Whilst stuck in the train station today I found myself wondering why isn’t wellbeing common across business. So like usual I’ve used my blog to rant and pour my own meandering thoughts out on the page.
Many organisations proclaim that “our people are at the heart of everything we do and if it wasn’t for our people we wouldn’t have a business” Sounds great, doesn’t it? but I ask you when you hear these words, look closer. What you will likely find is one or two key strategies (usually linked to training, pay) that are heavily invested by the company that gives the business the confidence to make the statements. Of course, companies should train their people better and pay them more, yet for me these are the basics of being a ‘good business’ and unfortunately, we humans are much more complex than this.
Human beings are creators and explorers, they aim to discover, build, innovate, and change the world around them. Therefore, the quality of work life, the single biggest part of our waking adult lives, must surely count heavily for the quality of life. Can we truly say that the more training we receive and the more money I earn will ultimately make me the best employee in the world and fulfil my personal, professional and spiritual needs? if only, however sadly not. It baffles me to think that most businesses seem to forget that their employees are human, which shows through weak wellbeing programmes of work.
Businesses need to remember that the internal processes of an employee interact with job characteristics and subsequently wellbeing at work, these can’t be approached separately. Wellbeing is impacted by genetics, mood and emotional state, these along with age are likely to play a part in workplace wellbeing. It’s amazing to think that job satisfaction is typically highest amongst the oldest and youngest employees, declining in the middle years, before rising again with age. That’s me screwed then, I’m well and truly in the middle years, great!
What about the employee’s personality? Each of the ‘big five’ dimensions of personality (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness) have been shown to correlate with job satisfaction, even research into the relationship between wellbeing and education has pointed to lower wellbeing among more educated workers!! Isn’t that amazing, the smarter you are, the more likely your wellbeing will suffer. That’s a great advertising campaign for university “STAY AWAY YOU’LL BE HAPPIER”
The work place factors that impact wellbeing and subsequently performance are not, unfortunately, a clear-cut list companies can chronologically follow and subsequently set policies against. Nevertheless, this has not stopped many differing companies deploying wellbeing strategies (Google, John Lewis, Safeway, Network Rail and Royal Mail). These companies understand the many benefits of having a good level of wellbeing within the workforce. Individuals with higher wellbeing have healthier diets, are more likely to exercise and less likely to smoke, experience more positive social relationships and greater levels of collaboration and cooperation within the workplace, have better cognitive processes such as creativity, problem solving, process complex information more speedily and have a wider span of attention. This, along with research suggesting that employees with lower wellbeing are less likely still to be in the same job 15 months later, make wellbeing an attractive proposition for both employer and employees. A recent study of 8,000 business units in 36 companies found that higher levels of wellbeing were associated with higher productivity and profits. Likewise, after studying 42 manufacturing companies, overall job satisfaction was positively correlated with company productivity in the subsequent year.
So, I ask you, after reading my rant, when you come across “business speak” towards employees being at the heart of the business, look closer, you’ll likely see a couple of chinks in the paint work.
Work for those companies that genuinely care for their employees, how can you tell if they do? a good place to start is by seeing what their wellbeing programme looks like and how they resonate with the employees.
P.s I don’t know why the text is all over the place……
markparker2006 
Hi Mark,
I totally agree with you – didn’t think of your piece as a rant though :).
On websites and in strategies it always looks shiny and glamurous. But people know pretty fast if these words are shallow without substance. Not only do you then run into retaining issues with your work force (especially the diligent employees), but you will have a hard time attracting new ones (as word spreads and people discourage others from applying).
As with environmental issues, the social sphere you are adressing demands a high ability to see how things are connected. Not so difficult one would assume, but it seems to be challenging, as many companies still believe that individual incentives and an ok pay is enough to motivate their employees. You open any kind of progressive “how to motivate your work force” book and you will read: individual incentives don’t work (focus on Western countries) and they give you all sorts of examples of small (not expensive) services, which mean a lot to employees.
A small Danish company has grasped that and is “stealing” many good employees from other big companies, as they offer a decent salary and free dental care on the company’s premises, hair dresser, improved maternity/ paternity packages and many other things. The company says that the cost of these programmes are small in comparison to how much the employees bring in, as they see that management cares for their well-being.
A book called “Consicous capitalism” is depicting some of these programmes and how it supports employee productivity and increasing retention rates. In a difficult financial period “Wholefoods” in the US summoned their employee and said, that they would like to find a solution without lay offs. Employees got together and some took unpaid holiday, while the ones with debt and families stayed on. After several months of hard work Wholefoods was able to pay back the salaries of the employees, who had volunteered to step out.
Now as you said, there are documented correlations between employee satisfactions and the programms, which companies offer, so why aren’t more working with it?
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Thank you for your comments, great build on my blog
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Firstly, I’d like to say there is nothing wrong with having a ranty blog – I’ve actually discovered that my blogs are rather ranty too. I was actually just reflecting on the fact that perhaps I’m too negative, when I read your blog and it cheered me up to find someone else uses this medium as a means to vent frustrations. I actually find it quite cathartic and dare I say it adds to my own personal wellbeing to get things off my chest and out into the ether. 🙂
Hopefully that’s a good segue into your blog topic. Your comments on the superficial commitments made by many businesses who claim to support and promote employee wellbeing and the benefits of good wellbeing are interesting. It also started me thinking about how intrinsically linked workplace wellbeing and personal wellbeing are. At different points in my life I have worked at good and not so good companies (by good I mean in relation to corporate culture and investment in employee wellbeing) and at different points in my life my personal circumstances have been great or not so great. On reflection, I have been (unsurprisingly) happiest when both are in sync (fortunately I’m currently in such a phase) and most miserable when both were also in sync but for negative reasons. I have also been ok and managed to keep an even keel when only one of the two are going well. It’s possible to muddle along if life is great and work is crap, or conversely and (given how much time we spend at work) if work is great and life is crap but it really is interesting how significantly workplace wellbeing can impact all other areas. I also thought your comments about how the more educated seem to have lower levels of wellbeing, there is so much to explore in that and reminds me of one of group discussions (maybe Res Workshop 1) about wellbeing and happiness and basically how you can be poor and happy and rich and miserable. Money, education and status isn’t the panacea that the west often likes to purport it to be.
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Mark, I think you’ve touched upon a sensitive point, how much sometimes making a living takes a toll on individuals. In countries such as the UK or Australia where employees have access to universal healthcare (NHS etc) employers can often look the other way when it comes to well being, but in countries such as the US where not all individuals have such access, it is critical for employers to step up beyond OH&S awareness and training.
Wellbeing is one of the most overlooked aspects of an employee ecosystem, yet as you rightly stated, the one that affects quality of work and retention the most. Working in the financial services sector where pressures are high, I can see what extended working hours, poor diet and sedentary lifestyles can do to people. This is one of the reasons my organization has recently taken a strong stance on wellbeing – a global internal campaign that covers everything from mental health to providing support to lose weight, offering options for sabbaticals and even chair yoga sessions.
This has been heavily communicated with our top leaders coming forward to speak about their challenges and what it means to support each other so our colleagues can have a better quality of life at work. Now this is a far cry for the the culture and attitudes even a decade ago – it’s fair to say that although change can be slow, there are actions being taken internally perhaps in many organizations to start valuing employees beyond the financial return they can bring. I can tell the impact it has made so far amongst colleagues – who actively read and look forward to the engagement activities in the office but most importantly have begun to be more open about health related issues. I think there is a long road ahead but we are taking baby steps!
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