Andie Burjek – Page 33

May 23, 2017June 29, 2023

Sector Report: EAPs are Valuable but Underused

Employee assistance programs have been proven to deliver real business benefits. When companies provide resources for employees to help them deal with stress, substance abuse, family conflict and other personal issues, it improves their workplace performance and productivity. One 2008 study showed EAPs delivered a $6.47 return on investment for every $1 spent.

Despite this clear value proposition, companies rarely take full advantage of these offerings, and in many cases, employees don’t even know they exist. According to Chestnut Global Partners’ 2016 EAP trends report, utilization rates in North America were less than 7 percent.

“EAP offerings have historically been underutilized for a lot of reasons,” said LuAnn Heinen, lead expert on EAPs for the National Business Group on Health, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization focused on national health policy issues. Managers rarely refer employees to the appropriate programs, and even if employees are aware of the offerings, there is often a stigma attached to using them. “There are a lot of missed opportunities with EAPs,” she said.

Low utilization rates continue despite the fact that EAP offerings have matured over the years, from simple support for substance abuse, to robust portfolios of mental health offerings designed to help employees deal with depression, reduce stress and address anxiety at work and at home.

Stress Is Good for Business

Among those who are using EAP services, the CGP report showed an increase in the number of crisis counseling sessions, which they attribute to ongoing organizational changes, economic stress and a general trend by employers to move toward high deductible medical plans, which can have an unintended cost of driving more employees with high-risk conditions to the EAP.

P Providers, 2017, Workforce “The rise in stress and anxiety among employees is something companies need to pay attention to,” said Todd Donaldson, director of training and consultation services for CGP. “Offering employees access to these kinds of services is important to maintaining a healthy and productive workforce.”

NBGH has seen companies seeking mental health and emotional well-being services as part of their EAP offering in recent years. Heinen noted that some of the largest companies are bringing in their own in-house clinicians, and providing 24/7 online access to psychological health professionals to support the mental health of their employees. “There is a lot of interest in these types of programs.”

EAPs are also more directly linked to traditional health care plans now than in the past, said Lucy Henry, vice president of stakeholder relations for First Sun EAP in Columbia, South Carolina. “Many larger EAPs are now embedded with health insurance, along with long term disability, life insurance and other ancillary plans,” she said.

In some cases, health insurance companies may include free EAP programs, including a limited number of counseling sessions and crisis management tools as a value added program.

At the same time, employees are finding support on their own, particularly via mental health apps like Spire, Happify and Whil. Roughly a third of all consumers have at least one mobile health application on their mobile device, and this number is expected to keep growing, according to the CGP report. However, there are no studies showing whether these apps have an impact on behavior or performance. “Apps are a nice add-on, but they don’t begin to address what EAPs can do,” Heinen said.

Benchmarking and ROI

Demonstrating positive outcomes of EAP offerings is something providers are paying closer attention to in order to reinforce the value proposition of these services, Donaldson said. To tackle this challenge, benefits leaders and EAP providers need to do a better job communicating the availability and value of EAP services to employees, and overcoming stigmas related to employees’ seeking help for mental health disorders. They also need to provide training and career coaching for managers about when and how to refer employees to these services.

EAP providers can further overcome this challenge by doing more benchmarking and showing the impact of their services. “Frequency of use isn’t a measure of quality,” Donaldson said. If vendors can link the impact of their services to productivity and reduced absence it can help them demonstrate the financial benefits of investing in these services. That includes tracking the outcomes of phone counseling services and employer sponsored mHealth apps.

“You have to determine whether the tools actually lead to behavior change or improved health,” he said.

He also encourages companies to align EAP services with organizational goals, and for company leaders to openly support use of these programs. “It’s not enough to offer the benefit. Employees need to see buy-in from local stakeholders for it to become part of the cultural norm.”

Sarah Fister Gale is a writer based in the Chicago area. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

May 16, 2017June 29, 2023

Mental Health Takes on New Meaning for Millennials at Work

Young cartoon person speaking about mental health and wellness

Charles Lattarulo joined American Express to lead its behavioral health program five years ago, employees seeking mental wellness services were typically referred to a phone-in employee assistance program that few people utilized. With more and more young employees joining the workforce, he realized that a different approach was needed to meet their unique needs.

“Millennials are under different stressors than older workers,” he said. “They are the first generation to make less money than their parents, the first generation with a lot of debt coming in to work, and the first generation to grow up with social media. They don’t mind posting about their lives, but they may not seek help.”

Those born between 1978 and 1999 are also struggling with depression in greater numbers — more so than other generations in the workforce, according to a 2013 survey by the American Psychological Association. Given that millennials make up the largest segment of the U.S. workforce, employers have reason to be concerned, according to Mike Thompson, mental health advocate and president and CEO of National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions.

“Considering how important millennials are to the current and future makeup of their workforce it’s critical that employers address their expectations and needs,” he said. “The fact that depression rates among young adults could be increasing should be highly alarming.”

In fact, between 2005 and 2014 the number of depressed teens jumped by more than half a million, according to a recent study in the Journal of Pediatrics. Many seem to be bringing these struggles to work.

According to the American Psychology Association, 39 percent of millennials say their stress increased last year, compared to 36 percent of Gen Xers, 33 percent of baby boomers and 29 percent of “matures” — workers over 67.

To educate employees about mental illness, particularly younger workers, and encourage them to seek help, American Express launched the Healthy Minds program in 2012. The initiative, headed by Lattarulo, uses upbeat messages and novel approaches to mental health awareness, such as bringing in a standup comic to talk about depression.

Unlike many of their older colleagues who are uncomfortable talking about mental illness, millennials aren’t shy about sharing the details of their daily lives on social media or at work, forcing employers to rethink how they communicate about mental health, according to Clare Miller, director of the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health, a program affiliated with the American Psychiatric Association.

“Millennials don’t have feel the stigma that other generations do when it comes to talking about mental health issues,” she said. “They’ve grown up in an era when social media is part of their lives and there are no demarcations between personal and work life. This is something new for employers. It’s bringing things to a head as to how you manage these discussions in the workplace.”

She points to American Express’ decision to invite a comedian to talk about mental illness as one example of innovative approaches to reaching younger workers. “A comedian talking about it is a tricky thing, but it speaks to this new world that we are in.”

At consulting firm Ernst & Young, where the average age of its 240,000 employees is 27, company leaders have no choice but to tailor their mental wellness efforts to a younger population, according to Sandra Turner, director of EY Assist, the company’s EAP.

“We don’t have special programming to target a segment of our population because that is our population,” she said.

Last year the firm launched its R U OK initiative, which encourages employees to reach out to colleagues who may be struggling with depression. It’s a based on a suicide prevention program developed in Australia in 2009. Since it was launched in October, EY’s employee assistance program has seen a 30 percent increase in utilization, Turner said.

While she can’t say if the spike could also be a reflection of an adversarial election season last fall, the launch of the initiative seems well timed.

“I’m sure that issues around police violence in the community and the election cycle has caused a lot of tension and stress in the workplace,” she said. “I wish I could say we timed it to address some of that, but we had this planned in January 2016. Still, I’m so glad that we had this program available.”

Rita Pyrillis is a writer based in the Chicago area. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

May 11, 2017June 29, 2023

Millennials FIREd Up Over Retirement Plans

Many of the folks trying to become FIRE members have made minimal spending for maximum benefit an art form. Photo credit: ournextlife.com.

Online financial blogger Ms. Our Next Life is hoping that she and her husband stay on track to get fired from their jobs by the end of the year.

She isn’t the only one, said this blogger, who is better known as Ms. ONL. Lots of millennials like her want to get fired, too.

Not terminated in the traditional sense, though. More accurately, “fired” comes in the form of an acronym. They want to be FIREd: Financially Independent, Retiring Early.

It’s a trend that is taking hold, mostly through blogs, and is waking up a lot of millennials to the idea that they could be done with work by the time they hit their late 30s or 40s. Many of the folks trying to become FIRE members save a minimum of 50 percent of their income each year, max out on retirement accounts, live in modest homes or apartments and overall have made minimal spending for maximum benefit an art form.

FIRE wannabes don’t seem to skimp on technology, though. They have taken to their tablets, laptops and smartphones to read the myriad blog posts that teach how to do it. Most bloggers shield their names but give out a lot of personal financial information, mostly on spending budgets and savings tips; it’s an easier and safer way to help people understand how to adapt to some unconventional strategies without having them show up on their doorstep or having their bosses discover what they’re planning.

With the multitude of bloggers posting their paths to the FIRE community, individuals can search for the one who matches their profile best, said Ms. Montana, a blogger, mother of five and 15-year FIRE veteran.

“Millennials are looking for much more than punching a clock,” said Ms. Montana, who also shows people how to save enough to at least take one year off of work every decade. “If I can do this, I want to give hope to other people.”

Ms. ONL’s blog posts overlay a big smiley emoji over her face to hide her identity. Even her work colleagues don’t know her plan.

“Yeah, people around us don’t know,” she said. “I see [early retirement] as a way to free up my job for someone who might be more excited than I am to do it.”

But retire early? Richard Reyes, a personal financial adviser who is known as the Financial Quarterback, said these folks aren’t really retired. They’re merely moving on to something a little less formal than a 9-to-5 job.

“They’re working. It’s just that they’re doing it on their own terms,” Reyes said. “It’s a little easier to do that today with the way technology has advanced.”

Ms. ONL agreed, saying that her definition of retirement means that work is voluntary.

“If I want to write a book and it doesn’t sell, well that would be OK,” she said. “I don’t know of anyone [wanting to join the FIRE community] planning to sit in a recliner to watch game shows. It just means that work is optional.”

While it’s hard to tell how many are involved in the movement, experts agreed that it is growing. Ms. Montana added that corporations must adapt to millennials’ need to take time off or be content with losing talent to things they find more significant.

“I think there are ways HR can tap into that desire to have a meaningful life,” Ms. Montana said. “If [companies] can give workers a chunk of time, they might create something brilliant. If [companies] don’t, then they don’t have the best of [their employees] anyway.”

Still, Reyes said working and living off the grid might not be something that can be maintained forever.

“This can be done, it’s just a matter of knowing what kind of lifestyle you are used to and what kind of lifestyle you want going forward,” Reyes said. “At some point, it’s not going to be fun to live on $25,000 a year.”

Patty Kujawa is a writer based in Milwaukee. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

May 9, 2017June 29, 2023

Candidates Hate Your Lame Careers Site

Remember when all you needed to recruit effectively was a basic careers site that had a link to your applicant tracking system and a PDF of the overly aspirational company values designed by your founder that everyone you worked with loved to snicker at?

Bonus points if you had stock photos on that career site of a group of seven people (it’s a stock photo), all with perfect teeth and representing just the right amount of diversity as a group.

Remember those days? Me too.

The proliferation of transparency brought on by social media and workplace-centric solutions like Glassdoor means that candidates can smell a phony company story a mile away.

That means if you’ve still got the stock photos and old company values up, as well as offering visitors to your careers site nothing but a listing of jobs, you’re in trouble.

That’s why an emerging talent trend in 2017 is recruitment marketing, loosely defined as a collection of services and products designed to help you put your company’s best foot forward to candidates who might want to work for you.

Revamp your image using some of the tools in the emerging recruitment marketing suite and candidates will consider your company’s story as more real/authentic/desirable, which translates to increased candidate engagement as well as better conversion in the classic apply/interview/hire recruiting funnel.

If you’re new to the recruitment marketing game, here are the things you need to think about to upgrade your careers brand and keep up with the times.

Employer value proposition: You’ve probably got company values, right? Not enough these days. Candidates increasingly want to know “what’s in it for me” (the WIIFM) to work at your company. If you do EVP right, you’ll end up with three to five themes that answer the WIIFM question for your company, which provides structure and direction for where you go with your careers site. You get extra credit if at least one of the themes is borderline negative, because candidates love it when you can be self-reflective.

Career site upgrade: Your careers site probably sucks. To remodel, think about wrapping your open jobs with stories and real images from inside your company with laser focus. That focus should be on the aforementioned EVP themes as well as content focused on delivering candidates to your most difficult-to-fill jobs. HR and talent acquisition pros routinely struggle with this advice, but it’s critical that you become selfish related to the space on your careers site — it’s not HR, it’s marketing. The space and focus is reserved for your recruiting goals, which starts with the hard, not easy-to-fill positions.

business diversity — Your careers site probably sucks. Wrap your open jobs with stories and real images… not stock photos.

Content is king: The best careers-site strategies deploy a frequently recurring content strategy, meaning you must post a new piece of content at least once a week. That means you should have someone on your team that can interview and write quick-hitting features or find a partner who can. This seems like overkill to some, but stay with me because the careers site is simply where the focused content is stored.

Careers social strategy: Once you’ve got a refreshed careers site, it’s time to start thinking social. Many employers make the mistake of simply posting open jobs to social accounts, but that’s not enough. A real careers social strategy emphasizes audience building (gaining followers) and uses the growing social presence to share the fresh content with the world. An important consideration is whether to use the existing corporate social accounts or build stand-alone, careers-focused accounts.

Talent tools, email campaigns and marketing chops: Any deep recruitment marketing project undertaken by HR or recruiting is going to morph into things that look like pure marketing. Talent pools, regardless of how they’re captured, are nothing but focused “opt-ins” to give you the ability to communicate with potential future hires moving forward. Remember that focused content I talked about earlier? We’re doing that content not only to beef up the careers site and have something to share via social, but also to run email marketing campaigns with relevant content. A good email marketing campaign to a talent pool can have an open rate above 50 percent — something your marketing director would trip her grandmother for.

The simple plan of building a better careers site with content that cuts through the clutter, then sharing that content in a systematic way via social and traditional marketing techniques is at the core of any successful recruitment marketing strategy.

Do these things well and the candidates will reward you. Ignore the advice and they’ll laugh at your online recruiting brand as they close the window in their browser, never to return.

Kris Dunn, the chief human resources officer at Kinetix, is a Workforce contributing editor. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

April 26, 2017June 29, 2023

Workforce 100: It Feels Like the First Time

Workforce has been ranking the top 100 companies for excellence in human resources practices for the past four years. During that time companies including AT&T Inc. and Marriott International Inc. consistently ranked in the top 20. Companies like ADP and McDonald’s Corp. have sunk from the top five in 2014 to the bottom of the list or off the list entirely, while companies like The Walt Disney Co., Apple and Comcast Corp. have climbed from the bottom 10 in 2014 to the top 10 in 2017.

[Click here to read “Ranking the World’s Top Companies for HR” for the full 2017 list, company information and methodology.]

Each company has its own unique story of how its HR practices, policies and innovations have made an impact on company culture. This year Workforce tapped into 25 companies that have never been ranked on the Workforce 100 List. We’ve explored what they’ve done in HR to move the company from ordinary to noteworthy.

Ultimate Software (No. 19) was the highest-ranked of our first timers. The Weston, Florida-based computer software company focuses on one mission: always put people first, said Vivian Maza, chief people officer at Ultimate, in an email statement.

“Our people make us who we are. We know we wouldn’t be here without them, so we’re 100 percent focused on putting them first and caring for them like family,” she wrote. “We know if we take care of our employees, they’ll take care of our customers — by creating the most innovative products and delivering the industry’s best service.”

The company has “communities of interest” for women, veterans and LGBTQIA employees, covers 100 percent of health care premiums for full-time employees and their families, and offers a 40 percent dollar-for-dollar match on 401(k) contributions with no cap.

A similar employee-first theme ran through other first-timers, including LaSalle Network (No. 38), West Monroe Partners (No. 31) and Grant Thornton (No. 92).

Ultimate Software employees celebrate PRIDE — Co-workers celebrating PRIDE at Ultimate Software. Photo courtesy of Ultimate Software.

Good for People, Good for Business

At Chicago-based staffing and recruiting firm LaSalle Network, they view human resources as a partner for both the business and the employees. The idea is that happy people have happy clients. A subsection of the HR department, the Human Concierge Department, exists to aid new hires. It provides employees assistance for various life challenges like finding quality day care and parental care, searching for an apartment and even getting a divorce.

“[We’re]making sure they know we go above and beyond, that they know, ‘We take care of this, you take care of learning the job and learning LaSalle,’ ” said Sirmara Campbell Twohill, the company’s chief human resources officer.

It’s all about looking at someone as a whole, said Maureen Hoersten, the company’s chief revenue officer. “We don’t believe in work-life balance. We believe everything should be integrated.” If the company doesn’t know anything about an employee outside of work, she said, it’s missing a big piece of the puzzle when trying to help them develop professionally.

Treating people well creates a positive culture, she added. “The people and the rituals make the culture, not the fun things we do or the keg in the office. A lot of companies have that misconception. But your people are your culture. How you treat your people is your culture.”

Chicago-based management and technology consulting company West Monroe Partners also has a people-first culture. Treating people well is especially critical because West Monroe Partners is an employee-owned business, with 850 employee-owners.

“We embrace the idea of career equity, that for people to ultimately feel fulfilled, they have to be engaged in work, cultivate meaningful relationships here, and believe that we are an organization that will challenge them to learn and grow,” said Susan Stelter, the company’s chief people officer.

As part of this they utilize the Three Year Letter. An employee writes about what they hope to accomplish professionally and personally in the next three years. Executives have an open conversation with an employee about their goals and help with their development, even if they don’t include staying with West Monroe Partners long-term.

Public accounting firm Grant Thornton began a journey toward culture change just over three years ago. The goal was to inspire employees to bring their whole selves to work, said Pamela Harless, chief people and culture officer at the Chicago-based company. This culture journey was the umbrella under which they introduced different programs and initiatives in recent years.

One aspect of HR they decided to change was performance management, particularly fixing an outdated approach to feedback and evaluations. They opted for a more informal, continuous approach to feedback. “We’re seeing a lot of results around the ultimate goal: to have our people receive more real-time, meaningful, actionable feedback in the moment for the benefit of their own development as well as their clients,” said Harless.

Good for the Community

Corporate social responsibility was another common theme running through each company.

West Monroe Partners embraces its staff giving back to the community. One perk they offer is the 1+1+1 program. A long-time program for West Monroe, the company gives back 1 percent of their time in volunteer hours, 1 percent of its talent to do pro bono work for nonprofits, and 1 percent of its profits.

Paycor team members do community service. Corporate social responsibility is increasingly important for companies to engage employees. — Team members at Cincinnati-based Paycor (No. 77) putting work into the community. Photo courtesy of Paycor

Employees can also apply to the Fischer Fellowship, named after one of the company’s co-founders, which offers an employee a three- to six-month paid opportunity to volunteer anywhere in the world. Eleven staff members have received the fellowship in the past three years, said Stelter.

One employee went to Ghana to teach computer and technology skills. When he found that they didn’t have a computer lab and that the designated building was dilapidated and unusable, he raised $20,000 with the help of his co-workers back home. He was able to work with West Monroe Partners’ performance services team to fix the equipment he had available and worked with their energy and utilities practice to create sustainable energy.

“Although it was one person there, it became a team effort of how we could make a change far from where we all live,” said Stelter. “We believe that’s one of those examples of career equity coming into play where people are doing work they’re passionate about. We’re doing work in our local and global community, and we’re helping people achieve their ultimate aspiration.”

Similarly, LaSalle Network has the Community Champions, a committee dedicated to companywide philanthropy initiatives. It coordinates volunteer opportunities every month.

Meanwhile, Grant Thornton this past year implemented the GTUnited program, which allows employees to choose their own cause or organization and invest community service hours throughout the year. Rather than participating in something predetermined by the employer, this is a more individualized approach to community service which the company can facilitate for employees.

Employee-owners at West Monroe Partners. Courtesy of West Monroe Partners — Employee-owners at West Monroe Partners (No. 31). Photo courtesy of West Monroe Partners

The GTUnited program is based on the United Nations’ new Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 17 global goals to achieve by 2030, and Grant Thornton is one of the first companies to utilize them in its national volunteer strategy.

“It’s been incredibly important to our millennial population because they value so much the opportunity to contribute their passions to a broader purpose,” said Harless. “We recognize that as part of our commitment to supporting the whole person.”

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at editor@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

March 15, 2017June 29, 2023

Hey Boomers: ‘Stay Gold, Ponyboy’

I like to tell myself that I’m still a young man, and in many ways, I still am. I’m active, mentally sharp (just ask me) and some would say at the apex of my career.

But at night, on the highway of life, I see the mileage sign for a destination that’s creeping closer and closer. That destination? Let’s call it “Old Towne.”

It’s where older workers (we’ll loosely define that as those over 50) go to do the following — live in fear of being laid off from their companies, spend their modest severance when they are separated and commiserate about how rough the job market is on older workers.

Misery loves company. That’s why Old Towne is booming.

Older workers in America are underutilized and underappreciated. They’re among our most talented assets, but face multiple challenges, some of which are unfair and some of which are self-inflicted.

Let’s cover the self-inflicted wounds first. As the knowledge, talent and age of a worker rises, it’s often accompanied by a drop in perceived energy, change agility and professional passion. These perceptions, real or imagined, are recorded while total compensation for the same worker rises.

Those self-inflicted wounds provide great cover for companies to move to a younger workforce. If the asset becomes more expensive but perceived productivity is flatlining, the obvious choice to many is to go younger — and cheaper.

Age discrimination? Yeah, that’s illegal. But you won’t win chasing that as an older worker. The better plan is to look different than your peers related to energy, change agility and professional passion.

There’s a great scene in the movie “The Outsiders” where Johnny Cade (Ralph Macchio) utters the line “Stay gold, Ponyboy” to C. Thomas Howell (aka Ponyboy). It’s reference to the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost and a hat tip to the thought that all good things must come to an end.

Johnny Cade recites the line because he knows that Ponyboy is better than his companions and wants him to hold onto the golden qualities that set him apart from his peers.

If you’re an older worker, I want you to stay gold. Here’s my cheat sheet for how you can separate yourself from your AARP peers:

Do what you can to build a professional profile separate from your company. The biggest lie the devil ever told us is that we should pour all our energy into the company we work for.

You must treat your company fairly, but allocating 100 percent of your professional energy to your employer is a sucker’s play. I know it feels unnatural, but you have to find other avenues where you can become familiar with your work. Consider it a precursor to networking.

Be interested and passionate about what you do for a living. Closely related to finding outlets outside of your company is your passion for your profession.

You get judged by the world as an older worker by what you’ve done to stay current. More impactful than additional degrees or certifications is a portfolio of work that shows you’re chasing new ideas or emerging trends. The ability to chase new things also impacts how agile you’re viewed related to change.

Don’t be locked in that you can never go backward in pay. I know, you’ve got bills. Moving backward in pay never feels good, but it may be necessary.

Get as much money as you can when the time comes to change companies, but understand that earning 80 percent of your current salary at the right company with the right future is a superior position to being laid off and on a two-year “sabbatical” with no end in sight.

Stay one step ahead, and get out of town before the posse arrives. Do all signs point to the fact that your company is going to go through another round of layoffs? Do you find yourself digging a foxhole and hoping for the best without doing any of the things I’ve listed to this point?

The best time to get a job (at any age) is when you have a job. Be brave enough to understand your circumstances and jump if necessary if the situation is right. Risky? Yes, but you’re likely underestimating the risk of staying.

Look like the 2.0 version of yourself. You haven’t updated your look because you haven’t been threatened. Being proactive with your career prospects means you probably need to ditch double-pleated pants if you’re a guy. I’m no expert, so look into how to do this for your gender and drop some limited funds into a wardrobe refresh.

Life is tough in Old Towne. I’m going to visit soon, but before I get there I wanted to offer encouragement to you. I think you’re different than most of the people in Old Towne, but you’ve got to take action to prove it.

Stay gold, Ponyboy.

Kris Dunn, the chief human resources officer at Kinetix, is a Workforce contributing editor. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

March 14, 2017September 1, 2023

Employers Missing the Point of Rising Employee Stress

stressed out employees at conference table

While most employers and employees would agree that stress in the workplace is a persistent problem, they often differ dramatically on the causes — a disconnect that can undermine the success of any mental wellness program.

In a recent survey of workplace health and productivity, employers identified big-picture challenges like technology, which makes it harder to separate work and home, and organizational change as top stressors while employees were focused on more immediate and personal concerns like low pay, unclear job expectations and company culture. The stressor that employers ranked last — company culture — was the third choice of employees, according to Willis Towers Watson’s 2015-16 “Staying@Work” survey.

This disconnect underscores the fact that most employers don’t understand what causes stress for their employees and often leads them to the wrong solutions, according to Tom Davenport, a senior consultant at Willis Towers Watson.

“Everyone experiences stress differently and organizations have a hard time dealing with individualized solutions,” he said. “HR departments aren’t equipped to deal with complex social and psychological issues, so they start with solutions and hope that the problem fits. They look for EAPs (employee assistance providers) and vendors who provide mindfulness classes, yoga, resiliency programs — they check the box and say problem solved.”

The problem is that an emotional wellness program is likely to fail if employers don’t fully grasp how employees experience stress, he said.

Tom Davenport, a senior consultant at Willis Towers Watson — “Organizations have a hard time dealing with individualized solutions,” said Willis Towers Watson’s Tom Davenport.

Understanding the causes and nuances of workplace stress is the biggest obstacle that employers face in dealing with the problem, according to Davenport.

In fact, nearly half of all working adults rate the efforts of their workplace to reduce stress as only fair or poor, according to a 2016 study by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Notably, the vast majority of workers — 85 percent — who say they’ve experienced a great deal of stress at work in the past 12 months rate the efforts of their workplace as fair or poor.

It is a pricey problem for employers. According to the American Institute of Stress, a nonprofit that aims to educate the public on the issue, job stress costs U.S. industry more than $300 billion annually in absenteeism, turnover, diminished productivity and medical, legal and insurance costs. And Americans are more stressed out than ever, according to the American Psychological Association’s 2015 “Stress in America” survey.

While the numbers show a slight increase in overall stress levels between 2014-15, the number of adults reporting “extreme stress” has spiked. Twenty-four percent of adults report these levels, compared to 18 percent in 2014, representing the highest percentage since 2010.

While there is little hard data showing that mental wellness programs can increase productivity and engagement, and lower rates of absenteeism and health care costs, one recent survey suggests that it can.

According to MediKeeper, a San Diego-based technology firm, between 2014 and 2016 the number of employees reporting a stress level of 1 — the lowest on a numerical scale — increased by 58 percent while the number of respondents rating their stress level at 5 decreased by nearly 40 percent.

“It was a bit of shock to us,” said David Ashworth, CEO of MediKeeper, which develops employee wellness platforms. “Intuitively, we were thinking that the stress was more. You think about it in your own life and it’s certainly going up.”

MediKeeper, whose clients represent a variety of industries, surveyed 3 million employees who took an anonymous online survey over a span of three years.

Ashworth said that the results suggest that a well-designed wellness program can reduce stress.

Which brings the conversation back to Davenport, who cautions employers to examine and understand the fundamental causes of stress among their employees.

“Ask yourself, ‘What are our biggest problems, what’s causing them and what can we do about them,’ ” he said. “The answer lies in some combination of an individual’s response to stress and the organizational culture.”

He advises monitoring sick days and turnover rates, but also talking with employees and collecting anecdotes through surveys and exit interviews.

“How an individual experiences stress changes as they move up the ladder,” he said. “You move further away from average employee experience because you’re not the average employee, you are a CEO. So there is a built-in disconnect, which is why many executives don’t seem to get it when it comes to addressing the causes of employee stress.”

Rita Pyrillis is a freelance writer in the Chicago area. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

March 13, 2017June 29, 2023

Appetites for Carrots and Sticks Shift with Wellness Perks

stressed out business man reaching for carrot

Workplace wellness initiatives continue making headway into employee perks with one important goal: influencing behavior change and improving employee health.

A step competition may aim to motivate employees to adopt a more active lifestyle while a weight-loss program could push employees to be more conscientious of their diet.

But when it comes to influencing long-term behavior, the popular carrot-and-stick model, which relies on extrinsic motivation like rewards and punishment to influence people, isn’t necessarily the most effective.

“We’re not opposed to carrots or sticks when they are used appropriately,” said Howard Kraft, Mercer’s total health management specialty practice leader in the U.S. But they’ll ultimately only work on a short-term basis, he said, adding behavior change is more difficult and requires that employees are intrinsically motivated.

There are many examples of companies misusing the reward-punishment approach. In 2013, Penn State University’s wellness program included a monthly $100 noncompliance fee for employees who chose not to participate, but soon dropped the requirement after employee protests over privacy concerns prompted a public outcry. Such plans are doomed to fail, according to Joe Ellis, senior vice president of CBIZ Inc., an employee services company.

Joe Ellis, CBIZ Inc. — “I would never recommend somebody be punished for not participating,” said Joe Ellis, senior vice president of CBIZ Inc.

“There are a lot of poorly designed plans,” he said. As with Penn State, if employees complain about being punished for not participating, it’s a different story. A smoker may decide not to join a smoking cessation program and therefore not receive a reward in the form of a premium discount. This person, who is now paying a higher premium than others for their lifestyle choice, may feel like they are being punished.

“The employer becomes the conduit through which those who do wish to change something in their life can access tools to do so,” said Ellis, but not everyone will choose to use those tools and participate.

“I would never recommend somebody be punished for not participating,” Ellis added. “There may be rewards for people who engage in healthy behaviors and no rewards for those who don’t. If you construe that as punishment, that’s your perception and I can’t help that.”

Incentives are governed by several regulations including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act; the Affordable Care Act; the Americans with Disabilities Act; and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. Companies don’t have free reign on how they use them in a wellness program.

And their use appears to have limited value. Forty percent of employees don’t receive incentives because they choose not to participate and only 42 percent get the full incentive available to them, according to the 2016 report by Willis Towers Watson, “New EEOC Rules Encourage Rethinking Incentives and Wellness Programs.” Employees are becoming less comfortable with incentives based on health outcomes and incentives designed as penalties.

In the long-term, what will work in terms of behavior change is some blend of self-motivation, social connectivity and changing the status quo, Kraft said.

Howard Kraft, Mercer’s total health management specialty practice leader in the U.S. — “It’s the companies that simply think a stick or carrot by itself is the silver bullet; that’s where they get in trouble,” said Mercer’s Howard Kraft.

“A company can influence the work environment and culture to be more supportive of health and well-being; that’s where you’ll see a bigger difference,” he said. The first step for all employers is to be honest about the level of trust employees have in the organization regarding the health and well-being of its workforce.

“When an employer has the trust of the workforce and demonstrates a strong commitment to health and well-being, motivating people to do certain things and have certain behaviors becomes easier,” said Kraft. Using rewards and punishments smartly can have an impact.

“It’s the companies that simply think a stick or carrot by itself is the silver bullet; that’s where they get in trouble,” said Kraft.

Ellis agreed about the importance of a culture of health, and also noted that C-suite support is key. “The CEO and the other executives need to be onboard and also participate in creating a culture of health at a company.”

March 6, 2017June 29, 2023

Expanding the Definition of Wellness

When you consider that most of us spend about one-third of our adult lives at work, it makes sense that the workplace can be the epicenter of healthy habits — for body, mind and wallet.

Many companies are taking this role seriously by treating their employees more like family members than workers. Like any caring, nurturing parent, employers are concerned about keeping their employees healthy, happy and in a position to be successful in the future.

This is a welcome evolution — from a laser focus on physical wellness toward a more holistic philosophy of “well-being” that addresses employees’ physical, emotional and financial needs.

This broadening definition of wellness comes with tremendous potential benefits, but also needs a different approach than the one-size-fits-all strategy that has often been applied to physical wellness.

Here are four ways to set your expanded wellness program up for success.

Move from “one size fits all” to “choose your own adventure.” With five generations currently in the workplace and millennials recently emerging as the largest demographic among working adults, traditional wellness programs need to evolve to meet the varying needs of employees at different life stages. Employers are gradually realizing that they can no longer focus solely on health care costs. They also need to foster a motivated, thriving and loyal workforce, and offer useful benefits that meet their employees wherever they are.

This means less of the one-size-fits-all programs of the past and more of the programs that allow employees to customize their own wellness package using various apps and tools, like fitness trackers, nutrition apps and financial management tools — and to get rewarded for their efforts.

Talk to employees. Engaged employees — those who feel their employer sees them as individuals — are more likely to have a vested interest in the company and be fully committed to the company’s success. Employees often express that they want their employers to recognize their total well-being, and they want access to resources that show that this is a priority. Because of this, many companies find that having a competitive wellness package is key to attracting — and keeping — top talent. But too often, wellness programs are designed and implemented without employee input. Reach out to your employees through surveys, focus groups and one-on-one interviews to find out what they need and what will resonate with them.
Put it in context. One challenge in introducing a new well-being program is to make sure that the program aligns with and complements the company’s full benefits ecosystem. Employers need to underscore how the program fits into their overarching corporate philosophy, so it doesn’t feel disconnected from their other HR programs, benefits or business priorities.

Emotional well-being is a growing part of this holistic health approach. Sensing the level of stress that employees experience in both their personal and professional lives, companies have introduced mindfulness programs that emphasize meditation practice and relaxation strategies. Many are also taking a new look at their extended-leave policies, which encourage a healthy work-life balance, and work-culture campaigns, which can inspire and energize employees by highlighting their common concerns, goals and successes. Meanwhile, programs aimed at promoting financial wellness have become increasingly popular. The idea is that employees can be more engaged at work if they’re not stressed out about financial concerns.

All of these programs need context for why the company is investing (the benefit for the company), why employees should care (the benefit for the employees) and how new efforts connect to other programs.

Embed behavioral thinking into strategy, program design and communications. One of the most powerful opportunities for employers is to design the workplace around well-being. Instead of looking at isolated programs or asking employees to take steps on their own, ask, “How can we make it easy to do the right thing?” That question will bring to the surface administrative barriers, confusing program design issues, changes needed to the physical workplace, or simple opportunities to better connect programs and resources.

By broadening the definition of wellness and creating a new well-being model, employers can find more meaningful ways to connect their employees with their benefits. Well-being programs that employees can tailor to meet their personal needs and preferences offer tremendous opportunities for employers to improve employee engagement and increase the overall value of their benefit offerings.

March 2, 2017June 29, 2023

Arianna Huffington: Seeking to Thrive in a Wellness World

Arianna Huffington and SAP president North America Jennfier Morgan at Thrive Global launch event in New York City.

For 11 years Arianna Huffington gained massive influence in media and rubbed elbows with A-list celebrities, international politicians and business leaders as president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post. Huffington, 66, had followed in the journalistic footsteps of her father but pivoted drastically in 2016 when she made the surprise announcement that she was stepping down from her prominent position as a media mogul to begin a corporate wellness startup. Thrive Global enters the crowded health and wellness space with a mission to end the workplace stress and burnout epidemic on a global scale using scientific solutions.

Huffington’s company, which officially launched in New York in November, offers workshops, e-courses and certification programs, as well as a host of wellness technology apps and an e-commerce store. The start-up also features editorial content on a range of topics like sleep, meditation and stress reduction and sends out weekly newsletters aggregating relevant health and wellness stories. And it’s partnered with companies like Uber, Under Armour and Accenture for corporate wellness training.

Huffington serves as CEO, alongside Thrive Global president Abby Levy, a former consultant to the consumer product and digital media businesses, and Maya Major, the “chief of stuff” who heads human resources, business operations and finance.

Thrive Global’s entry in the corporate wellness space marks an example of the changing industry, which has expanded from a focus on physical wellness to a broader focus on overall well-being. This allows new companies to specialize on one particular area of the well-being field.

Some 61 percent of corporate well-being companies specialize in fitness services, smoking cessation, nutrition and weight management, and alcohol and drug abuse services, according to the IBISWorld Industry Report from July 2016. Thrive Global is among the 11 percent that addresses stress management.

Huffington, who sees great growth potential for her stress- and burnout-focused company, responded to questions in an email interview with Workforce to offer her opinion on the wellness industry, the kind of impact she hopes Thrive Global will have and why this is the perfect time to combat the burnout epidemic in the workplace.

Arianna Huffington, CEO of Thrive Global, believes that work and life, well-being and productivity are intrinsically connected.

Workforce: What is your opinion of the corporate wellness industry? Where does Thrive Global fit in?

Arianna Huffington: Right now a lot of corporate wellness programs are focused on downstream harm reduction, working only on the symptoms. But 75 percent of health care costs in the U.S. are about treating preventable, often stress-related conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. So what we’re doing at Thrive Global is focusing upstream on the root causes — burnout and stress.

We’re also following the science to come at it from a different premise. It’s not about balance. Thrive Global is based on the truth that work and life, well-being and productivity are not on opposite sides — so they don’t need to be balanced. They’re on the same side and rise in tandem. Increase one and you increase the other, which is what the science clearly shows.

And finally, we’re also using science to drive behavior change that can be sustained and incorporated into people’s daily lives.

WF: Why start Thrive Global in such a crowded field? What will you do differently than other companies?

Huffington: For what we’re doing, the field isn’t crowded. In fact, I think we’re really the only player that brings together all of the elements we do. It starts with our commitment to following the science, and using that to inform the three interconnected pillars of the company. First, there are corporate trainings and workshops. Second is our media platform, The Thrive Journal, designed to be the global hub for the conversation on productivity and well-being. This features not just the latest science, but also commentary by new role models showing how you can be in the arena and be a successful leader without burning out. And third is our e-commerce platform, which offers our curated selection of the best well-being technology, products and services. All these elements work together to produce our menu of products, services and sustainability that we think is unique.

WF: Is the industry poised for consolidation or is there still plenty of room for growth? If so, in what areas is there room for growth?

Thrive Global launch event, Arianna Huffington and other leaders — At the Thrive Global launch event: From left, Sherry Turkle, MIT professor; Arianna Huffington; JPMorgan Chief Marketing Officer Kristin Lemkau; Accenture Chief Leadership and HR Officer Ellyn Shook; and SAP’s Jennifer Morgan.

Huffington: I think there’s huge room for growth. We’re really at an inflection point right now, coming out of an idea of work and success that dates back, really, to the Industrial Revolution. We’re also in the golden age of science in the fields of sleep, neuroscience, productivity and performance. And the results of the science are clear — that when we prioritize our well-being, our performance goes up dramatically, across the board. And yet, our work culture has only just begun to shift. And even as the business world begins to internalize these findings, the growth of technology and the pace of change in our lives makes ending this culture of burnout even more challenging. And though technology has made us feel more harried and distracted, one of the next frontiers of technology is technology that actually helps us disconnect, shut off the noise and reclaim time and space for ourselves. So, yes, there is a lot of opportunity for growth; we’re just at the beginning.

WF: In your opinion, what should HR and benefits leaders look for in a corporate wellness program?

Huffington: It’s important to intervene upstream, where the stress and burnout are created. This includes, of course, flexible schedules, email policies that discourage after-hours work, nap rooms or nap pods, and robust vacation policies. And because work and life are integrated, it should also include training and assistance in helping employees prioritize their sleep at home.

But most important, even the best wellness plans won’t be maximized if there’s not buy-in from senior management to change the incentive structure. If HR is saying one thing, but senior management is still incentivizing burnout culture, we know which message most employees will listen to. So along with great plans to prioritize well-being, companies need the culture shift to be modeled at the top, so it’s those employees who prioritize their well-being who are celebrated and promoted instead of those burning themselves out.

WF: You’re a big advocate of proper sleep. Why?

Huffington: Because sleep, as the latest science shows, is connected to virtually every aspect of our physical and mental health. From heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity to depression and anxiety, the dangers of inadequate sleep are nearly endless. And when we sleep well, we increase our creativity, productivity and make better decisions.

WF: How does nutrition fit into corporate wellness?

Huffington: Nutrition is very important. But as with other aspects of our well-being, it can’t be considered in isolation. Nutrition, stress, weight management and sleep are all deeply connected, and so it’s not enough to just advocate good nutrition or provide healthy snacks, though those are important. Nutrition is just one part of the overall well-being discussion.

WF: Are you a fan of the carrot-and-stick approach to wellness involving financial rewards and penalties?

Huffington: I think carrots are more effective than sticks. Most people want to add more well-being to their lives; they want to do well in their jobs and they want to feel happy and fulfilled. So what’s needed is to lower the barriers, offer institutional support and set up a culture that incentivizes all of these.

WF: Some critics say corporate wellness doesn’t save money or improve health. Your response?

Huffington: They’re simply wrong. And it’s not a matter of opinion; the science and data are clear. If well-being programs are instituted successfully, the benefits on health and the bottom line are clear in case after case.

WF: Is ROI important while measuring success of a corporate wellness program?

Huffington: Definitely. And with the right program, you’ll see it. At Aetna, when CEO Mark Bertolini offered well-being programs that included meditation and yoga to his employees, the result was a 7 percent drop in health care costs in 2012, and 69 minutes of additional productivity per day for the employees who participated.

WF: Where do you see the wellness industry in five years?

Huffington: I think it’s going to continue to grow and grow. But the true mark of success will be when we don’t actually see these programs as “wellness programs” per se, but just how business is done.

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.