When we talk about Wellbeing we often think about meditation, healthy eating, a good night’s sleep, reducing alcohol intake, a walk in nature and exercise. We go straight for the solution without really understanding what the problem is and why there is a problem in the first place. An example of this is ‘I need to eat healthily’. Why not ask ‘why I do not eat healthily’? The answer could be because of a demanding job, hectic home life, low esteem, boredom or lack of motivation. The healthy eating issue could be a symptom of something else.
Start with ‘why’ and take action
We should always start with ‘Why’. The ‘Why’ gives us purpose and meaning. When we ask ‘Why’, we uncover a lot of unexpected answers. Simon Sinek, British-American author and inspirational speaker, uses the Golden Circle as a framework to help us to establish our ‘Why’.
Once we understand why we do what we do, we can move on to deciding who we want to be instead. These two steps are crucial for making transformational change. Tony Robbins, American author, coach, speaker & philanthropist, says that ‘The path to success is to take massive, determined action’.
By establishing Sinek’s ‘Why’, deciding what determined action you need to take and following through, will result in achieving sustainable and transformational changes. Put these two steps into place from a Holistic Wellbeing perspective and you have a way of an opportunity to really make significant change.
Employers and Wellbeing
Employers go straight to solution mode when it comes to Wellbeing, which is often not appreciated for what it truly is. Wellbeing is usually numbed down to focus only on our physical health. Its holistic approach covering areas that stretch beyond the physical including emotional, mental, spiritual, financial, relational and environmental is rarely appreciated. Sadly, some employers see Wellbeing as an Occupational Health offering and under-utilised Employee Assistance telephone number. Now, more than ever, Wellbeing needs to be understood, appreciated and acknowledged for the huge benefits a Holistic Wellbeing strategy can bring to both employees and employers.
How businesses approach Wellbeing
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) published a Health and Wellbeing survey in April 2021. This survey found that employers, particularly in the private sector, need to provide much more focus on Holistic Wellbeing. The survey also found that presentism and poor management practises lead to a poor organisation and team cultures impacting employees’ wellbeing. Other key findings include two fifths of organisations experiencing presentism and leaveism are taking no action whatsoever and that there’s a fall in training for line managers to support employees with mental health and the increased health risks of home-working. Developing line manager’s knowledge and confidence is the most common challenge for organisations when managing employee disability and employee long term health issues. The survey found mental health as the top cause of long-term absence in organisations.
Businesses, particularly in the private sector, are putting more and more pressure overtly and covertly on employees to work longer hours, not take their holidays or breaks and deliver on unrealistic goals and expectations. They’re leveraging the fear and anxiety employees feel about job security and the spiralling costs of living in the UK.
Businesses are not developing or nurturing their managers and leaders to confidently support mental health and are ill equipped to support the Wellbeing of their teams. Employers are completely ignoring the fact that mental health is the number one cause of long-term absence. So why should we be surprised at the findings of the 2021 CIPD survey if this is how businesses are approaching Wellbeing?
Employers take heed!
We see Wellbeing chucked into a company or HR/People strategy because it sounds good and up to date with the times. But there’s little or no understanding or appreciation of the discipline of Wellbeing. Most employers view Wellbeing as a practical application. As a result, Wellbeing sits with leaders with no experience of true Wellbeing. Holistic Wellbeing strategies continue to be rolled out as a set of initiatives or a tick box exercise that really have little or no meaning or linkage to the overall business and people strategy.
We also see internal Wellbeing initiatives ignite as a reactionary response to toxic organisational and company cultures trying to address poor morale, high attrition and draconian leadership and management practises. A set of poorly executed internal Wellbeing initiatives which are rolled out and run in isolation to a people strategy with non-experts running the Wellbeing show. This is a recipe for disaster and does nothing for cultural transformation.
Too many Wellbeing strategies are a hotchpotch of poorly designed initiatives cobbled together that completely ignore the needs of the employee and fail to do anything to enhance the employee experience.
There is also the legal and contractual obligation of the employer’s Duty of Care responsibilities to employees to consider here. Too many employers are just sticking Wellbeing into their business or people strategies to cover their own proverbial with regards to their legal Duty of Care to their employees. There is no true linkage or improvement to the organisational strategy, values and leadership behaviours. After all, what is the point of even talking about Wellbeing if the organisational culture lacks flexible working and dictates employees to be available around the clock? This approach only leads to increased employee burnout and a distinct lack of opportunities for employees to find real purpose and meaning. There is a lot of evidence of people strategies that are incongruent with the leadership behaviours and organisational culture.
Wellbeing is often a tick box exercise to satisfy the Board or to massage the egos of the Senior Leadership Teams.
What’s the answer? Change your organisational mindset, take accountability and responsibility for your employees, establish the ‘Why’, diagnose what the issues are, and then take action. Read the CIPD research, explore with your employees what is needed, connect with your employees on Holistic Wellbeing and just do the right thing by them!
Employees take heed!
From an employee perspective, don’t wait for your employer to have a sudden epiphany and wake up to its Duty of Care, pastoral or nurturing responsibilities to you. Take responsibility for your own Holistic Wellbeing, whatever that means to you. To get you going into the right direction, you can start with the following:
Ask yourself why you need to change something to improve your Wellbeing and what it is you need to change. Be curious and ask yourself ‘why does this keep happening to me, what am I attracting’? You are very likely to be surprised by the answer if you are honest with yourself.
Change your mindset - you need to be in control of your own Wellbeing, no one will do this for you.
Sleep more, drink less alcohol, dabble in Mediation & breath work, go for a walk, ditch the commute and work from home/relish the commute & work in an office (whatever works for you), talk to a friend, stop or reduce the negative thoughts, chunk things down & set goals (see our Goal Setting blog) and finally take action!
So what's next?
At Breen & Associates – Results Through People, we are passionate about Holistic Wellbeing in business. Here is a neat diagram that really helps focus the mind on some of the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ options you have to get you started on the path of achieving sustainable results.
Let these three questions be your guide. If you answer them honestly and commit to change, it’ll be just a matter of time until you’ll reap the benefits:
WHY? Why do I need to improve or change my Holistic Wellbeing?
WHAT? What part of my mindset or my daily routine do I need to change? What is my new and improved mindset?
HOW? What actions am I going to take? What are my goals? How am I going to do this?
If you commit yourself to take action and follow through, you’ll soon enough start making progress towards the achievement of your goals. Once you arrive, don’t forget to celebrate your success!
In summary, no matter what you need to do to improve your Holistic Wellbeing, be it emotional, physical, spiritual, financial or mental, there are some straightforward steps you can take today. Don’t be too quick to diagnose the problem without fully understanding why you need to address it and then what it is you need to address. The right diagnosis will lead you to the right remedy.
We’d love to hear from you:
What do you need to improve or change when it comes to your Wellbeing?
Why do you need to change things?
What actions are you committing yourself to take to turn your situation around?
Even just a quick comment will help you to start taking making progress.
Thank you for reading and adding your voice to the conversation.
Written by Joanna Breen
Joanna is a high-achieving senior leader with extensive experience in HR and Business Leadership across different industries and sectors. She advises executive & leadership teams at board level. Over the course of her 25 year career, she has made significant achievements in Business & HR Strategy, HR Operations & Shared Services, Transformational HR and HR Systems Implementation. She is a fully qualified and accredited Corporate, Executive, Leadership, Personal Performance, and Life Coach. Joanna has been coaching for more than 20 years.
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