. When considering pressures like rising healthcare costs, the risk of increased absenteeism or reduced engagement and morale, the eventual difficulty in attracting and retaining talent becomes clear.
Consequences
Employee wellness and well-being can easily become a lost issue in the sense that it is easy for oganizations to lose sight of its importance and impact. There is the possibility of decreased productivity and profitability as a result. The negative impact on company culture and the resulting damage to the company’s reputation makes ignoring or minimizing well-being not just a priority but an imperative.
Critical Questions
- What actions should we take to develop and foster psychological safety and well-being for our workforce?
- What is the return on investment (ROI) of taking those actions?
Brandon Hall Group™ POV
Make Employee Well-Being a Priority
Wellness has become the “must-have” part of the employee value proposition. Given a growing focus on topics such as mental health and financial well-being, the expectation that employers will take an active role in supporting employees has only increased. For those organizations that truly endorse inclusion, sustainability and purpose, well-being efforts show a true commitment to those principles. Essentially, employers who want to retain their top talent will need to show a clear commitment to their employees’ well-being.
Focus on What You Can Control
There are a variety of reasons employees might leave and not all of them are related to obvious external factors (although they certainly play a large part).
Companies must actively understand what employees want and need as well as what is driving any attrition and take consistent, continual and credible action to address the factors that are under their control.
Create Learning Support for Managers to Notice and Mitigate Employee Stress
The massive change in the workplace that began without warning and has resulted in ongoing change means that managers must cope with the same stress as other employees and more. How are they expected to manage their own stress levels, and recognize and support employees (including those they might not see on a daily basis) who may have unmanageable stress levels? If your organization lacks the training necessary to help managers learn these new skills, you must prioritize a solution.
