How’s your wellbeing?
I know that sounds like the beginning of a hot yoga class.
But it’s a question that business leaders need to ask their employees. Then, actually listen to the answers.
Why wellbeing?
I’ve repeatedly stressed the importance of employee engagement. We know that disengaged workers cost you money. And we now understand that what happens to a person at work affects their home life, and vice versa.
The latest piece of insight on this comes from the Gallup annual report on the State of the Global Workplace.
This report is the largest, ongoing study of employee experience, with the intent of “bringing the voice of the employee to the decision-making table as we help global leaders solve their most pressing problems.”
The report examines “how employees feel about their work and their lives, an important predictor of organizational resilience and performance.”
It is an invaluable resource for business owners and leaders with a ton of information about the global workforce. And you can get the entire report here.
The good news for those of us in the United States is that we are doing pretty well compared to the rest of the world when it comes to the overall job market and optimism. But the stress of work continues to damage overall engagement and by extension company performance.
“Engagement and wellbeing interact with each other in powerful ways,” says the report. “We often think of engagement as something that happens at work and wellbeing as something that happens outside of work, but Gallup’s analysis suggests that’s a false dichotomy.”
What does that mean? Employees who aren’t thriving are more likely to burn out. They are less productive and are even more likely to visit an emergency room.
“Organizations need to think about the whole person, not just the worker. Leaders need to add wellbeing measurements to their executive dashboards. This can alert them to critical warning signs that do not show up on traditional spreadsheets. They also need to prioritize employee wellbeing as part of their employer brand promise. When leaders take responsibility for the wellbeing of their workers, the result is not only productive organizations, but thriving individuals, families and communities.”
One of our fundamental principles at FiveFour is that you can’t have a remarkable customer experience without a great employee experience. Disengaged employees simply will not – cannot – execute as in the team setting necessary to serve customers the way they need to.
Employee engagement is a product of several factors, but it starts with company culture.
Does your company culture attract great people?
Is your hiring process thorough and focused on finding people who match your vision, mission and values?
Is your culture – those same vision, mission and values – fundamentally strong?
Do you emphasize learning and development as the path to improvement?
These are all very big questions, but they all point back to a central idea. And that is, the companies that are succeeding in today’s marketplace, that are consistently growing and delivering for owners and investors, are those that commit to a remarkable customer experience.
And what did I say earlier about the customer experience? That’s right – it’s predicted by the quality of your employee experience.
What Gallup tells us is we better pay attention to the wellbeing of the people on the front lines.
Man, that’s a lot to think about.
If you want to help me hash it all out, drop me an email or book a call and we solve the world’s problems.
Talk soon.