The corporate landscape is a fickle one, subject to the whims of economic pressures, shifting social trends, and the ever-evolving priorities of leadership. Recently, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, once heralded as essential cornerstones of modern business, have faced significant pushback and, in some cases, a retreat. This raises a crucial question: will workplace wellbeing, another burgeoning corporate focus, suffer a similar fate?
DEI’s Decline: A Warning Sign
Despite much evidence that having a diverse and inclusive workforce is good for business, DEI campaigning has tended to lead through a corporate responsibility angle, i.e. ‘this is the right thing to do’. However, this leaves the door open for disagreement and disengagement, as illustrated when someone confidently stated at a future of work conference:
‘Business can’t fix the deeply-rooted inequalities in our society and shouldn’t have to carry the burden of doing so either’.
More recently, political pressures, economic uncertainties, and perceived ineffectiveness have contributed to the rollback of DEI programmes, but one could argue that it was already on fairly fragile ground in many organisations, and that these were the proverbial straws that broke the camel’s back.
Wellbeing’s Vulnerabilities
So, what can our experiences with DEI teach us about the possible vulnerabilities in workplace wellbeing?
Economic Pressures: Financial downturns lead to cuts in wellbeing initiatives, viewed as expendable. Recent data shows a significant percentage of employers reducing these programmes, indicating a lack of understanding of their strategic importance.
Measurement Challenges: Quantifying the direct impact of wellbeing on ROI remains difficult. Without clear metrics, leaders may undervalue these efforts.
Superficial Implementation: Generic solutions fail to address specific employee needs, leading to perceived ineffectiveness.
Unique Challenges to Wellbeing
Wellbeing faces additional hurdles:
Cultural Resistance: Work cultures prioritising short-term output over long-term sustainability can stigmatise wellbeing.
Leaders must consider how long we have been running with this ‘short-term’ period, and how much longer we can sustain it?
Lack of Leadership Support: Without genuine executive endorsement, initiatives lack necessary resources and authority.
Leaders must ask themselves ‘what do I need to get behind this?’ and then demand it.
Insufficient Customisation: Strategies neglecting diverse employee needs result in low participation.
Leaders must seek proof of the specific people risks and challenges present in different areas of their business to ensure resources are being deployed effectively.
The Wellbeing Advantage
Unlike DEI, which can be politically charged, wellbeing is universal. Everyone benefits from good health and resilience. Healthy employees engage more deeply, collaborate better, and drive innovation.
The only threat to workplace wellbeing is the inability to successfully implement strategies to improve it – something many organisations continue to struggle with.
Empowering Wellbeing
To prevent wellbeing’s decline, companies must:
Integrate Wellbeing Strategically: Position employee health as a core business priority aligned to targeted performance outcomes.
Ensure Leadership Commitment: Executives must actively champion and sponsor wellbeing.
Customise Initiatives: Tailor programmes to meet diverse employee needs, ensuring relevance and engagement.
Establish Clear Metrics: Implement robust evaluation methods to establish priorities, demonstrate ROI, and ensure accountability.
Closing Thoughts
Workplace wellbeing isn’t the problem; ineffective implementation and a lack of accountability are.
We must discard the “grubby water” of fragmented, generic, and unsupported initiatives that are making our businesses sick, and instead we must nurture workplace wellbeing in such a way that it thrives as the powerful force driving business success that it was born to be.
Carry on as we are and we’ll successfully convince ourselves (or the decision-makers in our businesses) that:
“We tried our best, it’s just wellbeing has no place in business”.
…and how wrong we would be!