Dive Brief:
- CEOs in a new LifeWorks survey agreed that employee well-being is growing in importance; one of the 25 company heads polled said in the survey that "employee well-being programs are becoming more of an expectation rather than a perk." LifeWorks, a provider of workplace well-being solutions, said of the survey results: “Whereas [employee well-being] once might have been exclusively the domain of the HR department, there is now a greater understanding among CEOs that employee well-being is vital for creating a productive, engaged and loyal workforce.”
- However, survey results showed that measuring the impact of programs on well-being remained challenging, with all the respondents agreeing that an all-inclusive index was needed to measure programs’ effectiveness, LifeWorks said. Most of the survey respondents said that crucial elements were: having effective programs to attract top talent, especially millennials; keeping key employees onboard; cutting absenteeism; and raising engagement.
- The survey noted that there was "no consistent approach" to how well-being was measured in the workforce — but many relied on factors such as retention, role satisfaction and employee engagement, factors that CEOs said were the priority of CHROs.
Dive Insight:
Workplaces started out offering wellness initiatives, such as physical fitness programs, smoking cessation programs and on-site yoga classes. But wellness programs have since expanded into overall well-being initiatives that address mental health, financial difficulties and other problems workers experience. Employers recognized that addressing employees' physical wellness wasn't enough — that they also had to address workers' happiness and barriers to productivity on the job, experts previously told HR Dive.
Workers in a National Business Group on Health survey said they welcome help from employers with their personal and work-related issues. In fact, a third of survey respondents said that their companies could help them even more than they currently do, further showing how well-being programs can be among the most valuable of benefits for building and maintaining a healthy, productive workforce.
Employers know that stressed out, anxiety-plagued workers tend to have high absentee rates and struggle with staying engaged and productive. That's likely why most employers (75%) offer workers well-being programs, according to Optum's 10th annual Wellness in the Workplace study. But for a well-being program to actually see success, employers may need to find ways to ease access to those benefits so that employees use them. Employers should also focus on behaviors that employees already want to partake in to create easy momentum toward other desired behaviors, experts previously said.
