Employee Wellbeing: Getting the Measurement Right
As the over-used saying goes, ‘gone are the days of fruit bowls and yoga’….
…Or are they?
While the conversation around wellbeing has taken a new focus these last few years, we’re unlikely to throw our wellbeing activities out the window just yet. As many in the space agree, there is a place for everything. The trick is to ensure what you are providing matches the needs of your people. And this is where wellness and wellbeing in the workplace have had a bad rap over the years. More often than not, wellness programs have been ill-fitting, tokenistic initiatives that miss the mark and leave employees even more disengaged than before.
In business, success has always been measured in profit margins and productivity. The notion of wellbeing as an essential contributor to that profit and productivity has been overlooked until recently. One fundamental change in the conversation on wellbeing is the narrative shift from wellbeing as a ‘fluffy add-on’ to something strategic, measured, and measurable.
Wellbeing as a concept is being raised in board rooms, and incorporated into strategic planning.
For someone like me, who has been going on about wellbeing for years, it is an exciting change to be a part of, and we’re only at the beginning.
“Wellbeing as a concept is being raised in board rooms, and incorporated into strategic planning. ”
How do we go about measuring something as intangible as employee wellbeing? Let's explore.
What is Wellbeing?
Firstly, it's important to recognise that wellbeing encompasses a spectrum of physical, mental, and emotional facets. Before measuring wellbeing in your workforce, it is important to have an initial understanding and consensus on what wellbeing means to your organisation.
This will depend largely on the make-up of your workforce, your community setting, the demographics of your people, what you sell, and so on. It will also shape the focus of your strategy. A financial institution will be addressing different needs compared to a construction company. Getting clear on who you work with, where you work, what wellbeing looks like, and other factors like this will help you to figure out what the essential elements of a wellbeing program should look like.
To capture this unique complexity, organisations can employ a variety of measurement tools and processes. Employee engagement surveys and assessments are a popular starting point. Keep in mind, however, survey fatigue is a real issue, so you may not gather valid information from this source alone. You will need to gather more data elsewhere.
Try to glean as much as you can from the survey and start mapping it out. Look for trends. If your survey data provides this level of detail, look for areas within the organisation that are reporting higher levels of stress and other indicators of burnout. This should also have been done when you completed your last psychosocial hazards assessment.
Once you have mapped out what you can from this survey, it is time to start gathering more information to help you get a snapshot of the wellbeing in your organisation. Rather than send out another survey, try the alternative methods to get that information together listed below.
Got a question? Throw it into the form below and we’ll get back to you asap!
There are ways you can measure employee wellbeing in addition to your engagement survey.
Workforce Trends Data:
Absenteeism:
How many people are off sick at any given time? How many sick days are taken on average per year?
Importantly, are there areas/demographics of your organisation with greater absenteeism?
Presenteeism:
Where has productivity gone down over the last 12 months? Do you have workers who are turning up when they should be at home?
Injuries and Worker’s Compensation Claims:
This can indicate issues with safety protocols, but it can also indicate fatigue, stress, pressure overload.
Turnover rates:
How often are you recruiting and training up new talent to replace those who have left? Is this happening more in certain teams? This could indicate an issue with workload or management in a team, or it can indicate a cultural issue across the board.
Interviews:
One highly under-utilised method of understanding what’s going on with the wellbeing in your workforce is to ask. Now, you might think you are doing that by sending out an employee engagement survey, but this is only one way to capture the data, and it may not be as reliable as a face-to-face conversation. Interviews provide valuable qualitative data that you can use to truly understand the needs and behaviours of your people. The information can be integrated into the co-design of your wellbeing policies and psychosocial hazard management practices, as well as plans for your annual wellbeing program.
One-to-One Check-ins:
Although neither qualitative or quantitative data can be gleaned effectively from a 10 minute coffee break, these micro meetings can still provide very valuable insights into the pulse and energy of teams. Managers can build trust and open communication simply by setting aside small pockets of time to chat with team members. Anecdotally, these de-identified insights can be brought into management meetings to fuel further follow ups.
Specific Tools:
You may, at some point, want to get a snapshot into a specific area of wellbeing within your workforce. This may be necessary if one or two incidents of burnout or bullying arise, or you are about to undergo a major structural change. Getting a snapshot of before, during, and after the change can help you put the right supports in place during the change. Alternatively, you may wish to use a tool throughout the year, to track changes in response to workflow, and measure the trends that arise. Tools like the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) or the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) can provide valuable insights into employee stress levels and burnout risk.
One tool I’m particularly fond of is the Flourishing Index, out of the Harvard School of Quantitative Social Science, which measures flourishing across 5 different domains. Measurements like this one can be use to shift the focus from what is going wrong (which also needs to be considered), to what is going well, and how that can be promoted.
Measuring impact
Once metrics are taken, the next step is to set goals and targets for the wellbeing program. Generally, if wellbeing strategy is still relatively new for you, it is best to take it slowly. Put together a program that you believe will address the risks and promote the wellbeing needs of your teams, but consider rolling it out initially in a subpopulation of your people, depending on the size of your workforce. For example, consider rolling it out in one team, or one store, for a set period of time as a case study. Then collect the data, and tweak and expand from there.
More things to consider when measuring impact:
1. Set clear objectives, and don’t take on too much at once. Focus on a few key areas at first, and you will be able to expand to more areas, or see the roll-on effect after some time.
2. List KPIs and ensure all role responsibilities are clear.
3. Co-create with regular check-ins across the department to track engagement and best fit. Take note of the outliers, those who are not participating in the initiatives you are offering and seek to understand the barriers preventing them from participating.
4. Evaluate with a variety of means, including both qualitative and quantitative data, interviews, metrics, and live experience. All are valid and important ways to measure wellbeing.
Finally, promote psychological safety and psychological health and wellbeing. These are two different and equally essential requirements for managing wellbeing effectively in your workforce.
Psychological health and safety refers to the awareness and prevention of psychosocial hazards in the workplace, such as bullying or poor role clarity, and requires workplaces to actively prevent issues from occurring and support workers back to full recovery when they do occur.
Psychological safety is the mechanism that supports workers to voice their concerns about issues like bullying in a safe and supported way. Ensuring your teams have psychological safety will mean that your psychosocial hazard management and your overarching wellbeing program are appropriate and desired by your people. A workplace with high psychological safety provides and open, trusting environment where people feel safe to share their concerns without punishment or discrimination.
Working on having good psychological safety will support you and your teams to engage openly and honestly in any changes or assessments that come up.
The larger your organisation gets, the more you have to consider the unique variety of individuals who are supporting your business goals. Investing time and money into supporting the wellbeing of your people provides significant return on investment. But you have to do it right.
For support in this, contact Sunrise Well for a free strategy call, to discuss what is going well and what needs work in your wellbeing strategy. You’ll get free access to our expert advice, and walk away with a clear idea of the first steps you need to take to improve your wellbeing program. If you are a Wellbeing Lead in an organisation, get in touch and we’ll sit down with you on a free call to find out where the gaps are in your current strategy, so you can make immediate changes to your program for improved results.