Creating a culture of 'Wellbeing'

Summary: Here I discuss a 'Wellbeing Model' that could be applied in your next employee opinion survey. It offers eight research dimensions and relevant survey statements that thoroughly and holistically assess employee wellbeing in any organisation/workplace.

“In a democracy, the well-being, individuality and happiness of every citizen is important for the overall prosperity, peace and happiness of the nation” (A. P. J. Abdul Kalam)

As work is a major part of most people’s lives, it can significantly affect how happy individuals are overall, yet many think work detracts from rather than adds to happiness. For example: “The best part of going to work is coming back home at the end of the day”; “Work is just something I’m doing until I win the lottery”; “I need a six-month vacation, twice a year”. Or the expressions: “Monday blues”, “Post-holiday depression” or “Thank goodness it’s Friday” – these all strongly suggest that people feel happier when they are not at work!

The term ‘Wellbeing at Work’ is all about people’s immediate work environment, or more specifically their perceptions and experience of their quality of life at work. It is a complex concept covering all aspects of people’s experience of working life. It covers the way people feel about their jobs and their relationships with the people around them, particularly their line managers/supervisors. Essentially, it means being surrounded by leaders and colleagues who treat them with the respect they deserve. Physical, psychological, social and financial wellbeing at work collectively allow employees to feel safe, happy, engaged and able to maximise their potential.

Employee wellbeing is increasingly the focus of senior leadership attention. Progressive organisations aim to create a work environment - and experience - that allows employees to flourish on a personal level, as well as for the benefit of their employers. Investing in this is a legitimate business target as employee wellbeing and organisational functioning go hand in hand. Indeed, improvements in wellbeing often lead to enhanced individual and overall business performance, through higher levels of engagement and organisational citizenship behaviours – meaning employees who feel that they are treated well are more likely to go above and beyond for their organisations.

Improvements in wellbeing will result in increased profitability, productivity, the quality of products or services and overall employee engagement. This includes factors such as satisfaction with training, skills development opportunities, quality of line management, empowerment (which involves how much autonomy employees have in their roles), and the scope they have to use their own initiative and influence work-related decisions.

Fully engaged, content and happy employees make organisations more successful. They work best when they feel good about themselves and their employers. Unfortunately, nowadays in reality work often detracts from rather than adds to happiness. With a short-sighted, unsustainable emphasis on cost-cutting and maximising profits, many companies fail to treat their staff as individuals. Investing in employee wellbeing may mistakenly be considered a trade off with prioritising customers and clients; when in fact business success on this front often stems precisely from treating employees well – who then go onto treat clients and customers well. Employers should hence adopt a people-centric approach, personalised by people managers treating their employees on an individual, human level. Employers should recognise the different needs of each member of staff, rather than try to enforce a one-size-fits-all solution to workplace challenges.

So, how can organisations promote wellbeing and challenge the causes of work-related dissatisfaction and ill health? The first step is to recognise, understand and measure the factors that drive engagement and have a direct impact on employees’ wellbeing. For this purpose, consider the following eight wellbeing dimensions:

1. Meaningful work: This not only means greater emphasis on dialogue with employees, but also identifying purpose at work through discussion of corporate social responsibility goals and company values which will inspire a deep sense of gratification in the work being done. For employees, feeling a sense of meaning and purpose or connection to something bigger than themselves and their employer is associated with being happier, more satisfied and fulfilled with life. Employees often talk about the desire to feel that their work makes a difference to others or to the world, and indeed there are increasing calls for organisations to be a force for social good and positive change.

• When I look at what we accomplish, I feel a sense of pride.
• I feel I make a difference here.

2. Mastery, capability and competence: This refers to the employee’s need to feel competent. This is achieved through career and skills development and overall personal growth within the organisation. Contexts include educational choices, work experience and internships, skills and vocational training, support in internal job search/management level change, promotion, transfer or expatriation, entrepreneurial business development, work identity change, and so on.

• I am developing professionally working here.
• I am offered training or development to further myself professionally.

3. Relatedness and interpersonal relationships: This has to do with the need to feel connected to and cared about by others. This is very much linked to internal communications within the organisation, co-operation and teamwork, and all those internal relationships that employees form with close colleagues. The evolution and development of close relationships is very common and an important part of a healthy and engaging workplace. The best employers recognise people’s natural emotional need to bond and build quality relationships with their co-workers, and that company loyalty can be strengthened by such relationships.

• People care about each other here.
• There is a "family" or "team" feeling here.

4. Autonomy and empowerment: This element relates to choices over behaviours and actions, and how employees can participate in the organisation’s decision-making processes that affect their jobs. There are means in which people can ‘construct’ their jobs in ways that help them find meaning and purpose at work. This is not about changing core responsibilities, but more about how employees approach and perform their daily work-related duties and how they can get involved more in the business-related aspects that they enjoy.

• Management involves people in decisions that affect their jobs or work environment.
• Management genuinely seeks and responds to suggestions and ideas.

5. Mental and physical health: As musculoskeletal (i.e. bad back, elbow and wrist pain, etc.) and mental health problems represent two massive work-related health issues, encouraging healthy behaviours and lifestyles – physically and psychologically - can help avoid huge costs from absenteeism, turnover and lowered productivity. Reactive measures to support those employees struggling with ill health are also essential to prevent longer-term detriments and sickness absence, whether this be through line managers, occupational health or an employee assistance programme (EAP). Moreover, proactive health and wellbeing promotion is strongly associated with positive work-related attitudes and behaviours, boosting employee morale and the organisation's internal reputation as a good employer.

• This organisation promotes a healthy work environment.
• I can sustain the level of energy I need throughout the work day.
• This is a psychologically and emotionally healthy place to work.
• The demands of my job are about right for me.

6. Financial security: This relates to the peace of mind employees feel when they are not worried about losing their jobs and/or their income not being enough to cover their expenses. It also means that employees have enough money saved to cover for contingencies, emergencies and their future financial objectives.

• I am comfortable with the level of job security in this organisation.
• People here are paid fairly for the work they do.
• Thinking about all aspects of my personal financial situation, I am satisfied with where I am today.

7. Immediate work environment: This relates largely to the infrastructure, equipment and levels of safety in the workplace – both physical and psychosocial. Working conditions differ drastically from one organisation to another, and between sectors. Besides the range of physical risks associated with primary and secondary industries, it is also important to consider social interactions, particularly with external clients in service/retail organisations, as these can become major sources of stress. Organisations must implement zero tolerance policies for mistreatment inflicted by external customers, or indeed by fellow employees. Maintaining a safe and comfortable work environment, both internally and externally, is a basic but hugely important requirement for employee wellbeing.

• Our facilities contribute to a good working environment.
• I am given the necessary resources and equipment to do my job well.

8. Work-life balance: This involves respecting employees’ lives outside work by eliminating any potential intrusion of work into their private lives. This includes managing computer-mediated communications which can reach employees outside working hours, such as email communications delivered to personal computers and smart mobile devices. As with most things in life, moderation and a personally defined sense of balance is vital. If exposed to these intrusions for a long period of time, people who are constantly tied to their jobs 24/7 deal with the symptoms of stress, tension and subsequent burn-out. Overworked employees are more likely to suffer health problems and be late for work, absent and/or sick on a regular basis, less efficient, less co-operative and sociable, and overall more difficult to work with and less productive. Truly family-friendly organisations can also proactively support family and personal lives through work-family enrichment, by involving families in work-related social events and communications.

• People are encouraged to balance their work life and their personal life.
• I can take time off from work when I think it's necessary.

Note: I advise you to use a five-point Likert-type response scale (e.g. Strongly disagree, Disagree, Neither agree nor disagree, Agree, Strongly agree) for the survey statements that I suggest in this wellbeing model.

The fulfilment of these elements and needs have been shown to predict wellbeing in organisations in a wide range of countries and with different types of cultures. These elements also have an effect on how productive employees are, how willing they are to help others and to offer discretionary effort beyond their job description. In general, corporate initiatives in these areas show all employees that their health and wellbeing are important to the organisation.

There is a growing body of research-based evidence in relation to positive psychology, the economics of happiness and employee engagement and related disciplines are starting to provide a road map for the ways in which organisations need to manage their workforce. For leaders, people managers and/or supervisors, these key elements of wellbeing have implications for how organisations motivate and reward employees and how jobs are to be designed within their organisations.

Organisations need to ensure these elements of wellbeing are met, nourished and sustained in the long term. The extent to which organisations can help to fulfil these elements will have an enormous impact on how much employees enjoy their employment and, since it is a large part of many people’s lives, this will positively affect their mental health and how happy they are in general.

This important aspect of corporate social responsibility urges organisations to start measuring these eight key elements of wellbeing to evaluate the direct impact of organisational policies and culture on the welfare of employees and the subsequent effect on the wider performance of the organisation as a whole.

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Disclaimer: The author is making this ‘Opinion Blog’ available in his personal effort to advance the understanding of best practices in workplace related matters. The author assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this ‘Opinion Blog’ or for the results obtained from the use of the information provided. The information is provided on an ‘as is’ basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness or timeliness and without any warranties of any kind whatsoever, express or implied. The views expressed are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of any entity whatsoever with which the author has been, is now, or is to be affiliated in the future.