Create Your Path to Success & Well-being

When you incorporate wellness into your work design, you can enhance the connection between executive health and organizational performance and support individual success. Wellness initiatives have the potential to reduce stress, decrease absenteeism and presenteeism due to illness and fatigue, increase camaraderie amongst staff, promote a more positive work culture, lower healthcare costs and improve employee engagement.

Ultimately, when organizations prioritize wellness in the workplace, it can lead to greater productivity and innovation - which are essential

Many companies prioritize organizational success because they understand it leads to better operation. Nevertheless, the workplace often needs to catch up on opportunities to use wellness to improve work design. By making overall health an integral part of work, businesses can benefit individuals, teams, and the workplace. If organizations take these measures, workers will not only feel better but also perform better, improving the connection between wellness and company success while promoting a stronger sense of community.

A large disconnect exists between how significant executive well-being is to a company’s achievements and the level of preparedness to confront this issue, with 80% deeming it vital but only 12% feeling confident they can manage it effectively.

In a survey , 80% of respondents said that they believe wellness is essential for success. Consequently, this trend was ranked number one. Administrators have taken notice of the Global Human Capital Trend worldwide and are spending a moderate amount of $3.6 million on these policies per year. In the US, each associate costs US $762 annually for their executive’s health and wellness program investment.

It’s no secret that companies are constantly trying to improve executive health. After all, happy workers lead to a more satisfied workforce, creating more motivated individuals. For example, 95% of administrators agree that burnout impacts recruitment rates (Limeade & Quantum Workplace study).

Additionally, those with an improved sense of health tend to be more interested in their work and often enjoy their position or suggest their workplace to others. Although it may not have the significant effects initially thought, executive wellness does see some ROI. A Deloitte poll says 61% of people stated that their workplace doesn’t measure health.

The individuals whose institution did measure the effect of wellness found, more often than not, it significantly improved workforce proficiency. Less than 50% of survey participants claimed their wellness strategy was impacting other areas of their company in a positive way, such as finance and customer satisfaction. ROI may be lower than expected because achieving wellness is more than just size fits all task, and what works for some might only work for some. Also, modern well-being strategies have changed over time to meet workers’ needs better. In the past, addressing physical safety was it; now, acknowledging emotions is a thing.

Most interviewed people noted the change from an exclusive focus on physical fitness to mental and fiscal well-being, with many revealing that their new plans encompass all three areas. Workplace stress has become a worrying trend in recent years, with many employers struggling to provide the support their executives need.

A study of employees in the United States and the United Kingdom found that an overwhelming majority, 94 percent, report stress at work. One-third of those surveyed said their stress levels are unsustainably high. This study suggests that more needs to be done by employers across both countries to prevent or reduce stress in the workplace.

Many executives said their home life is impacted negatively by work regularly, and many can’t sleep because of stress from their job. These physical and mental health outcomes are so severe that the World Health Organization has labeled burnout a diagnosable health condition. 96% of respondents agreed that employee well-being is the responsibility of their organization, so it’s evident that this area needs more attention. The next question becomes: where do organizations go from here?

Future Outlook

Executive wellness and belonging have similar importance scores. They’re at the forefront of discussions because they touch on a complicated issue many organizations face. Can something very personal be created to benefit more than just the individual?

According to Deloitte , companies should focus on three areas to make the workforce feel like they belong: comfort, contribution, and connection. A survey conducted by the company found that executives feel comfortable when they feel respected and considered, have a link to colleagues and teams for solid relationships, and can see contributions to their work and how it impacts the organization’s goals. To achieve holistic wellness, we need to change our perspective. Although we’ve accomplished a lot by focusing on the welfare of people at work and ensuring that people have an excellent association with their workplace, there’s still more room for improvement.

Why is there still more room for improvement? Because many health and wellness strategies only consider the individual worker, not their relationship to their work. If we want workplaces to promote executive health and wellness, we need organizations focusing on making wellness part of their workplace environment and culture.

We know that happy workers are productive, so it’s no surprise that Microsoft Japan saw increased efficiency after redesigning its workweek around executive health and wellness. The company made changes such as reducing the work week from five days to four, asking executives to use tools like Zoom rather than email, and capping meetings to just 30 minutes and five people. These alterations resulted in happier staff members who were also more creative.

Adjusting working conditions is one way to support executive health and wellness. Alterations include when they work, where they do their job, and how much control they have over their workflow.

Microsoft Japan did this, and research backs up these changes as effective in supporting wellness. Implementing a successful work-life balance could ensure job security regardless of individual performance, allow executives to choose when and where they work and give them access to helpful resources in times of need.

Only a few companies have explored alternative options, making it challenging to develop a well-rounded strategy. The Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends survey stated that only 21% of organizations have work-life balance strategies in their design. This statistic suggests that many businesses must take advantage of a critical opportunity.

If you want to start taking your executives’ health and wellness into account at work, there are three key steps. First, determine which group within the company has stewardship over the hows of designing a piece.

Second, spend time understanding what health and wellness-related needs your workplace has by looking at data organized by HR. Lastly, businesses should invest in executive input for their work design process — because when people have a say over how they do their job, the results are better and more lasting.

Having healthy systems is crucial, but it’s just as important for executives to speak up about how those systems impact their jobs.

Additionally, other institutes are taking steps to gather data on company wellness. For example, the Mayo Clinic crafted a “Well-Being Index” that gauges different areas of health within groups such as medical students, nurses, and doctors. The tool assesses the wellness of over 120,000 providers, measuring elements like burnout and work-life balance. By doing this, organizations can improve their workplace.

One German hospital system used feedback from the workforce to guide specific revisions to reduce stress. These revisions included a new method for avoiding overloading short-staffed teams, empowering executives to make decisions, better scheduling, and clear communication. A study found that these attempts improved both work quality and worker health.

Mastering by?example

The early childhood education company, Learning Care Group , is an example of an institute that has merged wellness into a workable blueprint. Recognizing the need to support educators’ health as they manage stressful situations in the classroom — especially given that 95% of educators consider challenging behaviors are developmentally acceptable. Learning Care Group enacted several changes to improve the work environment, such as updating classes with new content, providing educators with refreshed resources, and redesigning classrooms to assist teacher-child interactions more effectively.

Moving Forward

The vast strain that organizations face to elevate executive wellness has spurred them to act by utilizing several different methods. Unfortunately, most of these efforts have only concentrated on the health and wellness of individuals rather than redesigning operations to improve the well-being of the entirety of workers.

If more workplaces address health and wellness, it could improve worker well-being and reduce the resources needed to fix work-related issues. Addressing this would create a budget for other areas and increase organizational productivity. By prioritizing well-being at work, you can immediately boost productivity while reaping the benefits of more engaged and resilient executives. Focusing on well-being will lead to higher organizational performance in the long run.

About the?Author:

The Executive Health Doc? , Dr. Shahan Chowdhury, is an executive health expert and concierge medicine pioneer working with companies that seek to ignite professional and personal growth in their executives. She is consistently ranked in the top 10% of executive health providers in the United States. Her clinic, Tailored Health, is located in Frisco, TX, and empowers senior leaders to become the executives of their health and long-term well-being.

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