Lucky darts players and dodgy bakers: when workplace wellbeing programmes (don’t) work.

A while back, a senior manager said to me: â€˜Great session, but can you remove the section about what employers can do to support them. We don’t want a backlash from the employees.’

I had been asked to deliver a series of talks for night shift workers. Taking place throughout a working night, the company had pulled their employees off their production lines for an hour at a time to come and listen in. 

Part of the session was aimed at helping the employees understand ways to manage their physical and mental wellbeing while working the long nights. Another part of the session described some of the thing’s employers can do to further support their staff. After the end of the first session, the senior manager in attendance approached me, and delivered the headline statement above. 

This from a global corporation, with multiple wellbeing-related awards and ‘Top Employer’ accolades over the years, that had laid on a wellbeing programme which included sessions specifically tailored to their business-critical night shift workers. On paper, it all looked great. 

Sadly, when push came to shove, they weren’t willing to take the real action needed to see their wellbeing culture changed for the better. 

Hold on…we’ve seen this before. 

The ‘band aid’ approach to workplace wellbeing has become something of a banality.

The employer lays on lots of great looking benefits, services and wellbeing initiatives that look amazing on the ‘About Us’ page read by the bright-eyed job seekers hoping to find the perfect home for their career ambitions. 

A tangled web of conflicting interests, fear of going against the norm, aiming for awards over real change, a genuine desire to help but not knowing what to do. It’s usually unclear why this happens as it often involves a combination of the above, plus many others I haven’t cited for fear of running out of characters.

An illustration can perhaps help.

Compare a darts player who throws all their darts in one go at the target, and hopes that one hits the bullseye; as opposed to a player who has mastered their craft, understands their game and can confidently throw just one dart with an expectation it will hit the mark. 

Or, to those who are fans of the Bake Off, it’s like someone trying to put the icing on an unbaked cake and attempting to reconcile the resulting product. Have you ever tried icing some unbaked cake batter? Clearly, there are other steps that need to happen first.

Wellbeing programmes have the capacity to transform people’s lives. 

I’m fortunate to have seen this in action. I could describe many examples of when I’ve watched them flourish and impact people’s lives for the better and (hopefully) forever. 

Indeed, many service providers are working hard to transform employees’ health. There are many providers, all using an array of different services and approaches. Yet, on a societal scale, we’ve yet to see the ember take.

We’re not there yet, but there is hope. You often see a handful of constants in those programmes that work super well. 

One of those constants is pointing the spotlight at the person they intend on helping.

A successful Health Coach can effectively engage with their client and work collaboratively towards a mutually agreed goal. On a one-to-one basis, they can piece together all the important aspects. From the basics, like their current exercise levels and sleep quality, to the further reaching, holistic depths of intrinsic motivation, point of reference, worldview, life experiences, hopes and expectations. 

Once they’ve really understood the person, they can connect the dots and support them on their journey. A journey that’s relevant, appropriate and tailored. Throw in several measures of empathy, and a pinch of patience; and the rest is history.

This is just for one person, and accounts for all their weird and wonderful 'behavioural polymorphisms' (as I like to call them). 

How do we elicit a similar level of success across 50 people, or 50,000 people in a workplace? If we’re not able to deeply understand the people that make the business tick, we inevitably tend towards becoming the lucky darts players and the unhappy bakers.

Companies that engage with their employees collaboratively and empathetically, with targeted interventions that suit their actual needs, are the ones that end up hitting the mark. 

My advice to employers looking for happier, healthier, more productive people?

Move away from what looks good and don’t simply react to what others appear to be doing. Focus on the individuals that make up your business. Target any services or initiatives at them and their specific needs. Crucially, support each of them on their journey. Engagement, productivity and success will follow.

In a society where ill-health and presenteeism in the workplace are far too common, and still worsening; it’s high time we challenged the status quo.

It might not change the world just yet. But it’ll sure get us closer to the bullseye, or the Mary Berry masterpiece we all so dearly crave.

Dan Craig