The white paper, The Evidence: Wellbeing and Employee Engagement, explores the link between employee engagement and wellbeing with individual and organisational performance.
Speaking at a preview of the report yesterday, Dame Carol Black, adviser on work and health at the Department of Health, said that linking the two was a powerful way to convince executives of the need to take wellbeing seriously.
“You can only sustain engagement if you have wellbeing,” she said. “If you talk about engagement and productivity only being sustainable if people are well, it’s a lot easier for [leaders] to understand and buy into.
“Linking engagement and wellbeing is an easier business message.”
Vanessa King, board member at non-profit Action for Happiness and a member of the Engage for Success wellbeing subgroup, said one of the reasons neither wellbeing nor engagement are taken seriously in many businesses is because they are considered “in separate buckets”.
“Combining them builds a stronger case as they are both really impactful on UK PLC,” she said. “The focus [around wellbeing] has tended to be on compliance and cure, not prevention and investment to drive performance. Are we at a tipping point now?”
Louise Aston, director of Business in the Community’s Workwell campaign, spoke about the case for companies to report publicly on wellbeing.
“Companies bang on about people being their greatest asset, but there’s very little materiality around what that actually means,” she said. “What gets measured gets managed. We need to make wellbeing a strategic boardroom issue.”
David MacLeod, co-founder of the Engage for Success movement said a focus on wellbeing is timely as the UK moves into recovery.
The report is available to download via the Engage for Success website from noon today.
Twelve steps to success
The report includes a 12-step plan to introducing an integrated wellbeing and engagement programme. They are:
1. Gain CEO buy-in/support
2. Set up dedicated teams
3. Gather insight to drive wellbeing efforts
4. Develop an action plan
5. Design meaningful and appropriate interventions
6. Implement a communications strategy
7. Help leaders serve as role models
8. Grant permission for employees to get involved
9. Create a supportive environment
10. Align processes, procedures and employer branding
11. Evaluate outcomes
12. Celebrate success
June’s edition of HR magazine takes a special look at health and wellbeing as a strategic boardroom issue.
