Last year as we adapted to the new world of working from home, it soon became obvious that the challenges facing employees went beyond the strength of their wifi signal or access to anything that would serve as a desk. Employees faced a range of new stressors from emotional to psychological to financial to the fear of the unknown.
Our workplaces too went through an accelerated digital disruption. The future of work is no longer what it used to be. Shared workspaces, open kitchens, small conference rooms, and crowded elevators are now a thing of the past. It’s not enough to place hand sanitizer around the office. Space and flow must be reimagined for a healthier world. Hybrid workforces must also evolve as the world starts to reopen. And now it’s time for a disruption of another kind — a wellness disruption that places employee well-being, at the office and at home, as a strategic initiative at the most senior levels of business.
While there have been many iterations of corporate wellness programs in the past, from free yoga classes to walking meetings to mobile health checks, they were often aimed at achieving a business goal, whether it was reducing sick days or healthcare costs, or used as a means to attract and retain top talent. Unfortunately, and fortunately, it took a pandemic to inspire managers and HR leaders to empathize and sense the incredible stress thrust on employees practically overnight. I use the word empathize because every employee from the C-Suite to the front line was affected. Executives too were disrupted.
We weren’t really “working from home” as much as we were at home, trying to balance everything from home, while trying to work as best we could. Suddenly we weren’t seeking work/life balance; we were treading water in a new world of work/life blending.
Every employee felt, and is still feeling, profound strain and anxiety. There was no COVID WFH guru visiting everyone to help set up at-home workstations and helping ease the psychological, emotional, and health-related effects of the sudden shift in how we all live and work.
Now, well over one year into pandemic disruption, every level of the organization is affected by this new normal. Yesterday’s HR, management, and employee engagement programs have quickly become the Achilles heel of employee experiences (EX). We now need to (and honestly should have always) frequently ask how our employees are really doing, and what they need from us to do better.
For companies and employees to thrive in this new work environment, this key ingredient — empathy — must be wired throughout the company. Like with digital transformation turning every company into technology companies, organizations must now also become employee-centered, digital wellness companies. Executives can elevate well-being efforts in the workplace and truly become wellness companies by focusing on three areas.
Make Wellness a Business Imperative from the Top Down
Pre-pandemic, there was no shortage of research that drew a clear link between employee well-being and its impact on employee recruitment, retention, productivity, and corporate profitability. That connection has only intensified given the events of the past 18 months.
Today one in four workers say they are planning on leaving their jobs when the pandemic is over. That’s one-in-four! And in a recent survey, 82% of employees report that they would consider leaving their job for a more empathetic organization. As more employees job shop based on human-centered benefits beyond salaries, well-being as a corporate pillar has become mission critical to retaining employees and attracting top talent to fill open jobs and help compete in this novel economy.
For many employees, knowing and believing that their companies are committed to their well-being means hearing it and seeing it from the highest levels of the organization. Empathy at its most basic involves good listening skills, but also the ability to feel something as another. When racial tensions flared last year in the middle of the pandemic, many CEOs pulled employees together for “listening sessions” to give a voice to those who needed to express their feelings and for others to hear and feel those sentiments. More so, these gatherings helped show employees that they matter, that they’ve been heard by sharing feedback that impacts corporate policies and programs. The key is to also follow through with new corporate initiatives.
The impact of these disrupted times did not spare anyone at any level. Now is the time for senior leadership to show all employees that they are heard, that they matter, and that they’re valued.
Use Technology to Personalize Well-Being at Scale
A scan of today’s news will quickly reveal that employees are exhausted. More than four in 10 employees say they are more burned out on the job than a year ago. One might say that the need to suddenly do everything from home — shop, study, care for kids, and work in front of a video screen all day — took a toll. Others might use stronger words. The inability to ever turn off your digital connections has been building up an incredible amount of anxiety,distraction, and unhappiness in life in general, not just at work.
And yet, the pandemic transformed our relationship with technology in positive ways too. Without a doubt, technology saved many jobs during the pandemic. In a hybrid work world, addressing well-being means figuring out how to use technology so it improves our lives. Tech can help us figure out how employees take breaks and how often, identify how easy or hard it is for employees to use technology at home, note how they are faring emotionally and physically now that they are juggling work-life balance, and much more.
Having conversations around these issues is important, and addresses the empathy that was lacking in previous efforts. And leveraging technology is the only way to feasibly address these issues continuously at scale.
Companies need tools to allow them to act on employee data, identify trends, and solve concerns in real time. It is technology’s ability to provide personalization at scale, rooted first and foremost in empathy, that can improve well-being.
Checking in on employees means going beyond physical health checks to include mental, financial, and professional check-ins. After check-ins, it means offering tailored resources and programs that include things like stress reduction techniques, self care coaching, financial plan advising, and more. The goal ultimately needs to be to look at the whole employee and personalize the experience to their needs.
Redefine the HR-IT Partnership for a Post-Pandemic Economy
Like with customer experience, companies must now also prioritize the employee experience. I used to joke that HR represented “human resistance.” Now it must truly represent “human responsibilities.” HR must embrace an employee-first, digitally-centered approach to wellness, beyond surveys and basic check-ins, every day.
In the rush to convert to remote work, technology was, in all honesty, deployed simply to “get the job done” and ensure business continuity. Now that we’ve had time to adjust, we need tech with a greater sense of purpose. We need to more intentionally marry HR’s understanding of employee health and wellness needs with IT’s expertise in connecting employees with devices and intuitive solutions. The combination of the two should provide solutions that make them productive without having to do anything extra just to work and in some cases serve customers, partners, and other stakeholders.
Some companies like Warby Parker have already done this and created an HR department for the digital work world, where HR is a business partner for implementing technology for employee wellness and success.
We've witnessed training programs roll out at scale to help customer service employees deliver better customer experiences. Executives report that improved employee experience leads to improved customer experience. And while we’ve long known about the link between customer experience and revenue, prioritizing employee experience can also impact revenue. We need to put the same effort around employees and wellness. We have to help them to focus on what it means to be well — and they can use these new technologies to practice self care. These times didn’t come with a “how to live a better life manual” afterall.
Mid-pandemic, McKinsey identified that 75% of customers experimented with a competitor. Employees are also now often in pursuit of a better experience. Will it be with you or with another employer? Companies that can begin to look at corporate well-being through the lens of their employees, and not through a product lens, are on the path to employee-centric well-being.
How companies can respond is practically limitless. It can mean mandating corporate-wide initiatives like once or twice a month wellness days off, creating shorter work weeks, or developing personalized wellness programs and tracking mechanisms for every employee.
Regardless of how you respond, the message needs to come from the top. This is a time for a new genre of empathetic leader, not just one who reports to Wall Street or traditional stakeholders, but to the human beings who make everything work...every day...even during a pandemic.
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Every Company Must Now Become A Wellness Company - Forbes
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