A quick look on Google and ‘workplace wellbeing’ will reveal that there are a lot of solutions to workplace wellbeing but very few actual definitions. One thing that is clear is that there is a push to improve the wellbeing of staff, but what is less clear is how and why.
Do you need an app? A programme? A bowl of fruit or a free gym membership? And what did you want to achieve anyway?
The CIPD started their recent report on workplace wellbeing with this, which is as good a place to start as any.
‘…healthy workplaces help people to flourish and reach their potential. This means creating an environment that actively promotes a state of contentment, benefiting both employees and the organisation’
State of contentment
A recent conversation with one board member revealed to me that creating a ‘state of contentment’ may not be an obvious priority for a business. It is often mistaken for a state of complacency, and a feeling that the team needs to be protected from the bad stuff, whilst the business itself may be under huge strain. Understandably, this misunderstanding of the benefits of workplace wellbeing programmes shows an apparent disconnect between the needs of business and the needs of individuals.
Another disconnect can be found in conversations with managers. In an age of heightened awareness of mental health, pressure is being put on managers to help team members with their mental health, for which they feel wholly inadequate to deliver.
It’s not unsurprising many workplace wellbeing programmes come and go without significant impact.
The two questions I would ask are
‘Do you know what the real issues are?’
‘What outcome do you want?’
Frequent engagement surveys, pulse surveys, one to ones and group town halls can help you to understand the wellbeing needs of your team.
What are the real issues?
Wellbeing programmes often try to cover a range of topics from mindfulness to financial wellbeing. This is all relevant across the organisation, individuals can benefit greatly from the knowledge that is imparted. However, it may not serve the business in the way you would like. Getting better sleep as a result of a sleep workshop will increase performance, but only if the system people are working within is conducive to productivity. Most wellbeing programmes focus on how the individual needs to change to be able to cope with the pressures of the workplace. Very few focus on the how the workplace will change to make them more productive and reduce stress.
In many businesses this inequality of change is the downfall of the wellbeing programme.
What outcome do you want?
Board members want staff to produce the greatest and most accurate output for the financial investment they make. Staff generally want to come to work and do a great job, so on the assumption that both parties want the same thing, where does wellbeing fit in?
Whilst both parties may want the same thing, there is an inequality of change with the emphasis for change often sitting with individuals and not with processes, or management approach. One of the common statements is that people don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad managers. Whilst there is some truth in this, the manager group has an impossible task, balancing the needs of the senior management and the business needs with what the team needs. But this group offers the best route to organisational success if approached from the perspective of upskilling managers.
Lessons learned from racing
Formula One racing shows us that you can get all of the parts of the car to work and in fact the cars are all very similar, but the real gains are made by two factors – the driver and the support team. It’s the drivers decisions around risk and speed, that give them the edge. The rest of the team need to be able to work together seemlessly to ensure the pitstops don’t lose the gains the driver has made. What has this got to do with wellbeing? Well, like wellbeing – it’s to do with culture. The pitstop team all know their roles, they are all given the responsibility to do that with autonomy. They know what happens if they get it wrong and they understand the impact of getting it right. Respect and autonomy in the workplace and a wider idea of your personal impact on the business promote greater mental wellbeing than any app. They imply trust. It also supports the wider need for relevance in what we do.
The newest generation in the workforce is Gen Z are those born between 1997 and 2012. They are the most value driven group in the workplace and numerous surveys have uncovered that they value meaningful work, growth opportunities, collaboration and autonomy. They want to control the pitstop and be trusted to run the pitstop. They want to have sight of the car and what happens at the finish line.
Drivers in Formula One
Most drivers in Formula One start off by driving karts, then other types of cars and then finally, Formula One. In Formula One, drivers have always been drivers. They then have to keep up their practice as drivers but also focus on their general wellbeing as their health is vital. Managers or Directors in businesses often start in technical roles – they start in the pitstop. And for many of them their mentality and their leadership stays there. Micro managing the tyre changes, not leading the team to produce the result. Like drivers, they take the glory when it goes well and the wrath when it doesn’t, but unlikely drivers the emphasis on their specialist management skills remains patchy and inconsistent. Their wellbeing is often worse than their teams, so when they are called upon to help staff members with their health challenges, they carry the burden. Working extra hours, filling in gaps and shouldering the situation is commonplace.
If you want a flourishing manager, and for your workplace wellbeing programmes to work, they need to increase their leadership skills. They also need an understanding of mental health and have the autonomy to make decisions. In the post covid working from home era, leadership and management needs to be seen as a job in itself, with the same level of training as the technical team.
Workplace wellbeing, your secret to success
Covid taught us that people matter in our daily lives. Having someone to talk to and laugh with is important to our feeling of contentment as an individual. With more working from home we have all become that little less in touch with each others needs. For many people the workplace is the only community they belong to. They are probably not living in the town where they grew up or partaking in group activities which enhance connectivity. Organisations, which rise to fulfil this gap will not be disappointed. What do you do that allows people to be themselves and share who they really are? Whilst workplace wellbeing programmes often try to fulfil this gap, ask yourself this – how does that fit with the rest of your culture?
Anxiety and other common mental health challenges impact around 1 in 4 people in their life time, and also have a knock on effect on their families and friends. Poor sleep leads to work taking longer to complete and a greater chance of errors, as does financial strain. So there is a real need to tackle these items as individual topics, but the framework of support within the organisation also needs to change and adapt. Are you leading in a way that will produce the result you want? Managing by fear will only get you so far and is usually unsustainable.
We often hear how the ‘tone from the top’ and senior leadership buy-in makes the difference when it comes to change, but what I often see is senior leadership lip service. For organisations to thrive, we all need to explore and shift to redress the inequality of change. For workplace wellbeing to be meaningful, change needs to start from the top and give equal emphasis to individuals and the systems within which they work.
Sharing is caring! 
