People Analytics to empower the evolving business imperative: Wellbeing!

"Wellness seeks more than the absence of illness; it searches for new levels of excellence. Beyond any disease-free neutral point, wellness dedicates its efforts to our total well-being in body, mind, and spirit." ~ Greg Anderson

Well-being & belongingness is ranked as one of the most critical human capital challenges in this year's Global Human Capital Trends report. While we all are grappling with the most unprecedented demon of all times i.e. the pandemic, organizations in these difficult times offering “Burn-out” leaves, wellness support.

Recently, OYO announced 4-days working week and “unlimited-no questions asked” Paid leave to its employees is another remarkable step towards curating wellness practices in the organization. Wellness practices are no longer an ‘ad-hoc’ benefits but a measure of achieving competitive advantage and sustained existence in the business, thus an important tool of employer branding too. The Survey conducted by Deloitte shows the importance of wellness in the organization versus the readiness of the organizations to embrace it in its true sense.

There has been a lot of research done to see if there is a correlation between employee wellness and performance. As per a poll conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, one-third of working-age Australians suffer from at least one of eight chronic conditions, including coronary heart disease, depression, diabetes, and osteoporosis. Employers will pay roughly $34 billion each year as a result of this.

In this article I will elaborate the importance of Analytics to thrive the wellness imperative of the organizations to take care of its people as well as winning the market place at the same time.

Analytics to win Wellness imperatives:

We've noticed a growing significance on technology and tools to evaluate employee engagement, like 360-degree performance reviews, peer-to-peer recognition programs, and approaches to understand the Voice of the Employee via organized and unstructured ways, in today's Knowledge Economy, when job production is no longer only related to machines and material.

For many years, HR has employed analytics to report on recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and departure interviews. Today, analytics is being expanded to support the business imperative of employee engagement and experience in order to assist employee retention and growth and assure a fulfilling, motivating, and supportive work environment.

Did you realize that utilizing Human Resources (HR) data can help improve workplace wellness?

The term "HR data analytics" refers to the process of analyzing HR data with the goal of increasing employee performance and satisfaction. The focus of this research is to help businesses get the highest return on investment from their associated labor expenditures while also giving employees with the tools they need to work more efficiently.

HR data, when properly analyzed, may provide decision-makers with a clearer picture of what's going on in a variety of areas of employee performance and development, including physical and mental health. They can then select which types of workplace wellness programs or measurements will best suit their employees' demands in a precise and effective manner.

If HR data shows that a considerable section of the employee population is stressed or demotivated, programs or seminars geared at directing or teaching them stress management techniques can be employed to assist remedy the problem.

If a company-wide change is required to address workplace wellness issues, HR data analytics can also lead to changes in business policy, such as working hours. If one is going to offer or create a wellness program for his/her employees, He/she will need to figure out what kind of data to use. While certain wellness data is considered private, there are several pieces of information from which one might gain valuable insights. If one can properly evaluate this data, to reach out to underperforming employees and assist them in finding answers or developing wellness programs that will benefit them.

Consider programs like weekly after-hours yoga classes or company-sponsored sports activities that reward those who participate or win, for example, if data from HR surveys suggest that many employees are becoming less motivated or productive due to a lack of physical activities (sedentary lifestyle) accessible in the office.

HR data analytics also allows management to plan for the future more effectively. Employee survey forms, attendance, and employee evaluations at company events such as team building and seminars provide data on how effectively their wellness initiatives are performing.

They can then look for methods to improve their wellness programs even further or hire/design new ones that are tailored to the specific needs of their employees in terms of mental and physical well-being. Long-term benefits of employing HR data include increased productivity and employee engagement, as well as lower losses due to reduced employee absenteeism.

Employee satisfaction in the workplace has been shown to have a direct impact on productivity, according to research. Simply put, the happier someone is, the more productive they are at work. One study from Warwick University quantified it, finding that persons who were pleased were up to 12% more productive.

A Barometer to measure the workplace happiness

Unsurprisingly, many businesses want to track employee happiness and well-being for themselves, and many are using technology to do so.

“Hitachi, for example, gave its employees wearable gadgets that tracked how much time they spent sitting, walking, typing, and conversing. The data was collected and used to create a happiness-measuring algorithm by the corporation.”

Wearables' potential to serve as a barometer for employee happiness, though, is far greater. Employers can use them to figure out whether employees are working much later than their co-workers, losing sleep, or moving about less.

They would be able to prevent physical and even mental health difficulties, both of which are important variables in workplace happiness and productivity, if they had access to this information.

Assess the Benefits Offered -

Data analytics may be used in a variety of ways in the workplace, and the more businesses who use it, the more complete the picture of employee well-being gets. The use of benefits is another important indicator of employee happiness.

It's easy to quantify if employees are getting the most out of their wellness offering, and by implication, their employer, by tracking how often they interact with their benefits using an online portal. This means they're more likely to stay pleased and loyal to the company.

This is a crucial point for HR departments. According to Thomsons' current Global Employee Benefits Watch, improving employee health and wellness is one of the top three benefits objectives for 52 percent of professionals, with talent retention and attraction coming in at 82 percent.

Personalization and workplace satisfaction

In today’s evolving workplace, personalization is increasingly vital to ensure employee wellbeing. People are more likely to engage with and adopt benefits that actually make a difference to their lives.

The application of data analytics allows employers to make this difference. For example, from any employee’s wearable an employer could tell that they’re more active than most, from the company’s intranet that they’re working towards a marathon and from onboarding information that they’re several decades from retirement.

Pooling these data points, an automated solution could then prioritise a cycle to work or fitness reimbursement scheme, ahead of conventional risk benefits. This would provide employees with something genuinely relevant to their everyday life, boosting their workplace satisfaction and wellbeing.

Taking a wider view of the issues, data analytics could allow employers to spot usage trends linked to demographics. For instance, that young people typically get little value from private medical insurance (PMI).

If the data from online benefits portals confirms this, employers can make more informed decisions about where they divert spending – whether through continued provision of PMI with a focus on increased awareness or via preventative activities better to suited to the needs of younger employees.

Technology that is user-friendly wins the battle

Employees must be able to access their benefits in a consistent and user-friendly manner for personalization to work effectively and play a part in optimizing wellness.

It's the same with benefits — platforms that are visually appealing, simple to use, and provide a flawless user experience across desktop and mobile are much more likely to inspire employee engagement.

In fact, according to the GEBW analysis, nearly a third of global businesses who provide employees with access to benefits plans via mobile devices had employee engagement rates of above 80%.

Strategy aligned with data

Data analytics has a strong business justification in addition to improving workplace wellbeing.

Employers can detect gaps or patterns by comparing benefits data to information generated by other HCM systems or even the workplace itself. This information may then be used to guide future business, people, and benefits strategies.

Monitoring workplace attendance and login rates over the course of a year, for example, could aid organizations in detecting spikes in employee sickness and identifying divisions that are more affected than others.

If they can predict when these spikes will occur, they can send out targeted wellness announcements ahead of time.