What does well-being mean to you? The standard six pillars of well-being are emotional, physical, financial, social, intellectual, and spiritual. Each one complements and impacts the other, and the most forward-thinking companies are careful to include each in their employee benefits package.

Traditionally, employers viewed well-being through the lens of physical health and its impact on productivity. Today, the scope has widened, encompassing mental health, financial security, and social connections, in the context of hybrid and remote work as well as in-office. As this thinking evolves, how are leaders assessing the points where employers can be most effective–and how are they aligning those needs with new solutions? As workplace culture becomes a key driver of well-being, how are companies ensuring their efforts foster a sense of belonging for all employees?

The key to an effective benefits plan is understanding how each pillar of well-being impacts the other, shared panelists at From Day One’s LA conference. “When you consider well-being, always remember it’s not one silo or one category. It’s about taking a holistic approach to well-being,” said Bernie Knobbe, head of global benefits & well-being at AECOM.

Your approach should also be intentional. “Ambiguity kills culture and when you think about well-being and how people flourish in the workplace, if you don’t know why you do what you do and how it fits into the bigger picture, then you’ve got a very little chance of flourishing,” said Matt Jackson, GM & VP, Americas at Unmind. Holistic refers not only to the intersection of the pillars, but of the offering themselves. Vendors should work together to accomplish this, Jackson says.

Creating a Space That Embraces Wellness

All panelists emphasized the importance of leadership buy-in to make a wellness program thrive. “Employees look to their managers for guidance and encouragement. So, you have to get those managers to buy into this concept in order for it to be successful. It shouldn’t be top-down… it should be middle forward,” Knobbe said. “Make sure you’re reaching everybody, and that it’s consistent.”

Wellness can be a sensitive topic, but companies like BuzzFeed have created “safe spaces for employees to be able to share what they need for their physical and mental health,” said moderator Pamela Avila, entertainment editor at USA Today. Buzzfeed offers panel presentations, wellness fairs to highlight current resources, and manager dens for frank conversations on relevant current events. The company also tailors its offerings depending on role and department.

“We also try to identify what different teams and different levels of our employee population need,” said Chandler Bondan, chief people officer at BuzzFeed. For example, those covering tough news topics might need additional mental health support. And honoring the lifestyles and values of a diverse workforce is key. Bondan shares that Buzzfeed ended a contract last year with its insurance provider due to its restrictions on IVF and LGBTQIA+ care, opting for “a carrier that would be more inclusive of our population.”

Leveraging employee resource groups can be a pathway to making well-being offerings more inclusive. Jackson shares how Major League Baseball initially had an individual mental health ERG but found that it was more effective to have mental health integrated into all its other groups instead. “If you can talk about mental health in the context of how you experience life across those different ERGs, it’s going to resonate and have a much greater impact,” Jackson said. ERG’s are also “a great employee listening tool” to see which benefits are working, and which are not, he says.

Well-Being as Company Culture

More and more, company culture is becoming a driving factor behind not only employee retention but also overall business success. “FOX Sports is a household name. But we’re no longer getting people because of just our brand. It’s really [about the philosophy,]” said Kim Beauvais, EVP, HR & business operations, FOX Sports. For Beauvais’ organization, offering an inclusive wellness benefits package helps build a culture of psychological safety, and therefore, risk-taking. “We believe it’s okay to fail, it’s okay to try things,” she said. “And listen, we’re not curing cancer. We’re putting on sports TV! It should be fun. It should be fulfilling. There should be a purpose in what you’re doing. And you should feel like it’s a fun place to come to work.”

Culture needs to be cultivated with intention, especially when employees are being asked to return to the office at least some of the time. You don’t want all employees to feel forced to return only to continue to stare at a screen. “We have to help people feel connected when they’re back in the office, so that they have a sense for being there,” said Jack Schutzbach, VP, HR, Americas, Groupe SEB.

Understanding Your Workforce

Especially in large corporations, well-being offerings should speak to employees’ unique lifestyles and work situations, Beauvais says, citing different needs like childcare, at-home work set ups, physical labor vs. desk jobs, etc. “The shift that we had to make over the last five years was that empathetic leadership, that empathetic philosophy that not every employee is created equal. We have multiple buckets and types of employees, [and] their situations are all very different,” she said. HR leaders need to be visible among employees, listen to their needs, market current benefits, and carefully investigate potential offerings to make sure they are viable for the current workforce.

And always remember that generally, use of benefits can be confusing or stressful to employees. “We try to make exceptions where we can, to make sure that it’s an easy part of someone’s day, not a hard part. Being as flexible as possible is a good [idea],” Bondan said.

“The role of the HR business partner is changing,” Beauvais added, so that it’s less about enforcing rules and more about providing support and care so employees can stay healthy and productive. “Being a part of their world and understanding what they’re going through, so that they do lean on you in those moments that they wouldn't normally reach out to you, is really important,” she said.

Understanding Your Role in the Process

Ultimately, you must remember that as HR you are in a people-first business. “One of my favorite sayings is, ‘We’re human resources. Human is our first name. Resources is our last name.’ Our customers are our resources, and we’re responsible for the human side of our business. So, we add value when we do that,” Knobbe said. “And ROI–it’s both ‘return on investment’ and ‘return on individual.’ If you can get your programs and your communications right, people feel like it's about them, not just about whatever it is they’re trying to accomplish.”

Jackson shares there are three layers of well-being benefits: organization, interpersonal, and individual. For years, HR was mostly just focused on the individual, emphasizing personal resilience and being reactive to problems after they occur. In today’s workplace, that’s no longer enough.

“What’s your responsibility as an employer? The organizational layer is all about how you want to talk about mental health. How do you want to talk about culture? How do you want to talk about well-being? How do you set the right tone for the rest of the organization?” Jackson said.

The structural elements should be supporting your company values, be it mental health benefits, fertility benefits, parental leave or more. And manager training should incorporate these values, teaching how to be “empathetic leaders that create mentally healthy environments,” Jackson said. “If you are intentional and look across how you run your organization from a well-being, benefits, and culture perspective, and assess at each of those three levels, that’s a good starting place to think about what you need to do to create that mentally healthy environment.”

Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.