On Well-being and the Employee Experience
Sunrise is your big-picture guide to employee well-being. Designed for HR, internal communications, and corporate wellness leaders, we share actionable steps to positively impact your organization.
Topline
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• Corporate well-being programs are no longer just about virtual yoga sessions, smoothie-making workshops, and stair challenges.
• People want an employee experience inclusive of physical, mental, social, career, community, and financial well-being. For example, did you know over half of U.S. working parents who pay for childcare estimate they’ll spend at least 20% of their salary on daycare this year?
• Your C-suite needs this information in a language directly tied to business returns, including turnover, presenteeism, and health care costs.
• Hire Chasing the Sun to help your company design, communicate, and execute a strategic well-being plan that positively impacts the employee and the reputation and bottom line of the company.
As business leaders, how will we act as trusted advisors while ensuring our well-being is a priority?
The Challenge
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• At the beginning of the lockdown, we focused on survival. We took virtual yoga classes, wine tastings, and art classes, among other activities, to stay active and connected.
• Then, in-between COVID variants came the off/on switch of staying at home and going to the office. At the same time, the economy was doing well, the job market opened up, and employees were leaving for greener pastures.
• Now, we are in an awkward phase of balancing the flexibility and balance of working from home with the social and relationship-building benefits of working in person.
• This sudden change has caused us to reexamine how companies provide their employees with the right benefits and well-being support. And employees are taking this information and comparing it to prospective employers.
Why are people staying and leaving?
It's not just money.
Well-being is a common theme around attrition and retention.
From audio-only calls to email-free vacations, we continue to see C-suite members promoting positive well-being habits through internal communications and social media channels.
However, if an employee's immediate manager doesn't model this behavior, it's an employee experience misstep.
Source: McKinsey.
The Opportunity
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• Will addressing the above positively impact the company’s business goals?
• CEOs and boards want well-being initiatives to impact business returns, including customer service and financials.
• Companies recognized with the C. Everett Koop National Health Award saw stock prices increase by 325%, as compared with the S&P 500 average appreciation of 105%. Source: McKinsey
• Gallup research shows organizations with a critical mass of engaged employees outperform their peers by 147% earnings per share.
The Solution
Designing an enterprise-wide employee well-being program requires a comprehensive look at:
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Financial Well-being
Did you know among employees with an annual household income of $100,000 or more, 52% report feeling stressed by finances? How is your company helping your employees to manage their money?
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Mental Well-being
From meditation apps to therapy sessions, your company might have invested heavily in this area. But have you examined the root causes of the work-related mental stressors impacting your employees?
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Physical Well-being
Your company might have upped its game with gym reimbursements, but are your managers demanding their employees be on camera for all meetings? Think about how eight hours of video calls daily impact their mental and physical well-being.
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Social Well-being
Does the company foster social connections? Examples might include resources and training to help managers and leaders create a sense of caring and belonging among employees. These are critical factors, particularly in a hybrid/remote work environment.
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Community Well-being
Did you know volunteering can increase empathy across your organization? According to NAMI, a 2020 study conducted in the United Kingdom found those who volunteered reported being more satisfied with their lives and rated their overall health as better.
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Career Well-being
Fostering competence is imperative for employees looking to grow in their careers. This includes helping people feel capable and effective in their work by empowering them to use their strengths and express their capacities.
Your well-being checklist: do your employees...
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Understand the benefits offered?
Do your employees know the benefits available to them? Have you asked recently? Are your middle managers aware of them so they can have real-time discussions with their directs if they come to them with a problem?
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Believe these benefits align with their personal, family, and professional needs?
Are these benefits reflective of the needs and wants of your employees, who are thinking about themselves, their careers, and their families?
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Use the benefits offered?
Are the well-being benefits your team has been working so smart to put together actually being used by your employees?
Even the best intentions...
The relationship between HR, internal communications, and your employees is essential to well-being program usage. Designing and executing a strategic communications plan can reach your audience so they are aware and can act.
Communicating your well-being plan: do your employees...
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Feel listened to and confident you'll act?
Are you working with employee resource groups and other communities within your company to garner feedback on well-being benefits? And are you returning to those groups showing how you've listened to and applied feedback?
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Receive messages clearly and concisely?
When your employees view your message, do they understand what's needed from them?
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Receive messages consistently?
It takes, on average, seven touchpoints for people to grasp a message. Are you sharing the messages consistently? You might feel like you're overcommunicating; that's ok!
Designing an enterprise-wide employee well-being program requires a comprehensive look at:
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Your Website
No longer is your website just for customers. Your prospective employees are looking at your website to learn about your company. How are you selling yourself to job applicants?
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Your Job Descriptions
Throw out "nimble," "fast-paced," and "agile" from your job descriptions. Get specific on expectations and how their well-being will be prioritized.
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The Interview
Like dating, applying for jobs is a two-way street. From the recruiter to peer interviews to the hiring manager and other stakeholders, they will be asked how the culture is at the company and how employee well-being is a priority. How they address the question will impact whether or not there's a fit for the candidate.
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Onboarding
Ever start a new job, have no clue about your role or expectations, and are unaware of those "unspoken rules"? These cause unnecessary stress and anxiety spikes. Mitigate them early so your employees know what's expected.
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Networking
How are your employees talking about well-being at your company during information interviews, professional events, and other moments when people might decide about applying for a job?
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Empathetic Leadership
Living with empathy and being an empathic leader can help grow and retain your employees, which will pay for itself many times over.
Next Steps:
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What's your well-being story?
How you design your company's well-being program will significantly impact your employees. Doing the proper research with your employees will give you the insights needed to create the solution that will keep them at your company.
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Understand the financial impact
Any well-being program needs to tie directly to business results. How you present that to C-level executives will significantly impact the ability to scale your program.
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Reach out, and let's get to work
We work with companies to design and execute well-being programs to retain employees and save money. Let's discuss how we can work together!
Work With Chasing the Sun.
We look forward to learning more about you and how we can play a role. Please fill out the form below, and we will respond to your request within 48 business hours.