Saying goodbye to sedentary workplaces. Leveraging active design and active furnishings, paired with a culture of movement, encourages people to stay moving throughout the day. Physical inactivity is a global public health challenge. About 25% of adults and 80% of children do not achieve the recommended levels of physical activity. Minimizing sedentary behavior can reduce the risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, cancer and other health issues.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Rachel Hodgdon, President and CEO, International WELL Building Institute (IWBI).
As the President and CEO of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), Rachel Hodgdon leads a movement to advance human health and well-being through better buildings, more vibrant communities and stronger, more equitable organizations. Her motto is “Always be winning for good,” and she’s put that to work at IWBI, developing research-backed tools to help organizations create places where people can thrive. Today, these people-first places extend across 3.7 billion square feet of space in 111 countries and benefit more than 17 million people.
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.
There was a time in my career when working was all I did. If there was a deadline I worked until it was done. I worked weekends and didn’t take vacations. I skipped meals and yoga classes, something I really love. When I started observing that my team was exhibiting all the signs of burnout, I suddenly realized they were modeling my behavior. They didn’t think I meant it and didn’t think I was being authentic when I was saying rest and recharge to them, and I was doing everything but that. So I slowly began to change my behavior — taking those breaks, taking time to refresh and revive. It didn’t take long for the benefits of doing that to begin showing up in my own work, my own energy levels, my own productivity. And when the team began to see that I was committed to being authentically well, they began to change their behavior, too.
At IWBI I’m now steeped in all of the literature and the science behind why it’s so critical that we break up our days, take rest on the weekends, and take vacations throughout the year. Now it all makes sense, but I needed to get there. There was a time when I wasn’t able to give that gift to myself, but I could be motivated by a desire to give that gift to my team. And in doing so, it changed my outlook on what’s required for me to be the best leader that I can be and what teams need in order to feel that they have permission to take care of their own health and well-being.
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?
At IWBI, we prefer the term well-being instead of wellness because it encompasses the emotional, physical and psychological health, whereas wellness typically refers to physical health only. Well-being is not a single metric. Rather, it can be gauged from a whole host of different metrics, and because of that many employers perceive that well-being is hard to measure. It turns out that many employers are already measuring aspects of well-being. For instance, Net Promoter Scores, turnover and retention rates, sick days and health care costs are all metrics that reflect aspects of well-being across an organization. To help demystify these metrics, IWBI released 12 Competencies for Measuring Health and Well-being for Human and Social Capital. Our next step is to convene a community of experts to populate a catalog of metrics that can be utilized by organizations of every shape and size, from every sector.
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?
Many metrics can be directly correlated to a business’s bottom line. For instance, the cost of recruiting and training a new employee is more expensive than retaining an existing one. Sick days, health care costs, turnover — all these things are really easy to quantify. A recent survey by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that the average cost of recruiting per hire is just over $4,000 and that on average it costs a company 6 to 9 months of an employee’s salary to replace him or her. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that productivity losses linked to absenteeism cost employers $225.8 billion annually in the United States, or $1,685 per employee.
Other things can be quantified, but may be more difficult, such as the cost of the mental health burden on employers. Because of COVID-19, loss of life among friends and loved ones, fear of contracting the virus, concern about economic security and the effects of isolation and loneliness have all taken a toll on the mental health of the population. The proportion of US adults who report symptoms of depression or anxiety has averaged approximately 40% since April 2020; the comparable figure in early 2019 was 11%. Since the start of the pandemic, most employers have spent more money for treatment of mental health concerns than for treatment of COVID-19.
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?
The greatest cost to businesses is doing nothing. There are many workplace programs and interventions that are low or no cost and acts of prevention tend to be much less costly than acts of treatment. Investing in the health and well-being of our workforce is the same as investing in the health and well-being of the business as a whole. And that’s especially true when it comes to investing in employees’ mental health. And executives think things are better than they really are. A recent Deloitte whitepaper noted that while 84% of C-suite execs said they thought their workers were thriving from a mental health perspective, only 59% of employees rated their own mental health as “excellent” or “good.”
A lot of employers believe that they can simply purchase an off-the-shelf offering to improve their employees’ well-being. And yes, some of those offerings can be expensive, like coverage for gym memberships or offering wellness programming from third parties throughout the day. Many of these offerings are also underutilized by employees, as low as 15% due to factors such as low awareness and access. The best way to build an effective workplace wellness offering is to right-size it for the people working within your organization. And that begins by asking your employees what they want. At IWBI, we use simple surveys and polls to get a pulse on what our employees will find most valuable. This allows us to choose both impactful programs that are well-attended and benefits that are broadly utilized.
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? 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:
We offer Mental Health First Aid training to all our employees and make it mandatory for all our managers. We want to equip our team with the tools to identify when someone is having a mental health challenge or crisis and feel equipped to take the necessary steps to assist that person in getting the help and the services that they need. Many of us (myself included) have already been able to put our new skills into action, both within and outside of the workplace.
- Emotional Wellness:
At IWBI, we aspire to function as a strengths-based organization. Every employee takes the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment and then presents their top five strengths to the broader organization during our weekly meeting. When we know one another’s strengths and how our strengths work in combination, we can better understand the kinds of incentives that fuel them, the kinds of work that motivates them and the kinds of tasks that energize them. When a person’s job description is a right fit for their strengths and passions and when individuals feel that they have purpose in their workday, it has a profound impact on their emotional well-being. Throughout the Great Resignation, IWBI has seen low rates of turnover and, while it’s difficult to pin down why, I do believe our strengths-based approach means we have a higher rate of people who love their jobs.
- Social Wellness:
Evidence shows that when we help others, it benefits our own health and well-being. For example, giving back can reduce stress as well as improve mood, self-esteem and happiness.
Volunteering and helping others can give us a sense of belonging, help us make new friends and connect with our communities. Face-to-face activities, such as volunteering at a food bank, can also help reduce loneliness and isolation. IWBI offers every employee two volunteer paid days off a year and our head of workplace wellness organizes many opportunities for staff to volunteer. Last year, on Juneteenth, I took a boat to Governors Island with a handful of team members to help with conservation efforts on the island. Recently, we organized a trip back to the island to tend to the lavender fields.
- Physical Wellness:
Here’s a great example of something that employers can offer employees at no cost — start a culture of encouraging walking meetings. Our office is across the street from Madison Square Park and many of us elect to take our meetings with other colleagues during a stroll through the park. Those that work remotely are also encouraged to take a call on the move. Additionally, we have a pet-friendly office. People who bring pets to work not only take more walks but are more likely to extend the benefits of dog ownership to the larger employee population through increased physical activity, as well as exposure to nature and a restorative break from work, all of which have abundant, positive health impacts.
- Financial Wellness:
We recognize that people who come to IWBI have varying degrees of financial literacy. So as part of our professional development program we offer workshops and lunch and learns on everything from financial planning to cryptocurrency. A big part of what employers can do is simply provide education.
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?
WELL is an evidence-based roadmap for putting people first and enhancing the health and well-being of the people within your organization. Organizations that participate in WELL see profound results. For instance, at the American Society of Interior Designers’ WELL Certified workspace in Washington, D.C., employee absenteeism dropped by 19% in just one year. At CBRE’s Toronto and Vancouver WELL Certified workspaces, total employee turnover fell by almost a third and the hiring rate for new talent doubled. Productivity rose by 30% at Landsec’s WELL Certified workplace in London.
Healthier spaces have a direct positive impact on the business. A recent MIT study notes that investing in healthier spaces can increase leasing rates between 4.4% and 7.7%. Average lease terms can increase from 75.3 months to 88.3 months and increase asset value by 7%. Kilroy’s WELL Certified Proper Residences in Hollywood experienced an 80% increase in leasing ratings in the first six months.
How are you reskilling leaders in your organization to support a “work well” culture?
One of my favorite vignettes from a book called Rework, by 37signals, is around culture. We often talk about creating culture, but ultimately “culture is the byproduct of consistent behavior.” What really drives a “work well” culture at IWBI is consistency. In every decision that we make, and every action that we take, we lean into our values and our fundamental belief that WELL organizations are high-performing organizations that attract and inspire high-performing employees.
One of the benefits of having a strong and thriving culture of health is that it becomes self-fulfilling. Our employees feel a sense of ownership around our culture. It isn’t driven from the top. It’s emulated every day by people at all levels of the organization. We make a point of celebrating compassion and empathy in action. It’s not enough to get the work done; how you get the work done is equally important.
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?
When it comes to well-being there is no “one size fits all.” You’ve got to be the right size to your organization’s unique goals. The WELL Standard contains hundreds of evidence-based interventions and we’ve made our standard and the detailed evidence that supports each strategy free and accessible to all. Contact us here to get started on your WELL journey.
What are your “Top 5 Trends to Track In the Future of Workplace Wellness?”
The explosive use of the WELL Standard worldwide is an overarching trend worth watching. It applies the science of how physical and social environments impact human health, well-being and performance. The standard is comprised of policy, operations and design strategies that are focused on how you can put health at the center of decision-making for your employees and your business.
Within WELL, five trends that stand out for me are:
- Saying goodbye to sedentary workplaces. Leveraging active design and active furnishings, paired with a culture of movement, encourages people to stay moving throughout the day. Physical inactivity is a global public health challenge. About 25% of adults and 80% of children do not achieve the recommended levels of physical activity. Minimizing sedentary behavior can reduce the risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, cancer and other health issues.
- Designing our workplaces by day so that people sleep better at night. Humans and animals have internal clocks that synchronize physiological functions on a roughly 24-hour cycle called the circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is synchronized with the natural day-night cycle through different environmental cues, the main cue being light. Disruption or desynchronization of the circadian rhythm has been linked with obesity, diabetes, depression and metabolic disorders. Daytime blue-enriched light exposure has been shown to not only reduce daytime sleepiness but also improve sleep quality at night. Delivering daylight directly to interior spaces, or mimicking daylight levels with indoor lighting, allows buildings to be able to deliver light that is optimal for the human body.
- Making free food healthy food. Many employers offer free food and beverages, but if they are not offering healthier choices, they may be hurting productivity. Cutting out sugars and trans fats in these offerings will nudge employees towards healthier choices both at work and at home. The consumption of added sugars is associated with weight gain, obesity, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, cavities and metabolic syndrome.
- Ensuring access to services is extended equally to remote employees. Employee education about health and health benefits is especially important to those working remotely. Health promotion and communication efforts tailored to specific audiences and their needs are the most effective. Workplaces can further support employees by encouraging them to utilize health-promoting amenities and consistently communicating opportunities that facilitate acting on that knowledge to engage in healthy behaviors.
- Optimizing and monitoring air quality as one of our best defenses in our ongoing fight against COVID-19. (Not to mention the common cold and seasonal flu). Increasing building ventilation rates by disabling or setting a minimum threshold for demand-control ventilation systems and running ventilation systems during periods of occupancy can help maximize clean indoor air. If recirculated air is used, using filters rated to remove PM2.5 or smaller (ideally HEPA) to help remove virus particles and maintaining them properly is key.
What is your greatest source of optimism about the future of workplace wellness?
Because of the pandemic, we now see near-universal awareness about the relationship between the health of people and the health of our businesses. When I started at IWBI more than five years ago, we were constantly challenged to prove the ROI of healthy building strategies in general and in WELL specifically. Today, very few people are asking those questions. Instead, they are simply asking us to show them the way. A silver lining of the pandemic is the much broader realization that when our people thrive, so too do our organizations.
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?
Thank you for sharing your insights and predictions. We appreciate the gift of your time and wish you continued success and wellness.