Working from Home: Following the pandemic, most corporations had to adapt and adopt the concept of employees working from home. The majority of corporations still have their employees working virtually, and they do not intend to have them return to the office. The ability to work from home has helped many employees to find balance between work and personal lives.
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 Khari Bodrick.
Khari Bodrick is a best-selling author, mental health advocate, public speaker, and entrepreneur from Charlotte, North Carolina. He is the founder of the Khari Bodrick Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides guidance on both entrepreneurship and mental health & well-being. His memoir, By Any Means: Reflection of a Young Mogul, was released in May, 2021.
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.
Traditionally, the best employees are assumed to work nonstop while maintaining a high level of productivity. In many workplaces, taking a break is considered a waste of time. Do you agree?
Contrary to common belief, taking breaks at work may enhance performance. At a certain point, I worked for twenty-one straight hours with only a few breaks to use the restroom. It was then that I realized that this type of pattern had an adverse effect on my overall health. My weight began to decrease rapidly, and I had little to no sleep. In the past, I believed that to be the best version of myself, I was required to work 24/7, but this was far from the truth. One of the most important lessons I have learned is when to set boundaries. Setting a time limit for communication is crucial to avoiding burnout. There are many tasks that can wait until the following day and not all of them require immediate completion. I have a completely different approach to my work now. Every day, I make a list of tasks that are a priority for the day and work through them one at a time. If there is still work to be done at the end of the day, seeking assistance from a colleague would be highly recommended.
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 can be defined as the activity of conducting healthy habits every day to attain optimum physical and mental health so that you are no longer just surviving, but flourishing. The best way to measure wellness is to initiate a discussion with our employees consistently. Typically, this occurs during one-on-one conversations between direct supervisors and employees. Conversations like these are a good opportunity for coaching, mentoring, contextualizing, or even venting. A one-on-one meeting goes beyond an open-door policy by providing teammates and leaders with a regular opportunity to connect and communicate. Regular check-ins allow problems to be addressed before they become larger problems, provide immediate and regular feedback, and promote open communication within the organization. Leaders should discuss the employee’s overall well-being during such conversations and offer ways to support and resources that their organization provides.
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?
Employers can create a healthier, more productive work environment by providing employees with the means and the training to manage their own health. By implementing such a program, employers can reduce health care costs, improve productivity, and increase employee retention, providing further evidence for the link between personal health and job satisfaction.
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?
Several studies have demonstrated that wellness programs can lower absenteeism rates. Companies might benefit from this because the drop-in absenteeism and medical expenses outweighs the cost of implementing wellness programs. The most important beneficiaries of a corporate wellness program are its employees, who end up living healthier lifestyles. The program has other benefits for employees as well. Employees can be educated about healthy lifestyle habits through a comprehensive wellness program, for example. There is no doubt that the dangers of smoking, for example, are well known, but information regarding the benefits of skipping sugary drinks or getting a good night’s sleep may not be as common. Such enlightenment can be provided to individuals as part of a corporate wellness program, which in turn might help them make healthy lifestyle choices to proactively avoid chronic illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes. An employee’s quality of work can be improved because of a company wellness program. In studies, corporate wellness programs have been shown to increase productivity by 10 hours per employee annually. In organizations with large staffs, the production increase can have a substantial impact on the revenue that is lost due to stress-related issues. Companies with fewer employees may also benefit here, since this increase in production may lead to more effective growth or more efficiently maintained stability.
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?
When recruiting top talent, a strong employee benefits package is key to capturing their attention. Human resource professionals must design creative and attractive benefits programs that include wellness programs to demonstrate the commitment of their organization to its employees. The job seekers want to work for companies that value them and are willing to invest in their health and happiness. Employers who communicate effectively about wellness benefits will help their workers stay informed and connected. When recruiting and onboarding new employees, HR teams may highlight wellness programs as part of the company’s culture. Recruiters and new hires can use a variety of resources to communicate about wellness programs, including job postings, the company career portal, benefits brochures, and the employee handbook. Employer testimonials can be featured on your company’s website and social media channels to emphasize the success of these programs.
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.
To support the health and well-being of employees and their families, many companies should offer an Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) can offer you and your family support for your health and well-being, regardless of whether you are experiencing stress at work or just need to talk.
- Mental Wellness: For little or no cost, professional counselors are available to employees and their family members for confidential support with regard to depression, stress, anxiety, relationships, substance use disorders, domestic violence, and more.
- Emotional Wellness: There is a wide variety of self-help resources as well as professional counselors that can assist employees in managing their emotions during pregnancy, parenthood, adoption, marriage, cohabitation, separation, divorce, relocation, grief and more.
- Social Wellness: Having social wellness challenges within an organization is an excellent way to promote social wellness. Such challenges may be conducted on a weekly, monthly, or even quarterly basis. These things can be small, such as a competition to reach a set number of steps each day. Participating in such activities encourages employee health as well as team building. In addition to lowering stress, taking a walk together as a team or department helps to strengthen team bonds. There should be examples of these activities on the company’s website and in the EAP brochures.
- Physical Wellness: You, as a team leader, manager, or other decision maker, can set up opportunities for your team members to exercise. This will not only encourage participation in physical activity but will also communicate to them your commitment to their well-being. Thus, your team and organization will become more desirable to work for because of a caring and nurturing culture. For companies that do not have adequate space or resources to provide an on-site workout facility for your employees, then a membership or discount to a nearby gym, yoga studio, or other fitness facility through your EAP program can be a great alternative. This can also improve team bonding since workers will be more likely to exercise together.
- Financial Wellness: Employees can get free phone consultations for financial issues, including retirement, budgets, debt, and other money management situations.
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?
The purpose of an Employee Assistance Program is to assist employees in balancing work and personal life. Even the most dedicated and talented workers struggle to distinguish between work and personal challenges, and it is crucial to support employees during difficult times. Educating employees about employee assistance programs (EAPs) should not be a one-time event, but rather ongoing. Communication of these details and the wide range of services offered by the program is essential. Some may think that an employee assistance program is only available for mental health problems, not realizing that it can help with other issues as well, such as financial education and physical wellness.
How are you reskilling leaders in your organization to support a “Work Well” culture?
Work well affinity groups provide the easiest means of encouraging leaders within the organization to support the work well culture. These groups are also called employee resource groups (ERGs) and bring together employees with similar backgrounds or interests. They can have a strong influence on the workplace. In these organizations, there are board members, each of whom plays an essential role in ensuring that a unique and welcoming culture is established and maintained. My company provides education and information about these communities through weekly meetings, newsletters, and community events.
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?
Everything begins with a conversation. The topic of wellness can be an uncomfortable one for some, which is why normalizing this conversation is crucial. To raise awareness of wellness initiatives within the company, I recommend that leaders hold monthly meetings either in person or via Zoom. In addition to benefiting your employees, maintaining a healthy working environment also creates a more effective and efficient environment for the business. An employee’s physical and mental health is an important factor in his or her productivity. An individual who is mentally healthy is more optimistic, creative, and motivated.
What are your “Top 5 Trends To Track In the Future of Workplace Wellness?”
- Mental Health: This year, mental health is at the top of everyone’s agenda. Most employers plan to invest more in this area so that they are well positioned to address this aspect of employee well-being. The establishment of a mental health & well-being affinity group as well as providing employees with access to a 24/7 confidential helpline and free therapy sessions is highly recommended.
- Telehealth: The term telehealth refers to the use of technology to provide health care, education, and health information services. The features include, among other things, remote patient-clinician communication, care, advice, monitoring, and remote admissions. Offering your employees telehealth services enables them to stay informed about their health 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition to getting answers to their health questions out of hours when their physical health center is closed, these patients are able to schedule virtual appointments with their doctor at a time convenient to them.
- Stress Management: Companies have been implementing stress management and wellness programs for quite some time. With the pandemic and the increasing anxiety and stress levels of employees due to uncertainty, it is expected that more and more employers will opt to incorporate stress management programs into their employee wellness programs in upcoming years. Stress management programs are designed to reduce employee anxiety and increase employee productivity. An employee may be stressed in either their personal or professional lives. It is important that this program is in place because it allows workers to vent their frustrations and learn how to handle and manage stress, creating a healthy work environment.
- Working from Home: Following the pandemic, most corporations had to adapt and adopt the concept of employees working from home. The majority of corporations still have their employees working virtually, and they do not intend to have them return to the office. The ability to work from home has helped many employees to find balance between work and personal lives.
- Financial Wellness Programs: Financial concerns are usually a source of stress for most employees. Financial stress among most employees has reached an all-time high as a result of the pandemic. In addition, due to the pay cuts and high cost of living, this has created a great deal of stress. Despite the fact that financial wellness is often overlooked, it is a trend that will have a profound impact on corporate wellness programs in years to come. For example, employers may offer benefits such as financial planning support that is easily accessible, financial planning education sessions, and extended paid time away from work. An employee financial wellness program would be beneficial given the detrimental effects the pandemic has had on employees.
What is your greatest source of optimism about the future of workplace wellness?
I think the future is bright, and plenty of companies have taken steps in the right direction. However, we do have a long way to go. I believe that since the pandemic, many companies are beginning to prioritize the health and well-being of their employees. By providing education to the employee population, they can continue to grow these wellness programs, which will result in greater productivity and a more pleasant working environment.
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?
Visitors can stay up-to-date with my organization and by visiting www.kharibodrick.com or by following me on social media.
Thank you for sharing your insights and predictions. We appreciate the gift of your time and wish you continued success and wellness.