Companies leveraging the correct wellbeing strategies are significantly more likely to see many business benefits. A new report reveals how this can be achieved.
According to a newly released report by The Josh Bersin Company, organisations will need to put a greater emphasis on creating a truly healthy organisation in order to reap key business benefits.
The study showed that healthy organisations would be twice as likely (2.2x) to exceed financial targets, 3.2 times more likely to engage and retain employees and 10 times more likely to have lower rates of absenteeism.
The research suggest companies should focus on prioritising all elements including physical health, mental wellbeing, financial fitness, social health and community service and a safe workplace and a healthy culture.
In particular, HR were shown to play a pivotal role in building a healthy organisation, especially when businesses work co-operatively with their people professionals.
Companies that did so were twenty times more likely to exceed their financial targets and five times more likely to innovate effectively.
Leadership behaviors and actions promoting wellbeing were also shown to have an outsize impact on nearly every performance outcome measured, showing that staff follow what is modelled from the top.
This meant the best companies were investing heavily in cultivating human-centered leaders who are equipped with new skills like coaching, listening, empathy and who are prepared to show their own humanity.
Healthy organisations were also shown to be winning the war for talent and promoting physical and psychological safety.
Finally, simple and transparent wellbeing technology was shown to have the biggest effect on innovation among both employers and employees.
In order to forge a healthy workplace, the report made a variety of suggestions based on what level of wellbeing the organisation is currently operating on:
- Empowering staff to proactively care for their health through tools, a health navigation partner and events
- Personalising benefits and wellbeing offerings for employees through monitoring engagement
- Broadening the company’s wellbeing framework to include financial, social, and career health
- Actively balancing employee workloads
- Alleviating external stressors through training managers to have personal conversations with their teams
- Modelling healthy behaviors consistently through leadership talk and actions
- Creating opportunities for the entire company to contribute to local or regional sustainability initiatives by tuning in with what initiatives mean most to the workforce
The report summarised its findings, stating:
The opportunity to change course has never been more important, nor has the path been clearer. Healthy organisations are good for business, good for people, and good for society.
Shifting away from a healthcentric view, in which benefits programs and offerings are delivered to the workforce, is an important mindset change.
Instead, healthy organisations apply a lens of health and wellbeing to every corner of the company.
*This research has been outlined in the new report ‘The Definitive Guide to Wellbeing: The Healthy Organisation” by the Josh Bersin Company.
Monica Sharma is an English Literature graduate from the University of Warwick. As Editor for HRreview, her particular interests in HR include issues concerning diversity, employment law and wellbeing in the workplace. Alongside this, she has written for student publications in both England and Canada. Monica has also presented her academic work concerning the relationship between legal systems, sexual harassment and racism at a university conference at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
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