Making Health and Well-Being a Core Value at Work–for Real
BY Alexis Hauk February 25, 2023Just scroll through your Instagram feed for a couple minutes, and you’ll find more proof than ever that “wellness”–at least, as a trendy and perhaps oversaturated buzzword–is hot right now. In fact, “wellness” as a global industry is valued at around $1.5 trillion, according to McKinsey & Co., and it runs the gamut from skin-care products to exercise to diets. But when we talk about wellness in the workplace, how does this idea that’s fueling so much commercial investment translate into policies that could help our teams build meaningful careers? Ask some of today’s top leaders, and they see a difference between “wellness” in the mass-market sense and “well-being” as a factor that can have a significant impact on employee satisfaction and productivity. For Michael Jones, a VP of HR at Ricoh, the most significant distinction between wellness and well-being is that the latter is multidimensional–“much more of an ecosystem than one specific issue,” he said. Ivory Harris, global chief HR officer at AGCO, which manufactures farm equipment, said, “wellness sometimes connects to illness, and it feels like it’s your personal ownership, whereas well-being is more inclusive.” Jones and Harris were among the expert speakers on a panel about making health and well-being a core value in the workplace, part of From Day One’s Atlanta conference. Recent research from Gallup looked at what is generally considered the five key areas of well-being: career, social, financial, physical, and community. Taken all together, these equate to “living one’s best life.” But no one facet of well-being is enough to do all the work. To that end, Gallup found that, compared to the respondents who reported positive status in all five areas, those who were doing well only physically missed 68% more work due to health problems and were five times more likely to look for a new job next year. Unequivocally, a large facet of employee well-being is the ability to thrive by having enough time to relax and do non-work-related-things for fun without worrying, while earning enough money not to feel the need to work more than one job or commit massive amounts of overtime. The full panel, from left, David Malmborg of Nivati, Karen Fikse of Cummins, Kezios, Harris, Jones, and moderator Alexis Hauk To ensure that his team’s financial well-being is covered more comprehensively, Jones cited Ricoh’s robust employee assistance program (EAP), which helps employees proactively with resources that go beyond the typical salary and benefits. “We traditionally have said, ‘Hey, we have a great benefits package; here you are.’ Or, ‘Michael's walking out of the door; how can we stop him? Let's give him some more money.’ And I'm not dismissing any of those things. But we’re collectively bringing all of that to the table and saying, ‘Hey, this is the value we as an organization are bringing to you. These other components will make you feel great about the investments we as an organization are pouring into you.” This includes soliciting employee feedback about what challenges they’re currently facing and what they’re saving and investing in, like building a tuition fund for their kid or taking care of an elderly family member. “We’re building curriculums around that,” he said. In October last year, Harvard Business Review published the results of a deep dive into the benefits of investing in employees’ work-life balance and overall satisfaction–both monetarily and in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Their review of more than 800 U.S. companies across 30 years found that organizations offering substantial family-leave time, flexibility, and support for those raising kids “increased sales by 7% and labor productivity by 5%.” These companies also saw a significant increase in Black, Hispanic and Asian American managers, as well as white women managers. Feedback is critical to figuring out if your initiatives and programs are working, as Ted Kezios, VP of HR global benefits at Cisco Systems, can attest. At Cisco, they conduct a quarterly survey called “The Real Deal Survey,” which gets promoted widely across the company. It includes questions ranging from whether you’re getting enough sleep and whether you can ask for help to how happy you feel about the company mission and whether you feel your work is recognized. Then the results get crunched by Cisco’s data scientists to connect the well-being results with things like engagement and retention. “You’re taking the data and driving it into business value,” he said. With the data, “We’re able to set expectations with leaders on how they can better connect with their team, how you can better connect to the company strategy.” Well-being also needs to emanate from the top down, because if your CEO is sending you emails at 1 a.m., there’s a good chance an employee might feel pressure to be on all the time, too. Karen Fikse, senior director of HR at Cummins, the engine manufacturer, said the idea of leaders practicing what they preach formed the basis of her company's “It’s Okay” campaign, which provides managers with resources to process whatever they’re going through–be it anxiety, stress, pressure or hardship. Backstage, from left, panelists Kezios, Harris, Fikse, Jones, Hauk, and Malmborg “Managers are faced with some heavy issues, and they don’t [always] know how to deal with them. So, we have this website that they can go to and access these resources to help them navigate some of these very difficult waters,” she said. Setting boundaries with clients is also crucial. Ivory Harris of AGCO, a company that works with farmers–whose work for the most part never stops–said that the company engages several different strategies to prove that excellent customer service and caring for one’s employees do not need to be mutually exclusive. For one thing, she said, they proactively plan around the busier times of year that they can anticipate–like planting and harvest seasons–and then focus on making the times between those high-volume periods a time to reboot. AGCO also leverages the great global connector of technology, so in those off hours, “a farmer in Kentucky can get on the phone off-hours with an expert in Germany to talk about what’s happening and get some support to troubleshoot any type of challenges that they’re having,” she said. In other words, perhaps the future will entail setting up tools to help us when we can’t help ourselves. David Malmborg, VP of marketing and community at the mental-health platform Nivati, said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we get to that point where life boundaries are not only set by legislation, but also technologies like where your CIO can just put on a button and say, ‘Dump all the emails that get sent during off hours or over the weekend. There’s some exciting stuff that could come down from a technology standpoint to enforce boundaries because we humans cannot do it ourselves.” From a legislative perspective, of course, we may have some catching up to do here in the U.S. In 2022, European countries like Belgium and Portugal officially banned federally employed managers from contacting their reports outside working hours, citing the “right to disconnect.” Alexis Hauk is an Atlanta-based journalist and communications director whose work has appear in TIME, the Atlantic, Washington City Paper, Atlanta magazine, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among others. In addition to her freelance writing, she works full-time as communications director for Emory Heart & Vascular Center.
What Skills Will Your Workers Need Tomorrow? How to Stay Ahead
BY Alexis Hauk February 18, 2023Adaptability is just about everywhere you look–from our small screens, via the post-apocalyptic hit show The Last of Us, to the U.S. jobs market, where the shifts in how we work and what we need as employees have been almost as rapid as those fast-moving zombies on HBO. Take findings reported last year by Pew Research Center, which found that 59% of U.S. workers whose jobs can be done remotely were now working from home “all or most of the time.” Meanwhile, 57% of that same population said they had “rarely or never worked from home” before Covid-19 hit. Gregory Gary has witnessed this total transformation firsthand in his role as senior director of business at Broadleaf, a talent-management company that has been around for almost 60 years. “People are saying they want the flexibility and organizations are having to sit down and say, ‘What strategies do we have to attract talent and retain them?’” he said. Gary was part of panel of experts who spoke last month at From Day One’s Atlanta conference on the skills and competencies workforce leaders need to consider if they want to keep growing and advancing. Kicking off the conversation, panel moderator Carrie Teegarden, an investigative journalist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, acknowledged the dramatic changes seen across her own industry. Journalism is no stranger to being upended in the digital age. She shared an anecdote about how her son–now in college–was informed during freshman orientation that the jobs available in four years when he graduates may be completely different than what’s out there now. So it’s no wonder that the qualities you need to foster may go deeper than just the specific knowledge about, say, how to use Photoshop or put numbers into a spreadsheet. Who knows what platforms will be most widely in use by then? Confirming this trend, here’s what made Fast Company’s list of qualities to get hired in 2023: Curiosity, learning agility, and critical analysis. And Forbes? “Resilience and grit” and–you guessed it–the ability to roll with the punches. Also key are flexibility and empathy, said Katie Hall, founder and CEO of Claira, an AI-powered competency-analytics engine that helps organizations better understand their employees and hire more precisely. For Hall, the ability to measure these so-called “soft skills” is something that will help companies find the employees they need in an unpredictable world. Many of the competencies that companies have used in the past to assess their hires are old and outdated. Before she started Claira, Hall worked for a decade in workforce-development across the country, in cities like Detroit and New Orleans. In one instance, a manufacturing company she had as a client said they wanted to create more opportunities for promotion among current employees. However, that internal hiring process kept getting stuck because of dusty old, one-size-fits-all standards. As new platforms continue to surface, said Weintraub, new roles will also appear–probably “15 new jobs in my division within a year that don’t exist today” One such client, a logistics company in Michigan, would go on to hire 25 of the 35 people that Hall sent them–without requiring degrees or resumes–because they were willing to shift their view on the competencies actually needed for the job, the majority of which those hirees possessed. “Competencies are a way to level the playing field,” Hall said, adding that often retention and diversity increase. And then there’s technology, that most feared and celebrated of topics in the working world. Jodi Weintraub, global chief people officer for GroupM Nexus, pointed out that the work she’s doing for her company now, placing ads on Meta platforms worldwide, literally “didn’t exist before the social-media platforms everyone interacts with today.” As new platforms continue to surface, new roles will also appear–probably “15 new jobs in my division within a year that don’t exist today,” she said. At the same time, it’s also crucial to retain the core of what you do, and the humanness of it, according to Chris Bartlett, VP of HR, people and culture at United Parcel Service, who has worked for the company for three decades. He pointed out that, for his team, “the pandemic did not shut down business. Hundreds of employees went out every day and delivered. For the first time, many people may have learned the first name of their UPS driver.” “We always know we’re working toward these ideals, these goals, making sure our customers are served,” Bartlett said. “As we work through a sea of change, we have this north star.” Data, technology and AI are “like anything in this world–you need a balanced approach,” said Gregory Gary. “Tech and AI are not going away any time soon. The focus needs to be on strategies you’re going to put in place.” Debbie Morris, senior director of talent management of Newell Brands, which makes everything from Sharpies to Elmer’s Glue, said it’s also a matter of owning the responsibility for implementing data processes and knowing why you’re doing it. “If you’re going to be data-driven, there are things you have to put in place. Everyone must buy into it. You have to have employees who see movement in what is important to them today,” she said. “I’m not going to allow you to wait on data to have a conversation with your employees about their careers. You don’t need data to have a fruitful conversation.” That sentiment goes for hiring, too–especially with who’s writing job descriptions and how we’re using data to inform our searches for talent. As Gary points out, “You have to be deliberate to attract diverse talent. Women only apply to things that they feel like they meet 75% of the job description. Men, because we’re men, will apply to anything.” There is some evidence that women are more selective than men in applying for jobs, though the reasons vary. Morris added that you can spend all your budget on building out programs and processes at your company, but without a strong culture and robust communication, and time investment with your teams, these newfangled tools won’t fix anything. And perhaps that’s good news for us humans–that the rich qualities that make us people are the same ones that may keep us progressing, and finding meaning, in our careers. Alexis Hauk is an Atlanta-based journalist and communications director whose work has appear in TIME, the Atlantic, Washington City Paper, Atlanta magazine, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among others. In addition to her freelance writing, she works full-time as communications director for Emory Heart & Vascular Center.
How to Bond With Your Workers Through Social Impact
BY Alexis Hauk March 31, 2022Long before the creation of the office, PowerPoint slides and whiteboards, humans have sought to express the meaning of their pursuits and surroundings. Those cave paintings created thousands of years ago, after all, celebrated scenes from the business of hunting and gathering. Now, in modern times, the workplace remains a place where people want to feel purpose and express truth in their lives. As ever, employees want to do more than show up and earn a paycheck. They’re looking for a way to contribute meaningfully. This fact came fully into focus during the Covid-19 pandemic and the Great Resignation. And it touches on something that researcher and author Brené Brown calls “operationalizing your values.” Rick Kearney, the chief operating officer at Rise Against Hunger, knows a thing or two about that kind of purpose-driven work. His nonprofit carries out its mission to provide nourishment and support to communities facing food crises worldwide. The group helps about 2.8 million people every year through international relief efforts in areas like Mali and Zimbabwe, and more recently with Ukrainian refugees. Kearney, who spoke on a panel of experts on “Recruiting and Retaining Workers Through Social Impact” at From Day One’s recent Atlanta conference, has seen the positive results of plugging staff and volunteers into the soul-satiating work of helping others–but high morale doesn’t just come from impressive stats. Rather, what drives the people who work at Rise Against Hunger, Kearney said, is “something that they can take from their heart to their head, from passion to purpose, to feel that their efforts resulted in something significant.” In other words: Tangible results from tangible actions that an individual can track and connect with. Of course, you don’t need to work at a nonprofit to feel good about what you do. Whether you’re leading a Fortune 500 company, launching a foundation, or simply looking for ways to do more than merely clock in and out, social impact in the working world takes many forms. The panel discussion, which I moderated, produced some rules of thumb to keep in mind. Matching Why You Care with What You Do Julia Levy, the head of global talent acquisition at CommScope, joined the communications-technology company in 2019, right as the company was rolling out its refreshed mission and values statements. Those took on a new urgency during the pandemic, she said, as the company ramped up its mission to “connect the unconnected,” when everything, from schools to meetings, had gone virtual. Cummings said her company sought to address food insecurity and homelessness Likewise, when Ayanna Cummings, Ph.D., joined Compass Group in 2020 as director of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, she immediately spearheaded an effort to identify, through polls and discussions with employees, which social-impact partners they most wanted to focus on. Food and housing seemed like a good fit, given that Compass is one of the largest hospitality and food-service companies in the world, Cummings said. “We would be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge that we have the capacity to do something with respect to food insecurity and homelessness. So, we added that to the list of places to reach out to and try to partner with.” As it turned out, these kinds of organizations were swamped with donation and volunteer requests already. So Compass pivoted its outreach and worked to support majority-BIPOC organizations in Seattle, Atlanta, Charlotte, Reno, and more–staying very much in the center of where the company and its employees’ priorities stood. Lynette Bell, president of the Truist Foundation, the charitable arm of the Charlotte-based banking company, said the company created a matching-gift program for employees, agreeing to meet every dollar the staff contributed to a nonprofit of their choosing. This program resulted in $1.2 million in matched donations last year alone. Putting Away the Parachute One of the best ways to help a community? Listen to them. That’s what Bell has found works best. It’s also the most effective way to ensure that the effort sustains long-term. To that end, Bell said that Truist has hosted listening sessions with community-based organizations and nonprofits to gain insight into their needs. "Whether we were in Baltimore, Miami or Macon, we got to hear directly [and] meet them where they are versus coming in like, ‘Hey, we have a great idea how to fix this.’” That phenomenon of organizations swooping in to make some surface-level changes, then just as quickly exiting the scene, is often called “parachuting,” and it’s not an effective way to make a difference, Bell said. Addressing Racial Inequity In 2020, Corporate America made vast commitments in the wake of George Floyd’s murder to reduce racial and social inequities. However, in 2021, news organizations including Fortune reported that of the $50 billion pledged to racial justice by U.S. corporations, almost none of that promised funding had materialized. So when it comes to anti-racism work and addressing longstanding inequities, it’s vital that companies instill trust by turning their promises into concrete actions. Bell said that her foundation looked at how to “embed racial equity into our process” from the start of the grant-application process to the perspectives of decision-makers. One way that has manifested, especially during the pandemic, is through investment in small businesses, which are “the cornerstone of our country,” she said, but also in the gravest danger of shuttering during the pandemic. “We wanted to look at who’s impacted by that. It was mostly BIPOC businesses. Our foundation has leaned into addressing those issues.” On the HR and talent-acquisition side, CommScope’s Levy said she has spent time with her team examining and addressing unconscious biases among hiring managers and investing in making the hiring process more equitable. They’ve identified and changed potential barriers to entry, such as GPA or higher-education requirements, but it’s still a learning process. “We are not always going to get it right, but we’re always going to try and do better,” she said. “We put the big goals out there,” said Bell, “knowing that we’re tackling large ecosystems that have been in place for a long time that need to have some disruption. We ask really hard questions of our grantees, like, 'How diversified is your board? How diverse is the team that’s going to support you?' I think it takes those small things to look at all ecosystems internally, including the one you work for, and go, ‘What is it today that needs to be disassembled?’” Taking It Piece by Piece Meaningful social impact requires a long attention span on an organization’s part. Vivian Greentree, Ph.D., senior vice president and head of global corporate citizenship and president of the Fiserv Cares Foundation at Fiserv, put it this way: “When you’re trying to lean into something that doesn’t exist yet, or you’re trying to create something or collaborate, it’s always going to be a little uncomfortable. That’s where a lot of us are a lot of the time. So, learning not to pause and not to quit. Think big, act small, move quick.” Alexis Hauk is an Atlanta-based journalist whose work has appeared in a wide variety of publications including TIME, the Atlantic, Mental Floss, Washington City Paper, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.