Organizations that promote employee health and well-being are three and a half times more likely to encourage creativity and innovation, according to a study presented by Right Management’s research team at the World Economic Forum.
Seventy-two percent of respondents who rate their organization highly for actively promoting health and well-being also rate it highly for encouraging creativity and innovation. Among those who did not rate their organization’s health and well-being efforts highly, only 20 percent took a favorable view of their organization’s encouragement of creativity and innovation.
These findings indicate that a comprehensive organizational effectiveness program should include a wellness initiative. Yet, less than half of the nearly 30,000 employees who participated in that global study reported that their organizations actively promote health and wellness.
We now have persuasive evidence linking health and well-being to greater employee engagement, organizational productivity, talent retention and — of utmost importance in today’s post-recession economy — creativity and innovation.
Promoting wellness is not just about promoting physical health and stress management. It also includes elements of the work environment, role clarity, workplace practices and work-life balance. Survey respondents selected five key drivers for promoting health and well-being that include:
• “I work in a safe and healthy environment.”
• “My organization allows me to maintain a reasonable balance between my family and work life.”
• “You can balance work and personal interests at my organization and still progress.”
• “I have an appropriate workload.”
• “The amount of pressure I experience in my role is reasonable.”
Any organization considering how to improve employee wellness would be wise to consider how effectively it is currently addressing these factors.
Many organizations define wellness narrowly as physical and psychological health. In the workplace, it is often considered a non-core human resource responsibility and is not expected to provide a significant return on investment to the organization. So positioned, wellness has limited appeal as a strategic investment and is not likely to attract sustained attention from senior leaders. Encouraging wellness is often done because it is a good thing to do and not because it provides added value to the organization.
But what if there is a link between wellness and productivity? How much productivity is lost due to sick days or absenteeism? How much productivity would be gained through more innovative and creative solutions? Answers to these questions can get the sustained attention of senior leaders.
Wellness programs can deliver sustainable, measurable returns on investment. But first, wellness must be redefined more broadly to include more complex and diverse influences. While physical and psychological health remain key elements of wellness, they are by no means the only elements. Wellness can be refined to include aspects of an organization’s talent management and organizational effectiveness programs.
Consider the importance of employee engagement. Employees engaged by their work tend to report higher levels of wellness and well-being. Therefore, organizations that closely monitor and attend to employee engagement are also impacting employee well-being. Forming a virtuous circle, engagement promotes wellness and well-being, which in turn, promotes engagement. Redefining wellness as a concept that encompasses employee engagement as well as physical and psychological health leads to a clearer appreciation of its central strategic importance. It also makes it easier to monitor and track its contribution to the organization’s bottom line.
In swiftly changing markets, creativity and innovation provide organizations with the agility to meet new needs and opportunities. The true potential of wellness initiatives can only be realized when wellness is embedded within the organization’s core business strategy. Leaders and human resource professionals would do well to implement wellness initiatives that not only encourage physical and psychological well-being, but also drive the behaviors that are essential to improving the effectiveness of the entire organization.
Dr. Gary Schmidt is a principal consultant in the talent management practice for Right Management’s Northeast Regional Operations. Right Management (www.right.com) is the talent and career management expert within Manpower, the global leader in employment services. Copies of the ‘“The Wellness Imperative: Creating More Effective Organizations,” white paper are available free by contacting Schmidt at gary.schmidt@right.com.
