Dr. Bill Howatt and Michel Rodrigue
The pandemic caused many leaders to shift their internal communications to focus on employee well-being. As we move beyond COVID-19 restrictions, maintaining this focus will be extremely important - but there is a catch. Before rolling out wellness messaging, we must pause to consider if we’re supporting staff in these efforts, or whether there are organizational barriers in the way.
We must consider whether the initiatives we're promoting are feasible for staff at every level. Employees in executive positions often have access to better benefits and perks (such as more vacation time) than those in lower-level positions. They also have higher income, which makes it much easier to afford things like healthy food, gym memberships, childcare, and services to support their well-being.
We also need to ask ourselves whether we are leading by example. It's not enough to encourage specific actions that increase well-being. As leaders, we also need to take breaks, use our vacation time, eat healthy, get physical movement into the workday, block time for uninterrupted focus, and so on.
The same is true for mental health and overall well-being. Before we preach, we need to get practical.
And, as we know, actions speak louder than words. Are organizational behaviours consistent with those you are espousing in your communications? Consider an initiative to promote physical health. Educating employees about how to read a nutritional label may have nothing to do with your core business, but it can help employees with making better food choices. However, that messaging should be coupled with the opportunity for staff to access healthy food during their workday. Inviting employees to a meeting and serving donuts and pastries undermines the message and would come across as exclusive to employees who are trying to manage their diet.
To help keep your wellness messaging from falling flat, consider the following tips:
- Define well-being - Research shows that well-being interventions are more effective when they come from the CEO's office and everyone has a clear understanding of what well-being means to the organization, and why it is important. There are models that outline elements or dimensions of well-being that can be helpful. For example, The Five Essential Elements of Well-being is a model that was identified by Gallup through a massive global study of more than 150 countries.
- Be a role model for employees - Don't just tell employees what they should do, be sure to role model well-being. Engage in organizational programs, talk about your experiences and encourage others to do the same to reinforce value and promote action.
- Go beyond self-care - Wellness messaging can feel insincere if it puts the onus solely on employees. While self-care is important, it's equally important to lay out what employees can expect from their employers to support well-being. Consulting (or better yet, implementing!) The National Standard of Canada for Psychological Safety in the Workplace may be helpful.
- Identify ways the organization is supporting employee well-being - Employees may not be fully aware of the resources, benefits and services that are available through the organization or the community. Consider providing this information through internal communication channels, on paystubs, or in meeting agendas.
- Explore and communicate operational supports for employee-wellbeing - Encouraging staff to take time off when their workload doesn't allow it, for example, will only cause more stress. Enlist employees' help to seek out these types of operational barriers to well-being in your organization and communicate with staff how you are correcting them. This might be through new methods, tools and resources to manage workload, flexibility in scheduling, accommodation for mental and physical health needs, tools and technology to help with workflow, etc.
- Reinforce respectful workplace policies - Disrespectful interactions, harassment, or violence in the workplace is a significant source of stress and can negatively impact an employee's well-being. Consistently model and reinforce respectful workplace policies and procedures.
- Keep an open door - Let employees know that you are open to hearing from them about their needs, and about what is working well for them.
- Avoid toxic positivity - While encouragement and positive thinking can help people get through tough times, in the absence of other factors such as social support and self-efficacy, some messaging can be detrimental to well-being. Take time to understand what toxic positivity is and craft your messages in a way that acknowledges the challenges your employees may be facing with a focus on how the organization can support them. Be prepared ahead of your messaging so that you know how you will respond appropriately to negative emotions.
Supporting employees has taken on new meaning during the pandemic, and our organizations are better for it. By taking a critical look at the ways we promote employee well-being, we can ensure we don’t undo the important gains we’ve made over the past two and a half years.
Get to know the authors – Dr. Bill Howatt and Michel Rodrigue
