Businesses are haemorrhaging millions of pounds in ineffective wellbeing programmes. These fail to tackle deep-seated difficulties, resulting in unsustainable levels of fatigue and disengagement.
On average, large US organisations spend about $10.5 million per year on wellbeing initiatives like apps, yoga, and subsidised gym memberships. These rely on the whim of individuals, and take-up is often sporadic. As few as 20%of US workers actually use their employers’ wellness programme.
Perhaps this is partly why wellbeing initiatives appear to be having little effect. Analysis by Gallup found that 77% of employees globally are not engaged at work, including 18% who are “actively disengaged.” In 2020-21, poor mental health cost UK employers £56 billion.
As well as disengagement, growing fatigue, and low morale, organisations are also struggling with intergenerational communication, and persistent concerns about AI.
Leaders aren’t sure how to respond. Some organisations try resilience training, half hoping this might turn their people into stress-proof superhumans able to withstand unsustainable ways of working. It’s as if they’re making money by selling planking from a boat at sea – while their hard-working staff, pulling the boat apart and watching the water rising, are getting wet and worried. This approach to work doesn’t have a long-term future.
Other organisations buy in sticking-plaster solutions (such as apps) suggested by well-meaning HR departments who’ve not been given the chance to diagnose the deeper causes of disengagement.
There’s a healthier, sustainable alternative.
Identifying underlying issues
Working Voices have been exploring these issues over the last three years. We realised that when it came to wellbeing, many people have been looking in the wrong places.
Assessing evidence gathered in-house and through our partnership with Mercer, we identified two underlying issues:
- Since the global financial crisis, the mantra of ‘doing more with less’ has dominated company culture. KPIs are king. Many organisations exclusively focus on targets and performance, and individuals are expected to keep up.
- Secondly, around the same time, smartphones, laptops, and the behaviours they encourage, began to erode meaningful human contact. When you’re communicating with someone through a screen (whether via text, email, or a virtual call), you’re not fully interacting with them – leading to physiological and psychological implications. There is less of the crucial human connection which is essential for wellbeing, and which can’t be fixed by an app.
These two issues are unsustainable, both are years in the making, and neither can be cured by an afternoon of resilience training. People are feeling alienated from fulfilment at work and disconnected from each other. These feelings lead to fatigue that in turn infects engagement and depresses productivity.
A culture of social wellbeing
In searching for a wellbeing solution to these difficulties, we wanted to find something that benefitted everyone, not just a handful of eager individuals. We found that the best way to approach this was via company culture. By focusing on the organisation as a whole, leaders can develop a form of wellbeing that supports their entire workforce.
What should such a culture look like? Evidence for this is piecemeal yet consistent. We noticed that many published papers in this space, (eg, Baumeister and Leary, 1995; Edmondson, 1999; Woolley et al, 2010; Project Aristotle, 2012; Zak, 2017), shared over-arching similarities. We recognised that a common thread ran through them all, though this is easily overlooked.
As you’d expect, each author (or group of authors) focused on their own findings, be it on the ancient origins of belonging, the significance of psychological safety, the value of collective intelligence, effective teamwork, the nature of trust, and so on. In each case, the authors only went a limited way in putting their work in perspective.
By looking at the bigger picture however, we find that these and similar examples share a common sentiment. This can be considered as emotional intelligence for organisations, driven by a culture of positive trust and recognition. This is wellbeing at an organisational level, a concept we call social wellbeing.
A pyramid of needs, fit for the 21st century
Social wellbeing offers purpose and direction, replacing hit-and-miss wellbeing initiatives with a strategy specifically developed in response to the problems organisations are experiencing. It doesn’t involve expensive access to an app, it primarily relies on the desire to redevelop culture, from the boardroom down to the interns.
In a re-imagining of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, fit for the 21st century, all employees initially benefit from a fundamental, underlying commitment to social wellbeing. Some employees will also need the future skills, such as communicating with data or working with AI, that will become increasingly significant in the coming years. Higher up our notional pyramid, leaders benefit from support in critical thinking and leading through change.
Underpinning all these skills, a culture of trust is rewarded with both the stronger engagement and sense of belonging that lead to healthier retention.
All this may seem self-evident. But the fact is at the moment it’s not happening. This is because in the world of KPIs and deadlines, trust-based activity is not rewarded. This failure misses a valuable advantage, which at first glance appears counter-intuitive.
Time is tight for everyone. But in taking the time to develop people, patiently encouraging their self-management skills, you develop leaders of the future. These people become more able, more confident – and more likely to support their busy managers when the pressure’s on, freeing them up to do other things. By giving time to people, leaders create extra time for themselves.
Implementing a sustainable way of working
The bedrock of a human-focused culture, social wellbeing offers a way of working that tackles disengagement, protects productivity, and above all is sustainable. It delivers the trust, belonging, respect, and psychological safety that can reverse some of the damaging trends of recent times.
For younger generations, psychological safety is especially important. Research shows that half of millennials and 75% of generation Z have left roles in the past for mental health reasons. The core feature of the workplace of the future, social wellbeing describes the direction of travel that younger generations are looking for. Leaders who ignore this may regard wellbeing as an expense rather than an investment. They may settle for programmes of limited value that fail to reach their target audience.
Instead, HR professionals should make the business case for transformational and sustainable solutions. These can include external guidance for leaders and employees, supported by internal actions such as complementing KPIs with assessment of how people are managed.
Ultimately, we’re advocating cultural change, leading to a sustainable way of working that values connection, communication, and collaboration. This is the best way of cutting down on the current levels of wastage that wellbeing attracts. Given the wider problems the world faces, not least climate change, working better together is no longer just a good idea, it’s the model for our future survival.
