Design of spaces. Some people need quiet to work, so a workspace with all open spaces is not providing them with a safe environment. Others may require community spaces to do their best work. Future facilities should provide a variety of workspaces, and leaders must encourage employees to work in the environment that best suits them, whether a desk in an office or a couch in the lunchroom.
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 Laurie Sewell.
Laurie Sewell is President and CEO of Servicon, a leading custodial and infection-prevention services provider for complex facilities.
Servicon partners with Fortune 500 companies in the healthcare, aerospace, manufacturing, commercial real estate, municipal, and entertainment industries. Their purpose is to elevate the industry and provide healthy environments for people to thrive.
Considered a disrupter in an industry steeped in tradition, Sewell is shifting the focus from conventional concepts of custodial services to those that are driving wellness, sustainability, new analytics, and employee engagement with innovative technologies and training.
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.
I don’t think one specific incident changed my outlook. It was more of a gradual realization. As a young person just starting in the workforce, I was under the impression that work meant going in, putting your head down, and getting it done. But over time, I realized it is so much more. My dad used to tell me, “Don’t become an ivory tower leader.” I finally realized what he meant. As a CEO and leader of a leading Southern California healthcare environmental services (EVS) provider, it is about providing a work culture that embraces an environment of care and collaboration. Sometimes “work” is sitting and listening to someone, engaging in conversation that may not even be about work. It’s about creating a place and an employee culture where people feel safe and comfortable being engaged and productive. Great soil allows great work to grow.
Harvard Business Review predicts that wellness will become the newest metric employers will use to analyze and assess their employees’ mental, physical, and financial health. How does your organization define wellness, and how does your organization measure wellness?
We are a leading healthcare EVS provider. Our purpose embodies our definition of wellness: to elevate the industry and create healthy workspaces for people to thrive. We do this for our employees and clients, including all forms of wellness — physical, mental, emotional, social, and financial.
It isn’t a formal key performance indicator (KPI), but we measure our success in wellness by tracking how many people are taking advantage of the policy’s preventative care options. Here, I’d like to clarify that my answers regarding benefits apply primarily to our exempt (salaried) workforce. While it varies by worksite, many of our employees are union, which sets the benefit packages and other benefits.
We have an employee assistance program that includes childcare and eldercare assistance, legal assistance and financial services, college planning resources, face-to-face sessions with a counselor, and access to a wide range of tools and information to help take charge of their wellbeing. I also believe employee engagement is a KPI of wellness. We have an employee engagement survey and are transparent in the findings. We conduct a focus group before and after each survey to see where we are hitting the mark, where there is room for improvement, or if additional employee assistance may be needed. Our leaders are also trained to look for signs such as decreased productivity or unexpected absences that can indicate an employee is struggling physically or mentally and make an effort without prying to see where we as a company might be able to help.
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?
One of the best ways to correlate and quantify the impact of employee wellness is employee retention. Ours has averaged over 82% in the last two years, way above the industry standard — despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of our employees have been here 20, 30 and 35 years. Less turnover means greater productivity and less money spent on hiring and training new people. Another gauge is the number of promotions; you see more growth and internal promotions if employees are healthy and engaged. If you create an environment where they feel comfortable, happy, and safe, they volunteer more; they are more willing to be team players and perform cross-functional work. They are also more productive. Another indicator of a healthy workplace that impacts productivity and profitability is referrals. Last year, 41% of our new hires were referrals. A clear quantifier of a healthy workplace is when employees are eager to recommend it to their friends and family. And, of course, studies linking employee wellness to greater productivity and enhanced performance are virtually endless.
Even though most leaders have good intentions regarding employee wellness, programs that require funding are beholden to business cases like any other initiative. For instance, 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. Yet, many employers struggle to fund wellness programs that seem to come “at the cost of the business.” What advice do you give other organizations and leaders who feel stuck between intention and impact?
This is still a bit of a conundrum for us, so I can certainly identify with that stuck feeling. We don’t have the great, one-size-fits-all wellness program we’d love to have, partly because many of our site workers receive union benefits. It’s also a struggle to price contracts competitively, and frontline benefits and wages are determined contract by contract depending on the client and site. However, we work hard to do all we can and have been able to find healthcare insurance plans that promote our exempt employees’ physical and mental well-being. It is one of the reasons that we consider our supervisors exempt. Most of our competitors consider their supervisors nonexempt, hourly workers, so they don’t have to provide benefits. But to me, these are our future leaders; why wouldn’t we want to start them off right and do all we can for them? So, when our employees become supervisors, they get a full-time salary and all benefits. It costs us more, but I believe it is worth it. Another thing we do that I would recommend other leaders do is offer a 401K. We were one of the first in our industry to do so. When the founder first asked how much it would cost for us to match the employee contributions and heard the figure, he said, “That’s a lot of money.” But we went ahead. It now costs us four times what we thought it would, but we see this as a good thing. It means we have grown and have more people making good money. The other thing we try to do is keep the percentage our employees have to contribute to healthcare affordable. Their share is much less than the market, especially for family coverage.
Speaking of money matters, a recent Gallup study reveals employees of all generations rank well-being as one of their top three employer search criteria. How are you incorporating wellness programs into your talent recruitment and hiring processes?
I just hired an executive assistant this week. To help me answer this question and see what we might be doing right, I asked what attracted her to Servicon. She said she watched some of the videos on our website and was impressed that all the workers genuinely seemed to enjoy their work and talked about how much they felt the management cared about them and what a great place it was to work. When my assistant came into the office for interviews, she said everyone was so nice and professional, and it seemed like it would be easy working with them. It was music to my ears as we strive to create this culture of caring and safety that elicits a sense of well-being, which we promote. I believe in the old “actions speak louder than words.” There is no better way to incorporate wellness into our recruitment and hiring practices than to show it in action.
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. A major thing we implemented is holding quarterly town hall mental wellness meetings. They are led by a licensed therapist who was in private practice for over thirty-five years and operated a peer support program for 20 years. The sessions cover topics such as common signs of mental health issues and how to get help, technology and mental health, and how a current crisis can cause a person to re-experience past trauma. We also realized the positive impact of increased communication on mental health during a crisis. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we sent out emails and other communications to ensure our employees and customers had the most up-to-date information to help them make the best choices and alleviate the stress of finding the latest, verified information. We also look for and share resources after crises and post resources on our Facebook page, which focuses on keeping our employees informed. As a result, we have found our employees trust that we care about them and their mental health and are here to help. Many employees have thanked us for our efforts.
Emotional wellness. We’ve implemented what we call “Focus Fridays,” where we don’t have meetings to allow people to get their work done. It helps alleviate stress because they know they have this time available to work on varying projects. We also have flexible schedules and remote work. At the start of the pandemic, we worked swiftly to set up our various departments to enable them to continue to operate remotely with minimal disruption. Within the first six months, we created a remote work policy to alleviate the stress caused by uncertain boundaries of what is acceptable for employees working from home.
Social wellness. We do a lot of team building, friendly competitions, and volunteer work. For example, on August 6th, Servicon Cares and our employees are teaming up with L.A. Works to co-host an event to help the homeless. Numerous studies show that nothing lifts mood more than the opportunity to help others. Also, we have a 96% vaccination rate. We gave away $500,000 in incentive money, but we also credit this high rate to our motivational interviewing. Rather than bombarding employees with facts and statements about why they should get vaccinated, we asked questions like what might make them consider getting vaccinated and what they would look forward to if they were vaccinated, such as getting together for holidays or seeing parents and grandbabies. We listened to the answers and their concerns and shared our own. For example, my son has a lot of allergies. I talked about how we had to speak with his doctor and weigh the pros and cons of vaccination vs. its potential effect on him and how we concluded he was more at risk from COVID than the vaccine.
Physical wellness. This one is easy since it’s what Servicon does. We create healthy environments for people to thrive. We keep our clients’ facilities safe, clean, and healthy and use the greenest products possible while specializing in infection prevention. Servicon creates this same safe, healthy environment for our employees. Our facility is LEED-Platinum certified, and we are Cleaning Industry Management Standard for Green Buildings (CIMS-GB) certified. Our HEPA air purification system and filters ensure the best indoor air quality possible. We practice what we preach and ensure our employees know it to feel comfortable and safe in their work environment.
Financial wellness: We offer 401K sessions to educate employees and ensure they know their options for saving for retirement. This year, through our philanthropic arm, Servicon Cares, we are kicking off our annual scholarship program that provides eight scholarships of $2,500 to employees and their family members. We also hope to offer our employees financial literacy courses down the road.
Can you please tell us more about some specific ways workplaces would benefit from investing in your ideas above to improve employee wellness?
Companies can benefit in many ways, including increased employee loyalty, engagement, and productivity; lower employee turnover; reduced recruitment, hiring, and training costs; and more experienced staff. These benefits produce a happier workforce, a healthier and more inclusive work culture, increased margins, and an enhanced public image. One of the most significant impacts is to your employer brand, which is so critical given the current employment market.
How are you reskilling leaders in your organization to support a “Work Well” culture?
Honestly, we haven’t had to “reskill” our leaders. We have always hired and promoted individuals who share our values, especially when it comes to “doing right” by our people. As a leading healthcare EVS provider, in addition to infection prevention and cleanliness, we have always emphasized the importance of compassion and conducted empathy training that applies to our employees and not just our customers. However, we are telling our leaders the №1 concern should be their wellness and the wellness of their reports. We are encouraging our leaders to be especially vigilant, and if they see someone struggling to ask how they are doing and encourage them to talk and get help, especially about their mental health.
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?
Start the conversation. In these turbulent times, it is especially crucial to talk about mental health. Work to destigmatize it and provide education for those employees whose families have never experienced mental health issues. Talk about how no one gets out of this life without challenges, and mental health is one for many, whether clinical or circumstantial. If you see signs of someone struggling, encourage them to talk about it and get help. A healthy well environment requires employees feel safe and comfortable, especially when facing a challenge.
What are your “Top 5 Trends to Track in the Future of Workplace Wellness?”
Cleaning frequency. You can’t have wellness without a clean environment. To provide a healthy work environment, you must clean and disinfect for infection prevention, increase the frequency of cleaning, and use green cleaning products. People often don’t take proper care of their indoor environments and wonder why their workers get sick. If you dust and vacuum once a quarter, you can’t breathe well or have good indoor air quality (IAQ). You must practice infection prevention by cleaning and disinfecting the entire facility, not just the restrooms, to prevent COVID-19, colds, and the flu. There are many studies on the correlation between a clean environment and improved productivity, attendance, performance, morale, and the ability to learn. LEED, WELL, and other third parties can help validate your facility’s health and help employees feel physically safe in your work environment.
Communication. It can start with something as simple as asking people how they are doing — and listening to the answer. Of course, it’s a fine line between caring and prying into someone’s personal life. But I tell employees they don’t have to tell me what, but to let me know if something is happening in their lives that adversely affects them so we can arrange some time off for them or adjust their responsibilities. We are also adding questions concerning mental health to our employee engagement surveys. Talking more about mental health and overall wellness must be done more openly and frequently.
Destigmatizing. Along with having conversations, leaders need to help destigmatize mental health issues. They need to hold open discussions. For example, they need to reinforce the idea that a person with diabetes takes insulin and someone with clinical depression needs medication. I often have skip-level meetings to talk to team members and encourage them to talk about mental health. I also think it is critical for leaders to appropriately share some of their challenges so employees can understand that no one is perfect.
Design of spaces. Some people need quiet to work, so a workspace with all open spaces is not providing them with a safe environment. Others may require community spaces to do their best work. Future facilities should provide a variety of workspaces, and leaders must encourage employees to work in the environment that best suits them, whether a desk in an office or a couch in the lunchroom.
Insurance. As employers increasingly recognize the importance of mental health, they will demand more and better coverage for it. When our HR team renegotiates our health insurance, I make sure I am involved because the mental health portion is huge for me. Recently, our HR team was considering switching providers. We didn’t because I knew the potential provider may have lower pricing, but it was known for its poor mental health coverage. Many benefits departments are not accustomed to inquiring about mental health coverage. I believe it will be increasingly important for them to ask these questions and for insurance companies to respond accordingly.
What is your greatest source of optimism about the future of workplace wellness?
I am optimistic that the focus that started during the COVID-19 pandemic on clean, safe, healthy facilities — the keys to infection prevention and wellness — will continue. Our vision is to “create healthy environments for a better working future.” So, we are not just optimistic; we are betting our future on it.
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?
I’d love to stay connected and hear from your readers. I encourage them to visit our website, www.servicon.com, connect with me on LinkedIn, and follow us on Facebook.
Thank you for sharing your insights and predictions. We appreciate the gift of your time and wish you continued success and wellness.