We spend around 90,000 hours of our lives at work. That’s around 15 years, and it’s no small thing.
Because work takes up such a large chunk of our time, it has a large impact on people’s overall health and wellbeing. Which is why Gallup’s newest workplace insights are so concerning.
Life evaluation ratings in the U.S. are at an all-time low, and the percentage of employees who are struggling and suffering are on the rise:
- 45 percent of employees say they’re struggling to know what’s expected of them at work
- 5 percent of employees say they’re suffering
Only half of employees feel like they’re thriving—a new record-low since 2009. It’s no coincidence that this drop coincides with the fact that only 24 percent of employees feel like their organizations care about their wellbeing.
Some leaders may assume that overall employee life satisfaction is not the company’s responsibility—but I argue it’s the most important thing any organization can focus on. By doing so, employees will be happier, more satisfied, more engaged, and more productive.
The state of workplace wellness
With only a quarter of employees agreeing their companies care about their wellbeing, the state of workplace wellness is bleak. Another clear sign is the emotions people feel at work throughout the day:
- 52 percent of employees who are not engaged feel stress a lot of the day
- 40 percent of those not engaged feel worry
- 21 percent of disengaged employees feel sadness
- 17 percent of them feel anger
In addition, overall employees’ satisfaction with their jobs has dropped to a record low, while the percentage of employees actively looking for a new job is the highest it’s been since 2015.
The picture is clear: Employees aren’t happy at work, and it’s affecting their overall happiness and their intent to stay.
The connection is also clear. Organizations are failing when it comes to caring for overall employee wellbeing, which has ramifications on satisfaction, engagement, turnover, and more. How do organizations break the mold and make work a place where employees are happy to spend 40+ hours a week?
3 ways to focus on supporting managers
Managers are the connection point between organizational leadership and on-the-ground people. They can either support or tear down the culture leadership wants to build by the example they set for their direct reports.
But there’s more bad news: only 31 percent of managers are engaged, and only 22 percent of them agree their organization cares about their wellbeing.
To better support your managers, consider these three strategies:
- Offer more training and development, ensuring managers have the confidence and skills they need to truly lead their teams and excel at their jobs. The training should include soft skills, like communication, and role-specific hard skills, to ensure managers know how to accomplish their various responsibilities. Coaching and mentorship with senior managers and leaders can be a huge positive, too.
- Be open to restructuring workloads. Managers are being asked to handle more and more, often without greater resources to help. Take time to listen to managers’ thoughts about their workloads and restructure responsibilities as needed to ensure managers feel challenged and fulfilled, not overwhelmed.
- Build a support network between managers. By building a community between all the managers at an organization, you’ll create a space where managers can collaborate, coordinate, and provide best practices and advice to help each other. Use a Slack channel, a monthly get together, or something similar to foster this connection.
When managers feel good at work, they’ll spread that to their teams, modeling the positive and productive behaviors the company wants to establish.
Aim for structural improvements
Individual-level improvements are nice—a wellness app, fitness incentives, financial education courses—but structural improvements are the bedrock needed before individual improvements can take effect.
Improvements such as ensuring workloads are healthy to manage burnout, eliminating micromanaging to build trust, and building a sense of belonging will make a huge difference for every employee. These will power the success of other wellness-focused programs as you build them.
Build better social systems
According to research, the main driver of wellness at work is the social element—specifically, employees’ sense of belonging.
Do employees have friends? Do they have the chance to take a break and socialize each day? Are manager-employee relationships healthy? Does the company find ways to show the employee they’re cared for as an individual? These are all questions that directly impact employees’ sense of belonging.
A great way to build more belonging is through Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). ERGs should provide places of connection, support, and fun for various groups, such as working women, the LGBTQ community, and multi-cultural employees.
Well-being: The key to organizational success
People are getting less happy, and work is a big reason why. With negative emotions on the rise, and life evaluations sinking, it’s on organizational leadership to make the changes needed to better support employee wellbeing.
Why? According to the World Economic Forum, the Work Wellbeing 100 index consistently outperforms other stock market indexes, such as S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Russell. In a nutshell, this means that the companies that invest in wellbeing can expect impressive ROI.
There’s a clear link between happiness and a 13 percent increase in productivity, too—showcasing the impact of wellbeing support.
Buck the trend, invest in employee happiness, and watch as your efforts bear the fruit of greater productivity, loyalty, and overall satisfaction.
Steve Sonnenberg
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