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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Exclusive research-backed insights into the secrets to employee wellness and performance in today's world of work
Through a straightforward, science-based approach, Leading for Wellness: How to Create a Team Culture Where Everyone Thrives explains the steps to become a Generator—the type of leader who people want to work for and organizations want to hire—by leading in a way that fosters trust and positive connections with employees. This book is based on two in-depth studies conducted by the authors, where they found that the keys to employee satisfaction, wellbeing, retention, and productivity were found in the behavior of leaders and the environment those leaders cultivated.
Written by experienced industrial/organizational psychologists Dr. Patricia Grabarek and Dr. Katina Sawyer and packed with real-life stories to add context, this book explores topics including:
- Addressing the mismatch in the definition of wellness between employees and employers
- Focusing on the tone leaders set at work, as opposed to time they spend at work
- Crafting work to support life, instead of the other way around, to support and respond to employees' unique needs.
At a time when employee morale has never been lower, Leading for Wellness is an essential read for current and aspiring business leaders and managers seeking exclusive data-based insights on how to solve one of the most pressing problems in business today.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction
introduction
Leaders Are the Key to Driving Workplace Wellness
Our Research
What Is Workplace Wellness?
What to Expect from This Book
Notes
Chapter 1: Why Workplace Wellness Matters
Wellness Affects Everyone
Societal Implications of Employee Wellness
Notes
Part I: No One Wants a Superhero
Chapter 2: Fire Your Work Self
Perfectionists Are Unapproachable
Professional Norms Hold Leaders Back
Research Supports the Case for Authenticity
Employees Want Authentic Leaders
Take Action
Notes
Chapter 3: Embrace Your Struggle Statement
Time to Reflect
What Is a Struggle Statement?
Why a Struggle Statement?
Sharing Leads to More Sharing
Share Your Struggle Statement
Notes
Part II: It's the Tone, Not the Time
Chapter 4: Set the Right Tone
Role Modeling a Positive Work‐Life Balance
Creating a Positive Work Environment
Improve Your Own Habits
Notes
Chapter 5: Swiftly Become a Confidant
Confidants Understand Employees Better
Using the SWIFT Process
Summing It Up
Notes
Part III: Work Should Support Life
Chapter 6: Be Elastic: Your Way Isn't Always Right
Flexible Leadership Supports Employee Success
Segmenters and Integrators: A Key Work‐Life Difference
Generators Are Flexible
Why Being Elastic Is Fantastic
Notes
Chapter 7: Become a Boundary Bouncer
A Boundary Bouncer Blocks Boundary Breakers
Generators Adapt Their Boundary‐Bouncing Style
Practice Boundary Bouncing
Notes
Part IV: One Size Doesn't Fit All
Chapter 8: The Power of Person‐Centered Planning
Person‐Centered Planning: A Rogerian Approach
Why Is Person‐Centered Planning Important?
Generators Recognize that Breaking Bad Is Sometimes Good
Notes
Chapter 9: Eliminating Mental Health Stigma
Mental Health Problems Are Common
How Generators Support Mental Health
Notes
Part V: Final Thoughts and Actions
Chapter 10: Challenges and Backlash
Combating Cultures of Overwork
Keeping Extinguishers at Bay
Sometimes a Generator, Sometimes an Extinguisher?
You Can't Please Everyone All the Time
When All Else Fails, Recover
Notes
Chapter 11: Action Planning
What You've Learned
How to Build an Effective Action Plan
Key Next Steps
Acknowledgments
Patricia's Acknowledgments
Katina's Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 2
Worksheet 2.1
Chapter 3
Worksheet 3.1
Chapter 4
Worksheet 4.1
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 The SWIFT Process
Worksheet 5.1
Chapter 6
Worksheet 6.1
Chapter 7
Worksheet 7.1
Chapter 8
Worksheet 8.1
Chapter 9
Worksheet 9.1
Chapter 10
Worksheet 10.1
Chapter 11
Worksheet 11.1
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction
Begin Reading
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Index
End User License Agreement
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Leading for Wellness
HOW TO CREATE A TEAM CULTURE WHERE EVERYONE THRIVES
Patricia Grabarek
Katina Sawyer
Copyright © 2025 by Patricia Grabarek and Katina Sawyer. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per‐copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750‐8400, fax (978) 750‐4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748‐6011, fax (201) 748‐6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permission.
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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data is Available:
ISBN 9781394292011 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781394292028 (epdf)
ISBN 9781394292035 (epub)
Cover Design: Jon Boylan
Author Photos by Vanie Poyey
To Daniel and Brendan: For your unwavering support and understanding, for making sure we stayed well while writing about wellness, and for always believing in us
Introduction
I look at wellness as: Do I have time to do my job well? Do I have things that I can do outside of work that are supported? Is there that feeling of family first, health first, and being a well‐rounded individual? That, to me, is what wellness is from leadership. To have that comfort level of being able to have a well‐rounded life. Sort of that saying: “Sound body, sound mind.” I often feel like it's “Sound personal life, sound work life.” And sometimes I do believe that it's [all] just life. It's not work, it's not personal, it's just my life. And I appreciate a boss and a leader that isn't saying I can do that but also lives it themselves.
—Mia, recruiting and training consultant, study participant
Consider for a moment Jayme, a talented veterinarian who is working long hours at her new clinic. The clinic is experiencing a big influx of new patients this year, keeping the staff extremely busy. Most people are working overtime and are exhausted. Employees recently completed an employee survey and were honest about feeling burned out. In response, the human resources team decided to launch training to improve employee wellness. They sent Jayme and her team members a link to a mandatory, online, four‐hour resilience training. Jayme was told she had a week to complete the training, even though she had no time during work hours. Despite being depleted of energy by the end of the workweek, Jayme had to finish the training over the weekend to meet the deadline.
If you were Jayme, how would you feel? Would you feel heard by HR or frustrated? Do you think this solution would work? If you think this solution seems unreasonable and unhelpful, you aren't alone. Unfortunately, this is based on a true story—and the real‐life “Jayme” (study participants' names have been changed throughout the book to protect confidentiality) felt extremely frustrated. The training felt like a quick check‐the‐box solution and didn't provide the real help clinic employees needed. In fact, in some ways, Jayme felt like the training made her wellness worse. She wasn't able to fully disconnect from work over the weekend; instead she had to devote four hours of her recovery time to even more work. This story is just one of many. You probably have your own examples of wellness programs implemented at work that felt more like insults than solutions.
Stories like Jayme's led us to write this book. We heard clients, friends, and colleagues complaining about stress at work, burnout, and the resulting impact on their companies, jobs, and well‐being. No one seemed to know how to solve the problem. So we embarked on a hunt for the answers. We dug into the research, searching for concrete guidance to help. Although we found some great science that we will share throughout the book, there were still some unanswered questions. Even more concerning, there was no clear roadmap to follow to create a thriving work environment. Thus, we stepped in to bridge that gap.
At the heart of our research, we found that there's a mismatch between how employees and organizations define the term “wellness.” Consider what wellness means to you. We asked this simple question to dozens of employees and got a range of responses—from a feeling of balance, to being seen as a whole person, to being able to turn the Zoom camera off and take a walk during a meeting. But one theme rang true throughout the data we gathered: Wellness is not an initiative or a program. Instead, we learned that wellness is improved when employees’ day‐to‐day work conditions support their health and happiness, not a surface‐level approach for addressing an otherwise stressful or overwhelming work environment. Yet so much of what companies invest in when they try to promote wellness focuses on individual‐level, blanket solutions that address the by‐products of stress and burnout instead of addressing the root causes of these workplace problems. This book is here to change how companies take action to improve workplace wellness.
Luckily, our data showed a clear path forward for creating the wellness‐focused workplaces employees are looking for. Leaders are the most critical force in determining whether employees feel vital and energized at work, or if they feel depleted and exhausted instead.
Leaders Are the Key to Driving Workplace Wellness
Leaders in modern organizations are put under extreme pressure to drive the bottom line and shareholder value. At times, it can seem like that's the only thing that organizations want leaders to achieve. A report by Deloitte showed that 41 percent of leaders are stressed and 36 percent are exhausted.1 Seventy percent of leaders don't even want to be leaders anymore because they are so unwell. At the same time, C‐suites and boards are asking leaders to prioritize navigating uncertain economic conditions and strategically managing capital.2 When leaders are already exhausted and stretched for time, it's no wonder that they often let employee wellness take a backseat to other, seemingly more important priorities.
At the heart of this conundrum is a simple fact: Most leaders view economic growth and financial management as being at odds with cultivating employee health and well‐being. And they often believe they are already doing enough for employees. So, they push the responsibility for taking care of employees' wellness to their employer, hoping that a preexisting employee assistance program or a mindfulness session will fix the problem. But this approach is shortsighted. Indeed, organizations have also largely failed to crack the code on what promotes employee wellness at work. Most often, employers address employees' health and wellness through a set of perks or add‐on initiatives that they believe signal that they care about employees' well‐being. Currently, organizations are investing countless dollars in wellness solutions to align with employees' expectations and to help their employer brand stand out among competitors. These investments are becoming even more commonplace as new generations enter the workforce. Indeed, corporate wellness is an extremely large, and rapidly growing, industry. The global corporate wellness market was valued at $53 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a rate of 4.47% each year until 2030.3 But is this money well spent?
The sad reality is that wellness‐related metrics are not improving—rather, they are declining. The data suggests that employees are increasingly burned out. The dollars spent on wellness do not seem to be decreasing levels of exhaustion, stress, and burnout. Even companies that have invested heavily in wellness initiatives have struggled with a lack of results associated with those investments. More than half of U.S. workers report feeling exhausted and depleted of energy on the job, leading to extreme financial losses due to turnover and decreased productivity. In 2022, Gallup estimated the global cost of burnout to be $322 billion.4 All of this data points to one bleak reality: Many organizations are failing to provide environments that help their employees to thrive. We argue that this is because wellness spending is being wasted on programs and initiatives that provide temporary solutions for persistent problems instead of preventing them from happening in the first place. If organizations want to attract, retain, and support happy, productive employees, they have to solve the puzzling gap between resources dedicated to wellness and their intended outcomes. Erroneously, many organizations assume this gap is an indicator that supporting employee health and wellness isn't profitable. This isn't the case—it's just that organizations have been focusing their time and money on the wrong solutions. Leaders are the heart of employee wellness, and they need to be developed appropriately to support their team's well‐being while still boosting profits. When leaders recognize that their priorities of economic and financial growth are inherently linked with supporting employee health and wellness, they approach wellness strategically and from the top down.
When we talk to leaders working in companies struggling to support employee wellness, they often tell us they are trying more of the same: meditation programs for employees, step challenges, healthy cooking classes, or training on work‐life balance strategies. These popular programs aren't inherently bad, but leaders also share that they don't seem to be fixing the problem. Leaders who truly consider what makes employees happy and healthy on the job aren't surprised to find out that popular wellness solutions fail to drive results. Yet searches for other remedies often leave these leaders empty‐handed. A comprehensive employee wellness solution doesn't seem to exist. What should these leaders do?
We wondered the same thing. Now, in Leading for Wellness, we show you the answer. In short, leaders must go beyond the common, bottom‐up solutions aimed at individual employees. We argue that these solutions tend to have limited impact because they ignore broader cultural and contextual features that are depleting wellness on a larger scale. In some instances, employers seem to blame employees for their wellness struggles, instead of taking ownership for creating a work environment that better supports employee thriving. This situation can be frustrating for employees because it can seem like companies are saying: “You aren't well? Take this course/take part in this program/watch this webinar and learn how to get better at it. Good luck!” The elephant in the room is that leaders—at all levels—haven't taken a strategic approach to driving wellness from the top down. In this book, we shift the narrative by providing a research‐based response to the question: How can leaders actually create a culture of wellness at work?
This book refocuses organizations away from wellness fads and trends and toward the building blocks of thriving workplace cultures—leaders. Most employees intuitively know what it feels like to work with a leader who helps them thrive—and what it feels like to work for a leader who does the opposite. Did you ever have a boss who sucked out all your energy, made your stress go through the roof, or who simply didn't take time to support your needs or desires as a person or employee? If so, did you ever think “When I become a leader, I'll do it differently”?
Many people believe that, when they become leaders, they'll be the one they would have wanted to work for in the past. Yet the number‐one reason people leave their jobs is because they don't like their boss. So what happens? Why do people get off track when they become leaders? What gets in the way? Given the level of pressure to meet financial and business goals, plus the high levels of burnout leaders themselves experience, leaders are easily derailed from becoming the stars they once dreamed they'd be. This book helps current and aspiring leaders, like you, to become the leader they've always wanted to work for—while still producing results and boosting their own well‐being in the process.
Our Research
Why should you listen to us? We are two PhDs in industrial‐organizational psychology with deep expertise in research and practice on workplace wellness and decades of combined experience in academia and industry. We have a passion for achieving workplace wellness in organizations, using straightforward, science‐based practices, which have helped improve over 60 different organizations across diverse employee populations. The research we detail in this book helps you move away from the traditional workplace wellness fads and toward strategies that really work.
We set out to conduct our own independent research to build a blueprint for leaders who want to get back on track—or start out on the right foot—to become the leaders they promised themselves they'd be. Because we are scientists by training and trade, the foundations of this book are rooted around two major studies we conducted with different methodologies. It's important for research to be replicated to prove a result is real—and that's what we did.
Listening to Employees with Great Leaders
To conduct our first study, we spent a year interviewing employees who wanted to share their incredible experiences working with top leaders who created healthy and successful work environments. These interviews resulted in thousands of pages of data that we rigorously coded and analyzed to develop our framework for leading for wellness. We decided interviews would be the foundation for our study because they allowed us to gather rich, nuanced data about what leaders are doing to support wellness, the context they are deploying these actions within, and the impacts their actions are having on followers.
We were thoughtful about how we recruited interviewees. We wanted to ensure that leaders were not self‐nominating for the study as being exemplary at supporting others' wellness. We can all name leaders who think they are great but whose employees disagree. Instead, we interviewed people who told us they reported to a leader who had supported their wellness. By interviewing the employees, instead of the leaders themselves, we avoided interviewing individuals who merely thought they were good at supporting the wellness of their team members. To recruit participants, we posted on various social media networks and asked participants to nominate other folks who also had worked with exemplary leaders.
Overall, we interviewed 50 participants before reaching saturation. Saturation is a technical term meaning the point at which we began hearing mostly repeating ideas and new insights stopped emerging. People's jobs varied significantly, ranging from junior roles all the way up to the C‐suite. Study participants often described more than one leader who supported their wellness as part of the interview process. The companies that the participants and their leaders worked within spanned industries and organizational sizes. For example, we talked to people who were in HR‐focused startups as well as to those working in financial services firms with over 300,000 employees. Our interviews led to thousands of pages of notes, full of stories and rich examples of good and bad leader behaviors. We systematically looked for themes across our notes, stories, and examples to pull out the key, consistent insights that our participants shared with us.
Replication Is Key
But we didn't stop there. We conducted our second study to ensure we could replicate our findings—an important part of good science. We utilized a survey of hundreds of employees this time, which led to thousands of unique insights that solidified our framework. Similar to the method we followed using our interview data, we extracted the most commonly occurring themes our participants shared and synthesized them into clear takeaways, rooted in their collective insights. All this research resulted in a guide for helping you to become a “Generator”—the type of leader whom people want to work for, that organizations want to hire, and that we hope you can ultimately say you are proud to be. We also help you avoid becoming an “Extinguisher”—the type of leader most employees swear they'll never become. Finally, we help you to recognize the personal benefits of being a Generator—namely, that it will decrease your own stress and burnout.
Results: Generators Support Employee Wellness Every Day
From our rigorous research, we find that leaders can build thriving, and more productive, workforces when they invest in supporting employee wellness at the source. Contrary to popular beliefs and large investments from companies, perks like wellness classes, resilience training, and healthy lifestyle initiatives (i.e., eating programs and step challenges) were not perceived as being the most helpful solutions for improving employee wellness. In fact, as mentioned, some employees even find them demeaning—as if their wellness challenges were being blamed on their own behaviors, without any consideration for the organizational environment they were working within. As Kassie, one of our participants, shared:
We have a Wellness Committee and they put on events from time to time, and sometimes it's a guided meditation or whatever it is. But there's a little bit of irony because the only people that have the time to attend those [sessions] are the ones who are not as overworked and stressed out.
Instead, we find that employees view their day‐to‐day experiences with Generators and their team members as key determinants of wellness. They are seeking positive and healthy interactions at work to support their wellness, not a program or trendy benefit offering. We found that leaders who support employees' well‐being are the biggest factor in determining if employee wellness needs are met and in boosting their productivity.
But beyond highlighting the fact that Generators drive employee and organizational success, this book provides you with clear guidelines for how you can become a Generator yourself. Our knowledge of the scientific literature, combined with our understanding of the realities organizations face in trying to shift cultures and leadership practices, led us to recognize that our research wouldn't stick with readers without a clear, actionable pathway toward becoming a Generator while steering clear of the trappings of Extinguishers. Our scientific approach to uncovering the key to generating workplace wellness provides easy steps for you to get started on improving your employees' health and well‐being while still adding value to your organization and to your own life.
What Is Workplace Wellness?
We believe it's important for us to quickly clarify what we mean by “wellness” before we dig into the framework in more depth. The term “wellness” is used so broadly today that we all may be thinking of something different when using this word. For this reason, we asked employees themselves what they mean when they seek wellness at work. Without knowing what they want, how can we truly deliver?
In our research, we found that wellness is characterized by four main facets: physical health, mental health, emotional health, and work‐life balance. When employees talked about physical health, they mentioned things like having time to exercise, maintaining good blood pressure markers, and getting the medical care they need. When discussing mental health, employees mentioned wanting support to take mental health days, access to mental health providers, and safety to discuss mental health challenges. Employees who mentioned emotional health prioritized receiving support to reduce stress and prevent burnout. They also wanted to experience greater feelings of energy and positivity at work. Finally, in terms of work‐life balance, employees discussed receiving support for tackling work and life challenges, such as having time for their personal life and themselves, being able to prioritize family when needed, and being treated as whole people with many facets to their lives.
Importantly, our study participants felt that it wasn't enough to focus on just one of these four areas. Instead, they told us that it was important to think about wellness holistically. The phrase “considering the whole person” came up again and again in our interviews. For example, Chris, an HR leader, said: “I think workplace wellness definitely should support whole‐person wellness.” Sofia, an employee of a large healthcare organization, put it really well, saying,
I think that I define [wellness] as an environment that is supported by [wellness‐focused] policies and management that support the person's total health. So the physical environment, but also the company's culture and policies and, most importantly, leadership that supports total health…meaning mind, body, and spirit, but also your life outside of work.
Supporting employees’ total health may seem like a tall order for leaders to deliver on—but we found it was possible, and easier than you might think.
Throughout this book, we use this holistic approach to wellness. Where noteworthy, we indicate if a specific component of wellness is more strongly impacted by certain behaviors. However, the behaviors and mindsets of leaders who support wellness generally impact the whole person, not just one dimension.
What to Expect from This Book
The beginning of our book sets the stage for you to prepare to increase your capacity to become a Generator. First, in Chapter 1, we provide a primer on the importance of wellness at work, and why it has such positive impacts on employees, leaders, organizations, and society. We put a special emphasis on the performance‐ and productivity‐related benefits of becoming a more wellness‐focused leader or organization.
Next, Part I of our book sets the stage for you to prepare to increase your capacity to become a Generator—a set of behaviors that shows the leader is a real person, with weaknesses and insecurities, and not a superhero. We discuss specific behaviors and strategies that you can deploy to enact the two core components of this pillar—firing your “work self” and embracing a struggle statement. Counterintuitively, we find that leaders who show their true, flawed selves support employee wellness far better than those who try to project an image of perfection.
In Part II, we take a deep dive into the second pillar of becoming a Generator—focusing on the tone being set, as opposed to the time being spent, at work. We then detail the two key dimensions of this pillar—setting the right tone and swiftly becoming a confidant. Most leaders believe that the hours they put in are directly related to the results they get out, but we change the narrative by showing that the way things are done is more important than the time spent doing them.
In Part III, we cover the next core component of being a Generator—crafting work to support life, instead of squeezing your life in around your work. Here we teach you how to improve your elasticity in responding to employees' unique needs and desires. We also show you how to become a “boundary bouncer”—someone who helps employees set and enforce healthy boundaries between work and life. Even staunch supporters of work‐life balance usually believe that, when push comes to shove, work comes first. We show how Generators uniquely and wisely promote the opposite.
In Part IV, we cover the final component of being a Generator—recognizing that supporting employee wellness isn't one‐size‐fits‐all. Here we show you how to engage in a process of person‐centered planning with your team members and discuss how you can destigmatize mental health challenges that your employees may be facing. Employee wellness programs usually offer the same set of benefits to all employees, without consideration for their specific struggles. Generators recognize the need to tailor wellness strategies to each employee, and they do so successfully.
In all four of these parts, we get very granular about the specific actions that you can take to ensure you are becoming more like the Generators we spotlight and less like the Extinguishers who zap employees' energy and motivation. We share stories from our research and de‐identified quotes from our participants. While we edited our quotes for clarity, all of the stories are real. We also provide reflections, activities, and worksheets for you to complete at the end of each chapter (with the exclusion of Chapter 1), so that you can start applying your learnings right away.
In Part V, we discuss challenges and barriers that you may face on your journey toward becoming a Generator as well as strategies for overcoming these roadblocks. Here we also provide tools for you to create concrete action plans for improving your Generator leadership capabilities and for diminishing tendencies toward Extinguisher behaviors. Overall, after reading this book, you will be able to anticipate and plan for setbacks in your journey toward becoming a Generator and have an action plan that will set your wheels in motion immediately.
By following our guidance, you can become the leader you've always dreamed of working for. Importantly, you will also be able to promote employee wellness, and boost performance and productivity, in a healthy and sustainable way. Instead of providing a series of stand‐alone suggestions for initiatives (e.g., mindfulness meditation, yoga at lunch, etc.), we provide a behavioral guide that shows you exactly how to become an exemplary people leader, using tips that anyone can follow—no matter your career stage, size of your organization, your industry, or your financial resources. By the end of the book, we know you'll be motivated and prepared to take the right actions to become a Generator at work. Let's start Generating!
Key Takeaways
Traditional workplace wellness programs (e.g., mindfulness, healthy eating initiatives, etc.) do not solve the root problems of burnout.
These workplace wellness programs are often costly and, unfortunately, do not drive productivity and results alone.
Employees view leaders as having the greatest day‐to‐day impact on their wellness.
The actions and behaviors outlined in this book are based on insights derived from rigorous and replicated research that produced a framework for becoming a Generator leader and for avoiding becoming an Extinguisher leader.
Generators allow employees to thrive and reach their full potential; Extinguishers exhaust employees and put barriers on their paths to goal achievement.
You can become a Generator. This book will show you how.
Notes
1.
Fisher, J., and Silverglate, P.H. (2022, June 22). The C‐Suite's role in well‐being.
Deloitte Insights
.
www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/leadership/employee-wellness-in-the-corporate-workplace.html
2.
Edgerton, B., and Smith, J. (2024, January 17). “Americas board priorities 2024.”
EY
.
www.ey.com/en_us/board-matters/americas-board-priorities-2024
3.
Grand View Research. (Accessed April 20, 2024). Corporate wellness market size & share report, 2023–2030.
www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/corporate-wellness-market
4.
Workhuman. (2022, October 6). “New Gallup wellbeing and workplace study finds employee recognition can help mitigate $322 billion cost of global turnover and lost productivity.” [Press release.]
https://press.workhuman.com/press-releases/new-gallup-wellbeing-and-workplace-study-finds-employee-recognition-can-help-mitigate-322-billion-cost-of-global-turnover-and-lost-productivity/
Chapter 1Why Workplace Wellness Matters
When I was under her [leadership], I definitely felt more engaged with my work. I felt more excited about the job that I was doing and I wanted to put in a ton of effort for her.
—Jelisa, supply chain employee, study participant
If you are reading this book, it's unlikely that you need convincing that workplace wellness is important. Unfortunately, many senior executives see business and wellness as completely separate. In their view, it is not the responsibility of the business or of leadership to take care of employee well‐being. Instead, getting employees to work longer and harder is the goal, regardless of the consequences to their health and happiness. Even leaders who want to support their employees' wellness often think that doing so is a pure cost to the business, instead of a gain. One of the most dangerous trends we have seen is when companies pretend that they care about wellness by offering programs or initiatives that actually keep employees at work longer and make them feel more obligated to be always available. For example, it's great if your company offers free meals in a cafeteria. But that also encourages employees to eat all of their meals—including breakfast and dinner—at work. The outcome of these seemingly benevolent workplace wellness programs is burnout or disenchantment. Companies that engage in this form of performative workplace well‐being don't understand that spending money on programs like these leads to even more money lost in the long run. Instead, ensuring leaders understand that demonstrating a genuine concern for wellness is what matters—both for employees and for driving business results. So, in this chapter, we want to help you convince those around you that workplace wellness is worth focusing on.
Wellness Affects Everyone
To give you clear direction, we discuss the importance of wellness from four different perspectives:
For employees, we highlight research that shows how healthy and well mental states promote efficiency and performance at work.
Leaders might also support health and wellness for slightly selfish reasons. We think that getting leaders to the table to support workplace wellness is an important first step, regardless of the reason why they initially take that step. Therefore, if you need to convince leaders to care about employee wellness because there is something in it for them, that's better than not having convinced them at all. Over time, as leaders see the positive impact of leading for wellness, we hope they grow their capacity to lead in this way for more altruistic reasons. But if your leaders aren't there yet, focusing on the leadership benefits may be a good starting point. The good news is that research clearly shows that leaders themselves can benefit from creating a healthier environment for their employees by experiencing higher goal achievement, stronger relationships, and increased effectiveness and productivity.
We show how companies benefit from an intentional focus on wellness by seeing improvements in their bottom line. This is another less altruistic reason for increasing your capacity to lead for wellness (i.e., caring about employee wellness because it is profitable). But it's still a great entry point into the conversation if that's the most effective way to capture your leader's attention.
Finally, organizations have broad implications for our society and economy. The reason we are passionate about workplace wellness is because we believe companies can harness their power for societal good more effectively. If companies are producing employees who are feeling whole, vigorous, and excited about their work and lives (on average; everyone has tough days sometimes no matter what), workers can give back to their communities, their families, and themselves much more fully. In contrast, when employees are burned out, saddled with stress, and feeling emotionally taxed, they don't have the same energy to give to make the world a better place.
In other words, when companies offer more vibrant and fulfilling places to work, our communities share in that vibrancy and fulfillment. We think that's reason enough to care about workplace wellness, but in case your leaders disagree, next we unpack the first three reasons to help you make the case instead.
The Impact of Wellness on Employees
Think about a time when you were super productive and doing your best at work. Take a moment to imagine how you were feeling. What was the situation? What was the work environment like? What did your leader do, if anything, to help you get to this point? Now think about your life outside of work during that time. How was your sleep? What was going on in your personal life? How was your physical health? How was your mental and emotional health?
Relish in that memory for a minute, pause, and now think about a different time, a time when you were not feeling productive or effective at work. How were you feeling? What was the work environment like? Did your leader contribute to your inability to be productive? Now think about your life outside of work. Were you getting enough restful sleep? Were you able to disconnect from work? How was your health and wellness overall?
Take a moment to consider the differences between these two reflections. We guess that reflecting on the first scenario makes you feel much more positive than reflecting on the second one does. It might even be painful to reflect on the second scenario in many ways. Think about living the first scenario over and over, compared to living the second scenario over and over. Your work experiences can accumulate over time to impact your work and life—for better or worse. This is why working in a consistently positive work environment makes such a big positive impact on employee well‐being. Having a really bad day every now and then is manageable; having a really bad day most of the time is not.
In this exercise, you may have noticed a link between how you were feeling and the level of productivity you were able to achieve. We all know how challenging it is to work when you are really tired, overly stressed, or feeling sick. And if work is the reason why you feel unwell, being productive is even harder. It takes longer to get basic tasks done. It's hard to come up with new ideas or solutions to challenges. And it's more likely that you'll take negative emotions out on your coworkers in ways that might damage your social relationships. When you take a moment to think about it, it's clear that you can't be your best when you aren't feeling your best.
Thus, it is apparent that wellness can have a huge impact on employee performance, productivity, and effectiveness. The research supports this finding. Abundant scientific evidence shows that employees who are more well also perform better. As the amount of research is extensive, we will highlight some of the key findings here.
More Satisfied Employees Are More Productive
A large body of research shows the importance of employees feeling a sense of satisfaction on the job. It's been well established that more satisfied employees are more productive.1 Specifically, employees who feel good about the work itself, their coworkers, their company, and their manager are more likely to be effective on the job. Unfortunately, employees sometimes struggle to feel satisfied at work, especially when their wellness needs aren't met.2 Even if employees have their dream jobs and are a great fit for all their role responsibilities, they may not always end up healthy and happy in the long run. When employees are working unsustainable hours or they are working in a toxic work environment (or both), burnout can occur. Burnout can quickly derail employees in any type of job (dream jobs included!) and cause them to feel negatively about the people they work with or their overall work experience.3 For example, employees experiencing burnout are more likely to resent their managers, their peers, the company, and even the job itself. So even employees who started out happy on the job may become disgruntled over time. This finding is critical because burned‐out employees perform worse than their more energized colleagues. Thus, boosting wellness decreases burnout, which impacts employees' ability to perform on the job.4 Ensuring that employees are not overworked, overwhelmed, or exhausted helps employees and organizations alike.
Employee Wellness Boosts Engagement
Research also shows that boosting employee wellness usually leads to increased employee engagement.5 Most leadership teams understand the importance of keeping employees engaged. Likely you've taken an employee experience survey. Surveys are common ways leaders seek to understand employee engagement and inform possible solutions to improve it. Employees who are engaged can enter a state of “flow.”6
