Employee Wellbeing: New Rules for a Better Workplace

A healthy workplace is vital to your success. And to the economy. According to Statistics Canada, the cost of work time lost related to stress in Canada is $12 billion annually. That was before the economic crisis hit the country.

Are Canadians worried about what this crisis means for their job?

The answer is yes, across all categories of staff - from managers, to technical specialists, to workers on the floor.

The Build a Better Workplace poll of 1100 Canadian employees conducted by Ipsos Reid on January 21, indicated that one quarter (24%) of the Canadian workforce is either "very much" concerned or "somewhat" concerned about being laid off.

A survey of members of the Employee Assistance Society of North America (EASNA) shows that the utilization of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) services has increased in the current economic situation. The Society reports that "requests for help coping with stress are up 82.4%."

The amount of unwanted stress at work is currently significant in Canada. As Chart 1 illustrates, the proportion of employees facing un wanted stress at work is higher in organizations which have already laid off staff or plan to do so. Three out of five employees in these organizations rated their stress level a six or higher on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the highest stress level possible.

In addition, half of employees (48%) stated that their employer does not pay sufficient attention to levels of unwanted stress. In organizations where lay-offs have happened or have been announced, 58% express that opinion.

What is the current level of wellbeing at work?

How do employees evaluate their own wellbeing? What's the baseline that managers must contend with? Is it the case that all of this uncertainty has reduced the Canadian workforce to a quivering mass of panicky geese, ready to take flight at the next loud sound?

Fortunately, the answer to that final question is no. Chart 2 illustrates the results of employees' assessment of their own wellbeing in the recent Build a Better Workplace poll. Employees were asked to rate their own wellbeing on a ten-point scale. The average was 7.2, and more than half gave ratings of eight or higher. To place this in context, this is higher than results of similar studies conducted by Ipsos in Europe (where only about 30% score eight or higher), suggesting that we Canadians are resilient.

This profile is relatively consistent across the country. Interestingly, the scores were marginally lower in Western Canada. This flies in the face of certain stereotypes (i.e. booming Alberta with a can-do attitude and British Columbia where work-life balance is a pre-occupation of many). Viewing these results, some observers have speculated that this may not mean that Westerners are actually less well off, but rather, they are more demanding, and are therefore inclined to be "harder markers."

Do these positive results mean that managers should breathe a sigh of relief and leave their employees to their own devices since we are all doing just fine? What do the employees think? In the Build a Better Workplace poll, employees were asked whether they thought their employer had some responsibility for contributing to their wellbeing at work, or whether this is actually a personal matter that each of us should attend to on our own.

Four out of ten employees who participated in the poll indicated they felt their employer does not pay sufficient attention to their wellbeing at work. This indicates that while there is no consensus, a sizeable number of employees have the expectation that their employer will have – or should have – an active contribution to make along these lines.

Whether managers agree or not that an employer should actively seek to ensure the wellbeing of employees, it is clear that employees clearly have this desire, even an expectation, that they do.

Are there some rules of thumb? Fortunately, yes.

Rule #1: Consider the whole picture

Wellbeing at work is often considered a simple mix of healthy working conditions, limited stress and good worklife balance.

Our experience in this area and the Build a Better Workplace study results indicate that a broader approach is necessary: the topic of wellbeing should not be compartmentalized.

Ipsos conducted advanced analytics to identify the drivers of employee wellbeing at work. The conclusion is that there is no single factor which drives employee wellbeing in Canada.

In fact, there are four areas to concentrate on in order to contribute to employee wellbeing at work. These are shown in Chart 3. Results suggest that employees provided with a good work environment and able to manage to balance their professional and private lives do not necessarily "feel well" at work. In addition, they need to be properly rewarded and they need to have development opportunities to rate their wellbeing at the highest levels.

Rule #2: Employees have different expectations

When considering how the pillars of staff wellbeing can be used in one's corporate environment, employers should keep in mind that drivers vary by age group:

• For the 18 -34 age group: working atmosphere and work-life balance are the most important factors, followed by base salary (and incentives).
• For the 35- 44 age group: training and development, work-life balance and stress management are key elements.
• For the 45+ age group: working atmosphere, benefits package and training opportunities come first.

What is the implication? When taking all of the research into consideration, it is clear that a "one size fits all" approach will not be effective.

Instead, the recommended strategy is to assess needs, to test ideas, and to involve employees in the process of creating a strategy that best fits your employees and your organization.