How Leaders Can Rewrite the Story Around Employee Well-Being

For the past few years, employee well-being has remained firmly at the top of the C-Suite agenda. From ensuring worker safety during the COVID-19 pandemic to improving their mental health benefits, organizations have had to step up their support like never before.

Many leaders have also taken a hard look at how their own behaviors might be driving a work culture that inhibits well-being, and some have taken the initiative to address these issues.

But have the efforts paid off in the form of better employee well-being? The answer, according to new research from Workplace Intelligence and Deloitte, appears to be a resounding "no."

Well-Being in the Workplace Is Declining

We surveyed 3,150 C-suite executives, managers and employees across the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia.

About two-thirds of workers who responded say their health worsened or stayed the same last year, and around half report that they "always" or "often" feel exhausted and stressed. What's more, employees' self-reported well-being declined across all dimensions from last year—this includes their physical, mental, social and financial well-being.

For most employees, work is largely to blame for their worsening health. In fact, a heavy workload, stressful job and long work hours topped the list of obstacles people say are getting in the way of improving their well-being.

Less than half of employees report that they're regularly able to move or exercise during the day, take breaks during their shift, get enough sleep and spend enough time with their friends and family. The findings should be immensely concerning for businesses, and not just because healthier employees are generally more productive.

Leaders also need to consider the impact that a perceived lack of employer support could have on their retention efforts, since an alarming 60 percent of employees say they're considering taking a job with another company that would better support their well-being.

How Leaders Can Drive Change for Employees

If your company has gone above and beyond over the past few years to help your team members improve their health, it might be frustrating to see these numbers. The good news is that our research revealed several areas where companies could be taking more action. Here are three ways to get started.

1. Focus on the Metrics That Matter

In our research, about 9 out of 10 companies say they look at workers' medical claims, work-related illnesses and injuries, use of sick leave and their self-reported well-being. While there's no question that these metrics can provide an objective overview of employee health, examining other indicators can provide a more comprehensive picture of workforce well-being.

For example: Consider the volume of work emails people send after hours, their usage of rest periods, the length of time workers are online during the day and whether they're using all their PTO each year.

These metrics could reveal the extent to which your employees are struggling with issues around burnout or work-life balance, which could be addressed with policies (e.g., limiting after-hours emails) or by prioritizing a cultural shift that puts well-being first.

2. Empower Your Managers

Managers play a critical role in employee well-being. But all too often, they don't receive the tools and support they need.

In fact, 70 percent of the managers we surveyed reported that they struggle to help their team members with well-being due to organizational barriers outside of their control. These include company policies (e.g., rigid scheduling requirements), a heavy workload and an unsupportive workplace culture.

As a result, only 42 percent of managers feel completely empowered to help their company achieve its workforce well-being commitments. To turn this around, the onus is on leaders to remove organizational obstacles so that managers can deliver the impact they're capable of.

Executives should focus on ensuring that policies, workloads and culture align with well-being behaviors, and offering managers the tools and training they need to support their team members.

3. Make Your Leaders More Accountable

At the end of the day, the imperative around employee well-being needs to come from the top—and leaders by and large agree.

Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) believe executives' bonuses should be tied to workforce well-being metrics. And 78 percent feel that if their company can't maintain an acceptable level of workforce well-being, then the leadership of the organization should change.

To drive this level of accountability, leaders must commit to measuring, monitoring and setting goals around employee health. An impressive 84 percent of executives have already made public commitments around workforce well-being, but 53 percent admit they could be doing more.

Leaders should also aim to increase their company's transparency around this, for example by publicly disclosing workforce well-being metrics in their annual reporting.

Charting a New Course for Workforce Well-Being

My latest study with Deloitte was the second of its kind, and our discovery that workforce health is declining was alarming, to say the least. It's up to leaders like you to turn this around—but it certainly won't be easy.

You'll need to take greater ownership around matters of health, revisit your well-being metrics and provide more support for your managers. By putting all of these pieces in place, I'm confident you'll be able to move the needle on your employees' well-being and create an environment where they can thrive.

About the Author

Dan Schawbel is a New York Times bestselling author and the Managing Partner of Workplace Intelligence, an award-winning thought leadership and research agency focused on the world of work. He is the bestselling author of three career books: Back to Human, Promote Yourself and Me 2.0. Through his company, Dan has led over 70 research studies with major brands including Amazon, Oracle, Deloitte, American Express and WeWork. Schawbel is also the host of the 5 Questions podcast, where he interviews world-class humans like Matthew McConaughey, Natalie Portman, Richard Branson, Condoleezza Rice, Reed Hastings, Chelsea Handler and Neil deGrasse Tyson. His Workplace Intelligence Weekly LinkedIn newsletter is one of the most read in his industry with nearly 400,000 subscribers and over 200,000 students have taken his LinkedIn Learning courses on leadership, management and hybrid working.