Climate as a critical wellness driver. Organizations will need to increasingly focus on climate education, action and advocacy as the growing climate crisis continues to impact issues like food access, natural disaster response and physical health.
The pandemic pause brought us to a moment of collective reckoning about what it means to live well and to work well. As a result, employees are sending employers an urgent signal that they are no longer willing to choose one — life or work — at the cost of the other. Working from home brought life literally into our work. And as the world now goes hybrid, employees are drawing firmer boundaries about how much of their work comes into their life. Where does this leave employers? And which perspectives and programs contribute most to progress? In our newest interview series, Working Well: How Companies Are Creating Cultures That Support & Sustain Mental, Emotional, Social, Physical & Financial Wellness, we are talking to successful executives, entrepreneurs, managers, leaders, and thought leaders across all industries to share ideas about how to shift company cultures in light of this new expectation. We’re discovering strategies and steps employers and employees can take together to live well and to work well.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Alissa Schepisi. Alissa is an Executive Vice President of Employee Experience at Edelman, where she specializes in building societal trust from the inside out, starting with a company’s most valuable stakeholder — its employees. For nearly 20 years, Alissa has helped companies thoughtfully architect an inclusive, productive employee experience that benefits both the business and the individuals that drive it forward. With a focus on employer branding, internal communications strategy and change management, Alissa partners with clients to build equitable cultures that thrive amidst the turbulent economic, political and social waters of today’s global environment.
Thank you for making time to visit with us about the topic of our time. Our readers would like to get to know you better. Tell us about a formative experience that prompted you to change your relationship with work and how work shows up in your life.
A few years ago, I lost a new business pitch that I’d really poured my heart and soul into. I took the loss pretty hard and, if I’m being honest with myself, I felt a little embarrassed; so many people on my team were rooting for me, including many colleagues who were junior to me, and I felt like I let them down. I knew the way I messaged this loss would be instructive to them about what to do when you give it your all and it’s not enough. The temptation was strong to share the news matter-of-factly, with a fake smile, acting impervious to the sting of loss. But I realized if I wasn’t honest about how difficult this loss was, I wouldn’t be giving other people permission to be honest about what’s hard for them. So, I showed up the next day and told the team about the loss, how much it hurt and that it would probably take some time for me to process it. I know it was the right decision because I know it did help others see that it’s OK to feel things deeply at work and about work. But what I didn’t expect was how freeing it felt for me to drop the façade of perfectionism. Being exactly who I am and being honest about the things I struggle with has allowed me to form closer connections with my colleagues, which makes my work more fulfilling.
Harvard Business Review predicts that wellness will become the newest metric employers will use to analyze and to assess their employees’ mental, physical and financial health. How does your organization define wellness, and how does your organization measure wellness?
Wellness has always been an area of significance for Edelman, starting with our founder, Dan Edelman. Dan valued the importance of wellbeing and exercise and saw them as the third leg of a stool for a balanced life (the other two being work and community involvement). Today, we view wellness as the foundational element of our employee experience. We measure wellness through wellness-related questions embedded in our quarterly employee experience surveys and through utilization of the tools, education and services offered through Livewell, the wellness program for Edelman employees. Wellness as an employee metric is critical, both in terms of simply doing right by employees and for assessing burnout, which has a huge impact on productivity. And while I think there’s likely strong correlation between strong employee wellness and retention, I think it remains to be seen whether there’s a causal effect.
Based on your experience or research, how do you correlate and quantify the impact of a well workforce on your organization’s productivity and profitability?
We know that an unwell workforce is often a workforce experiencing high burnout, and the impacts of burnout — professional mistakes, absenteeism, physical and psychosomatic symptoms — inarguably impact productivity, which has a direct impact on profitability. And while looking at employee wellness or health is a very important dimension, it’s also critical to look at the health of the employee/employer relationship. We know that trust is a key determinant of health, both in individual and public health care decisions. And while our research was looking at the trust between healthcare providers and patients, our overall body of research suggests that employee/employer trust is a determining factor for all kinds of positive employee behaviors — loyalty, advocacy and commitment, among others. So yes, it’s extremely important to ensure your employees as individuals are well. But employers also need to ensure the relationship they have with their employees is equally healthy — and they can do that by measuring the levels of trust within their organization.
Even though most leaders have good intentions when it comes to employee wellness, programs that require funding are beholden to business cases like any other initiative. The World Health Organization estimates for every $1 invested into treatment for common mental health disorders, there is a return of $4 in improved health and productivity. That sounds like a great ROI. And, yet many employers struggle to fund wellness programs that seem to come “at the cost of the business.” What advice do you have to offer to other organizations and leaders who feel stuck between intention and impact?
It does seem that some companies aren’t on board with investing in employee wellness, even when there is clear ROI. I think it’s driven by an old-school model of risk assessment applied to what is, in many cases, an invisible problem. But the rise in employee influence in our post-pandemic world should make it easier to justify investing in employee wellness. When we surveyed institutional investors, they ranked employees as the stakeholder group most important to a company achieving long-term success — more important than customers, communities and shareholders. We also know that consumers, and Gen Z consumers in particular, consider a company’s treatment of employees when making purchase decisions. There’s real consensus from all parties that employee health matters, and that didn’t exist as clearly in our pre-pandemic world. Investors and consumers are watching now. The price of inaction is much, much higher.
Speaking of money matters, a recent Gallup study reveals employees of all generations rank wellbeing as one of their top three employer search criteria. How are you incorporating wellness programs into your talent recruitment and hiring processes?
Companies that position wellness as part of their employer brand are expected to show that commitment in word and deed. So it’s great for companies to have wellness programs, but the companies that win are the ones that can point to wellness practices within the business. For example, it’s great that a company says employees have flexible working hours — a savvy prospective employee will ask what percentage of employees take advantage of that, and in what way. How many leaders have communicated to their teams that they’re logging off mid-day to attend a workout class? How is PTO or vacation time honored within the organization? Are boundaries celebrated or resented? The best companies have embedded wellness into how they do business, and they make sure to share those stories and practices with candidates during the recruitment process.
We’ve all heard of the four-day work week, unlimited PTO, mental health days, and on demand mental health services. What innovative new programs and pilots are you launching to address employee wellness? And, what are you discovering? We would benefit from an example in each of these areas.
- Mental Wellness: The stigma of mental illness is still very real. Companies that work hard to destigmatize mental illness by allowing employees — and leaders in particular — to share stories of how they manage mental illness can truly change lives and create meaningful psychological safety.
- Emotional Wellness: This isn’t flashy or particularly new, but small, consistent actions seem to be the most meaningful here. Training managers to check in — REALLY check in — with team members on an individual basis to talk about how they’re feeling and what they need can help. Letting people know they can and should take a break from work if they’re struggling. Making it easy for people to step away from work by ensuring there’s a quick process in place to delegate tasks to others.
- Social Wellness: Creating optional opportunities for coworkers to connect in person. Whether this is hosting events at or near a physical office, hosting quarterly in-person retreats or organizing local meetups for a fully-remote workforce, employees need the chance to get to know people outside of Zoom and Teams calls.
- Physical Wellness: Ergonomic health has really plummeted with the rise of remote work. Employers that not only invest in employees having the right home-office equipment but also reimburse employees that want to use standing desk, walking pads, balance balls, etc.
- Financial Wellness: Salary transparency and market-agnostic salaries. You put workers at a disadvantage by not openly discussing salary bands, and the hybrid work environment is going to make location-specific salary adjustments untenable.
Can you please tell us more about a couple of specific ways workplaces would benefit from investing in your ideas above to improve employee wellness?
There’s lots of data that indicates a high likelihood of increased productivity, reduced sick time and reduced healthcare costs. While there’s not a lot of data to demonstrate healthy employees are automatically more loyal, we do have data that indicates that employees are more likely to stay at, buy from and advocate for companies that invest in improving the employee experience.
How are you reskilling leaders in your organization to support a “Work Well” culture?
It starts with developing empathy. At the end of the day, wellness is very subjective and personal; a good leader understands that each person will need to take a different approach to achieve optimum wellness. They can’t truly support those individual wellness journeys without empathy, and they can’t extend grace during times of struggle without empathy. Empathy is a muscle that anyone can develop and strengthen. A robust training curriculum focused on developing both cognitive and emotional empathy sets the foundation for a healthier workplace.
Ideas take time to implement. What is one small step every individual, team or organization can take to get started on these ideas — to get well?
The first step is being able to answer the question, “Am I well?” Princeton has some simple self-assessment tools people can use to understand where they may need to improve. The second step would be to educate yourself and your team about resources that are available. Dr. Laurie Santos at Yale offers a “Science of Well-Being” course that is free through Coursera — so even if your organization isn’t providing educational programs, you can access quality information at no cost.
What are your “Top 5 Trends To Track In the Future of Workplace Wellness?”
- Office design. While there are a number of companies going fully remote, most companies will still want and need an office presence that supports social well-being and connection. I’ll continue to watch how coworking companies tackle office design, because I believe they set the trend for what a desirable, functional workspace looks like: Smaller footprint with more premium design, heavy focus on lounge space and call booths with a few larger meeting spaces, dedicated brainstorm/collaboration space, complimentary healthy snacks and drinks, etc.
- Climate as a critical wellness driver. Organizations will need to increasingly focus on climate education, action and advocacy as the growing climate crisis continues to impact issues like food access, natural disaster response and physical health.
- The Metaverse. On its face, the Metaverse seems like an interesting and potentially useful way to approximate in-person interactions remotely. The big question is, will Metaverse connections have the same social well-being impact as in-person connections? Will it help us be more productive?
- Collective time off. We know that unlimited PTO often prompts people to take less time off than more; part of the challenge, particularly for knowledge workers, is trying to unplug from work when the work doesn’t stop. We’ve seen more companies close for a day, or maybe a week, so most employees can truly unplug — will that trend continue? Will we move toward longer shutdowns, or shorter, more frequent shutdowns?
- Companies advocating for wellness equity. Even when all employees are privy to the same program and benefits, their ability to use those benefits in and with their community can vary. Companies that use their power to address issues like food deserts, lack of local healthcare access, stigma around mental health treatment and prevention for illnesses that disproportionately impact underrepresented groups will be more successful in attracting and retaining top talent.
What is your greatest source of optimism about the future of workplace wellness?
Gen Z’s collectivist worldview and assertive activism style is what gives me hope. Their ability to advocate for workplace change and their desire to prioritize “we” over “me” makes me excited about what the workplace will look like 20 years from now.
Our readers often like to continue the conversation with our featured interviewees. How can they best connect with you and stay current on what you’re discovering?
You can connect with me on LinkedIn.
Thank you for sharing your insights and predictions. We appreciate the gift of your time and wish you continued success and wellness.