The Meaning of Wellness

Engaged employees? More productive employees? Employees who take less pay? It’s not that hard to achieve “Hope you are well!” These words mark the beginning of so many emails. But what do they really mean? For most of us, it’s likely just a polite way of acknowledging the person on the other end of the computer screen. Rather than get straight to business, we like to take a moment to recognize the person as a person. Yet, for employers concerned with employee performance and productivity, wellness is more than just a nicety. To be well is to be fit both mentally and physically for the job. Wellness means less time off and more time on. It means less stagnation and more forward momentum. Wellness means greater efficiency and effectiveness. It means a better bottom line. Yet, common sense tells us that there is more to wellness than just personal fitness. We might say, for example, that we are doing well when our friends and family are thriving or when our joint-projects are successful. After all, it would be hard to say we are doing well when a loved one is sick in hospital or when our hockey team is on a major losing streak. What these simple examples reveal is that wellness also involves things like purpose, success and community. It is a holistic term, one that includes aspects of the mind, body and spirit. Unfortunately, the majority of employee wellness programs focus solely on supporting individual health. By failing to connect health goals with wider social wellness, by failing to make their wellness programs meaningful, employers are failing to incentivize involvement. As a result, participation in employee wellness programs remains consistently low. The bottom line is that the bottom line isn’t enough. The Benefits of a Wellness Program Wellness programs lower health-related risks. Improving employee health is a great way to decrease the chance of health-related absences and insurance costs. A 2014 RAND study found that for every $1 spent on wellness programs, companies recuperated an average of $3.78 in health-related expenses. Wellness programs lead to greater productivity. According to a 2017 study at the University of California Riverside, when employees leverage wellness programs they become 5% more productive. That amounts to an extra day’s worth of productivity per month per employee. Greater employee wellness corresponds to greater adaptability. A 2015 Gallup study found that employees with a high level of wellness were 45% more likely to adapt to change. Rather than waste time and energy worrying about shifts in their environment, employees that are well tended to take challenges head on. High Availability, Low Participation Most workplaces already have a wellness program in place. The message has been received loud and clear wellness programs work. That is why, according to a 2014 Gallup study, approximately 85% of U.S. employers offer a wellness program. Despite availability, few employees take advantage of their employer’s wellness programs. Unfortunately, according to the same Gallup study, only 24% of those with access to a wellness program take advantage of it. A lack of participation is largely driven by a failure to emphasize common goals. For most employees, a better bottom line is not a strong enough motivator. That’s why a 2016 Gallup study found that managers who collaborate with their employees to determine company goals are 73% more likely to have a fully engaged workforce. Meaning Is Motivation The majority of people are willing to trade money for meaning. According to a 2018 BetterUp study, nine out of 10 employees would be willing to take on a job with less pay if it meant that their work would be more meaningful. Respondents were actually willing to lose up to 23% of their lifetime earnings for a little bit of purpose. That’s a full 2% more than the average cost of lifetime housing. Employees who find their work meaningful are less likely to quit their job. According to the same BetterUp study, employees were 69% more likely to remain at their job for more than 7.4 months if they found their work meaningful. That translates to an average $643 million saved in training costs for every 10,000 workers. A purpose-driven employee is more profitable. BetterUp estimates that, on average, employees who find meaning in their work are able to generate a whopping $9,078 per year more than those for whom work is not meaningful. Making Wellness Meaningful Showing people how their work impacts others is a great way to emphasize purpose. A great example of this is Facebook’s strategy of sharing stories of friends and families who have been reunited with the engineers responsible for designing the website. Employees who see their work as a force for good in the world are more likely to come to work eager and excited to contribute. "Celebrating wins" is a simple and effective way to make an employee feel like their work is meaningful. Incorporating celebrations into your wellness program is a great way to encourage engagement and can drastically improve an employee’s sense of purpose within the company. Groupon, for example, celebrates the work anniversary of employees by providing them with a jacket and an additional star patch for every year served. Providing social spaces for employees can help foster a sense of communal purpose. Even while practicing physical distancing, when people get together in non-hierarchical shared spaces they naturally generate a sense of community. Interacting with coworkers in a social environment is crucial to developing the bonds that make working with one another meaningful. Rather than just serving vegetables and encouraging exercise, try following Italian clothing manufacturer Comvert’s example. Their lounge area is located in an old movie theatre and features a fully operational skateboard half-pipe.

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The Meaning of Wellness

By:

Joshua Livingstone

Engaged employees? More productive employees? Employees who take less pay? It’s not that hard to achieve

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Joshua Livingstone

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