Well-being means something different to every individual. For Ebony David, VP of HR at Quest Diagnostics, a medical laboratories company, sitting is the new smoking. “[At Quest] we put a meeting in the calendar, tell everyone to put their AirPods in and take a walk,” said David.

David and four other executive panelists spoke about “Focusing on Well-Being to Evolve Your Employee Value Proposition,” at From Day One’s Brooklyn conference, in a session moderated by Lydia Dishman, senior editor at Fast Company. 

Jim Gallic, SVP of well-being at Personify Health, a healthcare solutions provider, has a similar approach. “I work from home, and at the end of the day, I get out, walk around the yard or block, and come back through a different door,” he said. “That’s the break between home life and work life.” 

In a similar fashion, Ivelesse Mendez-Justiniano, chief DEI and Learning officer at NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest public healthcare system in the United States, follows the company-wide wellness initiatives: this month, it’s adaptive yoga; last month, it was plant-based eating. 

On the eating front, Katie Egan, general manager of DoorDash for Business, a food delivery and logistics platform, treasures the $20 credit for lunch: she places the order on her way to work, since she is usually booked in back-to-back meetings. “My lunch comes at 10:45—I get up at 5, and I am starving by 11:30, so then I grab my food between meetings, and I am not hangry, which makes me a better boss,” she tells Dishman. 

Ralph Nader, SVP and U.S. Head of Talent at IPG Media Brands, a global media and marketing services company, thinks that the flexibility behind the return-to-office policies adopted by his organization has been most helpful.

Well-Being at Work Trends

It’s disheartening that, four years after Covid spotlighted burnout and lack of motivation, we’re still navigating how to address these challenges. Yet, research from Gallup and SHRM shows that prioritizing well-being can boost productivity, enhance retention, and reduce absenteeism and healthcare costs. 

While Covid has been the greatest disruptor when it comes to talking about employee well-being, the conversation has evolved significantly in the last four years as well. “In terms of overall trends, if we look back to 2019, well-being used to be the doorknob conversation; now it’s the starting point,” says Gallic.

Smart Spending

A key component is smart personalization. “How do I make it really personal: we did a lot of spending as organizations during the Covid years trying to figure out what worked and didn’t work. Exiting that, we said ‘it might be time to simplify things. How can we consolidate?’” said Gallic.

“When it comes to spending money, we all have less to spend,” acknowledges David. “We all put our money where our mouth is,” she said, referring to their 2023 initiative that resulted in employees being able to get mental-health help in one hour if they’re in crisis and one week if they’re not in crisis.

“People needed the benefit: when people were calling [to get mental-health services], they were put on hold, so you had people, if not in crisis, nearing it. It’s paying for itself,” she said, framing it as ROI.

Mendez-Justiniano speaks in similar terms, with an emphasis on entry-level employees. “We started funding them through education—in the last year, we’ve been able to impact individuals at the very low end of the salary range, and we mentored these individuals, supported them in education, and the results are showing,” she said. “We had service aides that are now nurses, going from $40,000 to six figures. What’s best for the employee is going to have an ROI on our system.”

Wellness in an Era of Return to Office

Very early on in Covid, IPG Media Brands took the anxiety out of return-to-office policies, tabling the conversation altogether until at least 2021. “Then we really focused on the listening, asking what’s going to work, what’s not going to work,” said Nader. Different branches have different needs: tech-centric departments can thrive in remote workspaces, whereas client-services employees might itch to go back to the office.

“It was a guideline, not a policy—if it’s enforced with the keycard, it reduces flexibility.” They landed on three days at the office. “We’re hearing from competitors who are going with five days at the office, losing their employees, who are coming to us looking for employment and flexibility.”

“Mandates don’t work,” said Gallic. “It did not work when your parents told you to clean your room. What we’re seeing now—employers need to have that conversation, almost leader by leader, to see what works best: let’s be flexible for the work, let’s be empathetic, and let’s make it work.” As a result, his organization’s employees are clamoring for off-sites at their office locations in Providence and Minneapolis.

Courageous Conversation

There are a number of best practices for leaders to foster a culture of well-being, and they start with conversations. “Honestly, get to know your team first—being in person helps for that. It does not take a lot of listening to get a sense of someone,” says Egan. “You’re building a product, I am building a program, and the best practices for doing that are the same best practices for a product team.” She recommends defining goals, testing, and iterating. “If it does not work, try something else. That requires a strong degree of collaboration.”

Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.