Shared experiences are proven to increase self-esteem and decrease depression, anxiety and isolation — something the past two years has bolstered and something a recession will only fuel.
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 Robyn Duda.
Robyn is an award-winning event strategist, experience designer and thought-leader who has created event strategies for some of the most recognized brands in the world including Coca-Cola, Spotify, Visa and IBM. Known for thinking different and creating bold change, her work inspires, innovates and harnesses growth for her clients.
She is the founder of RDC, an event management firm, and the Change the Stage Initiative which looks to elevate underrepresented voices in events. Prior to her entrepreneurial adventures, Robyn was an executive at event giant UBM (now Informa) leading and reinventing experience design across the world. With a vision for reinventing the future of experience in ways that lead to long term success, Robyn has been requested to speak all over the world.
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.
My “mic drop out of corporate America” moment happened in 2017.
I was traveling around the world nonstop and working multiple time zones when home. While physically exhausted, the more taxing obstacle was the demotivating nature of never having the resources I needed to do the job to the best of my ability. Coupled with achieving growth through cost management, no budget for innovation and a team holding on by a thread, I was frustrated, unappreciated and really tired.
As a top performer who raised her hand for everything since learning the alphabet, a bit of this was likely my fault in wanting to overachieve. My attitude toward my work wasn’t going to change though — I loved what I was doing.
It was time to go out on my own and start something where I owned my time and could create values to ensure my work meant something to me. You know, the “do it my way” approach which is the opposing attitude of a publicly traded company. I never felt so aligned to my needs as I did when I made this decision. The weight lifted off my shoulders immediately.
When I resigned letting them know I was going to start my own event strategy business, my boss suggested I wasn’t thinking straight and that I should take a leave of absence before doing something rash as though it was unthinkable to leave. I’m sure his intentions had my best interest in mind; however, it served as my moment of clarity that companies only love you back when you are about to make things harder for them. It was also clear that I needed to be in a flexible environment where I can do work in sprints then rest as necessary.
Reflecting back on the past several years of having my business, work looks very different for me now. I’ve tried to create an environment with these key themes in mind:
- Not everyone is productive and creative during the hours of 9–5 or during that 60 minute brainstorm you schedule. Space and freedom can create even better results because work looks different on everyone.
- I realized that being busy doesn’t equal being important.
- Having a clear set of values keeps me focused and inspired.
- Creating shared experiences outside of the office is highly motivating when created properly.
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?
To me, wellness points to connection. We’ve seen lots of examples of a person feeling more satisfied, more fulfilled, when they are connected to a goal or mission, a group of people or even to an idea. And when a person is satisfied and when they feel like they are doing something that matters they are much more likely to experience happiness. What’s more, they are also more likely to do things well.
My organization is in the business of connection — to people, to ideas and to thinking differently. We work with organizations to improve their employee experience through creating moments where employees can connect deeper with the company’s mission, foster inspiration and boost innovation. Shared experiences are proven to increase self-esteem and decrease depression, anxiety and isolation — something the past two years has fueled heavily. If the great resignation is telling us anything, it’s that companies are missing the mark on connecting to their employees right now. Remote work on the rise will only continue this disconnect. While it’s only one part of employee experience, we believe the mental benefits of retreats and offsite are well worth the cost when executed properly.
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?
I haven’t come across a truly, well-rounded way of measurement yet. Sure, organizations look to profits, output and retention, but they don’t tell the full story.
I believe we should be looking at what I would like to call the “Return on Energy.” Think about the time spent in meetings, number of emails, drafts of presentations and the toll it takes on an employee. But also, (and likely more important) the number of moments that elicit epiphanies, deepen connections and even uncover innovations — the more motivating moments. I’m confident there is a diminishing return when the toll outweighs the motivation. I think that is where we need to be looking versus an EOY result.
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?
I think you hit the nail on the head — there has to be an intention. A goal is a desired outcome you wish to achieve. For most organizations, it’s higher productivity leading to growth alongside lower retention
An intention is a chosen theme that allows you to create alignment by working toward that goal. It should be to motivate talent and serve their needs.
The outcome is essentially the same. It just tends to be a more authentic approach, and oftentimes creates space for unseen successes.
Many organizations create wellness initiatives to mask the real problem. The workforce at large is overworked, underequipt and rarely compensated fairly. These are all massive stressors. You can have all the mental health support in the world and it doesn’t fix the issues at hand: the individual feeling valued.
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.
We recently launched a product around invigorating the old, stale corporate offsite.
My team and I were on an inspiration roadtrip in Utah last year — breathing in the fresh air on hikes, visiting local businesses and working on shared goals together both in a professional and in a personal sense. We had some of the best ideation sessions just driving from location to location. The concept of looking at things from a different perspective weighed heavily on us.
That’s when it dawned on me, every company is facing this same challenge right now: remote workers and the employee experience.
As someone who created event strategies for some of the biggest brands in the world based on a proprietary methodology of design used to increase customer engagement resulting in revenue growth, the product was clear. Revamp the boring offsite to accommodate today’s modern worker using that same methodology.
We specialize in the design of intimate executive retreats and team gatherings under 500 people. Our goal is to create moments that inspire connection to the company, their peers and a greater sense of pride in their work.
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?
Creating environments and experiences where workers feel valued by their employers will be an important factor in top talent retention and motivating current talent. “The Financial Impact of a Positive Employee Experience” report shows up to 3x higher return on assets and twice the return on sales when employee experience is excellent.
Shared experiences are proven to increase self-esteem and decrease depression, anxiety and isolation — something the past two years has bolstered and something a recession will only fuel.
Without moments of deep connection leading to a sense of belonging and acceptance, employees will become unmotivated. The problem is they will have a harder time finding new work during the recession. This will cause a decline in productivity, damage customer experience and breed resentment throughout the company.
Companies not focusing on fostering connection through experiences could lose.
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?
In order to get started you first need to understand the needs, challenges and fears of your talent. The answers vary greatly from entry level to upper management. Anonymous surveys, roundtable-like gatherings and pulse surveys can help uncover what’s really happening. From there, you can begin to make small environmental adjustments. I would also suggest transparency throughout the process to ensure your employees know action is being taken.
What are your “Top 5 Trends To Track In the Future of Workplace Wellness?”
While I’m not sure I can call out five specific trends, I do think you’re going to see a lot more education around mental health and burnout in the workplace as well as hopefully more organizations creating personalized support for their employees to best support their needs. For example, an employee who suffers from depression may need very different support than a new parent or a person just as an overachiever looking to develop skills will require different information than a person looking to change roles completely. The idea here is to enable employees while having personalized support options.
What is your greatest source of optimism about the future of workplace wellness?
The call for more compassionate, empathic leaders along with an increase in diversity at the top keeps me optimistic. Although corporate America has a long way to go with equality in business, more positions are being filled with a diverse leadership. The more the c-suite and board understands the many different types of people that work for them, the more they will invest in designing an optimal employee experience representative of all talent. Change has to come from the top.
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?
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Thank you for sharing your insights and predictions. We appreciate the gift of your time and wish you continued success and wellness.