 Year after year, companies raise the bar on employee goals, success, and performance, but what about their wellbeing programs? Across companies, the “norm” for wellbeing initiatives is low participation, low engagement, and short-term results. And now, yet another study has come out indicating that – SURPRISE! – workplace wellness programs aren’t working. This time it’s British researcher, William J. Fleming, a fellow at Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Center, who analyzed survey responses from 46,336 workers at companies that offer wellness programs. Upshot: With one notable exception, employees weren’t healthier – or happier – because of these well-intended programs. And, in some cases, they were worse off. Why aren't wellbeing programs working? More often than not, wellness programs rely on individual interventions - when, instead, organizations need to stay laser-focused on how the work gets done. Put another way: No program, no mindfulness app, no exercise class, no platform can stand up to what Fleming characterizes as the “core organizational practices,” i.e.:
It's the systems, the broader organizational culture, and how teams work together that need to be addressed – not the individual employees getting barraged with more wellness "to-dos." Addressing those deeply entrenched working practices is HARD WORK. But, just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. There are things to be done on an organizational level, such as assessing the companywide culture and implementing policies and practices to more meaningfully address these deeper, structural issues. But what about managers? What can they do? And if you’re a manager, what can you do? You can lead differently and become an “everyday hero” for the people that you lead on your team. The key here is to think less about programs and more about how the work gets done within the context of your team. You have within your sphere of influence the capacity to positively and proactively address some of these core organizational practices. Core practice #1: How meetings are run How might you run your meetings so people feel energized as opposed to feeling depleted? Here’s one easy change you can make: GET UP! That is, add motion to your meetings. Take a walk, stretch (yoga via Zoom, anyone?), or change the setting. Other easy changes you can make:
Core practice #2: How people are treated day in and day out While a manager may have little influence over what’s happening across the larger organization, managers still hold significant influence over their team because of their direct access to team members and their oversight for success. In fact, managers account for 7 0% of the variance in employee engagement - with both their work and their wellbeing. So, don’t sell yourself short! You are the chief culture officer for your team. Most managers don’t realize that the “culture” that employees experience where they are at work is largely the culture that they experience within the context of their team. Therefore, how you manage the culture within your team is what matters most. According to a recent Deloitte report, managers have a lot of work to do on this front.
These are the kinds of seemingly “little things” that managers can do that help employees to feel like they are being treated well at work. And this is the stuff that matters when it comes to safeguarding every employee’s wellbeing at work. If you’re looking for more of these little ideas, know that you don’t have to go at it alone. Join the 28,000 team leaders and managers who have taken my LinkedIn learning course “Managers as Multipliers of Wellbeing,” With this starter course, you can learn about more of these little practices that can generate big results. Core practice #3: What people’s workloads are like Often, managers do surface-level check-ins with their teams without really knowing how the workloads are divvied up. Since the pandemic and the rise in hybrid work, it’s likely managers have even less of a grasp on what the team members’ weekly workloads look like. In a recent Gallup survey, managers were asked what changes their organization made in 2023. About 64% said employees were given additional job responsibilities, and 51% cited the restructuring of teams. With all those changes, it’s no wonder that global worker stress is still at an all-time high. The good news? Workplace wellness CAN work! As a longtime wellbeing entrepreneur, speaker, workshop facilitator and author, I always feel discouraged when I see yet another study that gives the naysayers more fodder to say, “Hey, let’s just ditch the idea of wellbeing at work altogether." I say, instead of giving up on the idea, let’s start doing it in a way that ACTUALLY WORKS. The number one way that we can get to work is through managers, like you. Activate managers in your organization with our signature program, Managers on the Move.
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