“We should strive to welcome change and challenges, because they are what help us grow. Without them we grow weak like the Eloi in comfort and security. We need to constantly be challenging ourselves in order to strengthen our character and increase our intelligence.”
H. G. Wells, The Time Machine
THERE ARE many dates in Barcelona’s history that, given their significance, have a clear sense of a before and after. The construction of the Eixample in chapter two is one, and the political tensions around 1 October 2017 another. 17 October 1986 is surely one of the most important. This was the date that Barcelona was selected to host the 1992 Olympics that utterly transformed the city and its people. As well as the usual construction of sports and hotel facilities, major infrastructure projects were initiated that significantly impact the wellbeing of residents still to this day. The Olympic Village was constructed at the port, opening the city to the sea, making it fit once again for leisure, and transforming the coastline from an industrial area to what National Geographic now calls the best beach city in the world. Other major projects included modernisation of the airport with two new terminals, and construction of the city ring roads to reduce traffic congestion in the centre. Does it matter that the Games had one of the highest cost over-runs in Olympic history? In an age where the Olympics is under increasing scrutiny regarding sustainability and legacy, Barcelona is held up as a success case rather than one of the most debt-laden in history. What is the return on investment (ROI) of any significant endeavour? Should it be measured only in monetary terms?
Measuring progress and performance
Societal wellbeing is increasingly recognized as being of vital importance for progress worldwide. It is widely accepted that measurement of economic growth in itself isn’t a true reflection of moving in the right direction, and governments are looking closer at ways in which they can measure development beyond gross domestic product (GDP). Though GDP is a standard and long-standing measure of development it is viewed by many as flawed. Gross national product, the forerunner to GDP, was the subject of criticism in 1968 by US President John F. Kennedy:
“Our gross national product… counts air pollution and cigarette advertising and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl… Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play.”
Though garnering little interest at the time, his remarks have since become well-known, as governments, including France in 2007 and the UK in 2010, have commissioned studies into new measures of national development and progress. Such recent focus builds on other alternative measures to GDP, such as the human development index – developed by the United Nations Development Programme and first published in 1990 – which combines income, life expectancy, and education. Much of this work led to the sustainable development goals that drive progress today and which we discussed in chapter one.
So which areas are governments looking at and how are we doing? Since 2011 the Office for National Statistics of the UK Government has used a mix of 41 subjective and objective measures of wellbeing, including life satisfaction, health, income, relationships, and crime. In 2017[1] it found areas that are improving include job satisfaction, education, personal finances, community belonging, and satisfaction with leisure time. Areas that are deteriorating include levels of anxiety, mental wellbeing in general, quality of relationships, and regular participation in sport.
The Scottish Government has made societal wellbeing a core part of its stewardship of the country. The National Performance Framework is, according to Cabinet Secretary John Swinney, about “how people live their lives, how they want to live their lives, their aspirations, and their hopes in society”. The 61 indicators comprising the framework are a measure of societal wellbeing and are driven by the five strategic objectives of: Wealthier and Fairer, Smarter, Healthier, Safer and Stronger, and Greener. Great Scottish thinkers from history inspire this new vision, including Adam Smith,[2] who said:
“No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?”
Wellbeing is therefore well established today as an important part of a thriving society. Business, as a key part of society, therefore has a role to play in this wellbeing and many organizations are considering other measures, beyond shareholder value, to gauge their development and progress. Recognizing that non-financial measures of progress still support economic growth helps to mainstream this more holistic approach, with research, for example, showing that higher job satisfaction leads to an increase in firm value.
What measures should be used to gauge wellbeing at work? And what use does this wellbeing have for the business? Researchers at the Ross School of Business have looked at the factors that support sustainable high performance.[3] They focus on the term ‘thriving’ to describe employees who are not just satisfied and productive but also engaged in creating the future. They see thriving as present when people believe what they are doing makes a difference and that they are learning. Thriving employees are highly energized and know how to avoid burnout. They found people who fit their description of thriving as having 16% better overall performance (as reported by their managers) and 125% less burnout (self-reported) than their peers. They were 32% more committed to the organization and 46% more satisfied with their jobs. They also missed much less work and reported significantly fewer doctor visits, which meant healthcare savings and less lost time for the company. Professor Scott DeRue, dean of the school, is convinced of the increasing importance of wellbeing for leadership and performance. He highlights the concept of ‘spillovers’, noting that wellbeing isn’t just something that matters at work: “We’ve found that if people aren’t well at work, they aren’t well at home, and vice versa.” The impact of business on healthy communities and societies is clear, with encouraging signs being a change in attitude with the new generation of managers. Current students at Ross have a thriving Wellness Club which tackles some of the main issues around health and performance that DeRue sees as important for more positive organizational leadership.
In 1776 the philosopher Jeremy Bentham defined the fundamental axiom of his work to be “the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong”. Bentham’s premise was a key element leading to today’s fascination with happiness and engagement in the workplace. He valued the importance of friendship in developing wisdom, saying “friendship dances around the world, bidding us all to awaken to the recognition of happiness”. He meant that it was friendship and connection that ultimately delivered happiness. As we covered in the last chapter, the Fourth Industrial Revolution will help us connect like never before. It is up to us to make the most of that.
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We’ve found that if people aren’t well at work, they aren’t well at home, and vice versa. |
The 2017 World Happiness Report includes a chapter on Happiness at Work. Loosely defined as subjective wellbeing, the authors consider self-reported evaluations of happiness in different jobs and around the world. Labour intensive jobs are rated as having lower levels of happiness worldwide. In contrast, white collar jobs – executives, managers, officials – evaluate the quality of their lives as higher. Self-employment has a more nuanced effect, in being associated with both higher overall life evaluation and with more negative, daily emotions such as stress and worry. It is important to highlight the key part that work in general has on our wellbeing as human beings – unemployment is shown to have a devastating effect, with the authors commenting that:
“The importance of having a job extends far beyond the salary attached to it. A large stream of research has shown that the non-monetary aspects of employment are also key drivers of people’s wellbeing. Social status, social relations, daily structure, and goals all exert a strong influence on people’s happiness.”
A key finding for our pursuit of business impact through wellbeing is the fact that though relatively high levels of happiness and job satisfaction are present around the world, engagement at work is still low. The authors state that engagement is a higher hurdle to clear than the simpler concept of satisfaction. How may we therefore gain that higher state of performance as opposed to idling along? An answer may come from a classic approach to wellbeing that has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years. The work on ‘flow’ by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi[4] has been covered of late in terms of performance, yet it is important to remember that its roots are in the pursuit of human happiness and wellbeing. What this tells us, we believe, is that wellbeing and performance are inseparable – and offer an as-yet-untapped source of massive potential for a company. At the very least both concepts are interdependent given the right workplace conditions. If we can better cater for the wellbeing needs of the company leadership and workforce at large through optimal experience and engagement, as proposed through flow, significant value may be generated on all sides.
Often associated with artists and athletes, who are understood to do their best work when they’re ‘in the zone’, flow has been found by researchers around the world in different activities. Reflecting on designing autotelic jobs – those that provide conditions for people to be highly engaged, regardless of external rewards such as money or power, Csikszentmihalyi believes that work should resemble a game. The feedback element as shown in the quote that follows may be a part of one’s leadership activity. Providing feedback is a powerful motivating factor that aligns with people’s purpose and shows them that what they are doing really does matter.
The further challenge for managers is to design work that stretches people to use their skills. When the work itself requires skills outside the capability of the worker, anxiety is the result. When the worker is tasked with a job that doesn’t require their full set of skills, they become bored. Moving in and out of the flow zone would be expected, given the dynamic of the workplace, and so effective people management should include being aware when excessive anxiety or boredom takes hold. A continual advance to the upper right of the graph is the overall aim. If we take the need for continual workplace learning as a requirement for wellbeing, as stated in some of the research above, then applying these developing skills to the challenges of the workplace should result in the organization exhibiting continual advancement also.
Figure 4.1. The flow channel[5]
“The more a job inherently resembles a game – with variety, appropriate and flexible challenges, clear goals, and immediate feedback – the more enjoyable it will be, regardless of the worker’s level of development.”
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi
The business approach to wellbeing
Wellbeing, happiness, satisfaction, engagement, experience, performance – all are impacted significantly by work. How may we best capture the available value? Wellbeing has a formal presence in most large companies today, yet it exists at a relatively junior level of the organization and is focused on the reduction of risks, including absenteeism and sickness. Many programmes take a clinical-based approach rooted in the insurance industry. Absence is often reduced, yet the dangers of presenteeism; long hours and low productivity, or people returning to work before they are ready, and affecting other members of the workforce negatively through sickness or emotions, are increasingly recognized.
Are formal wellbeing programmes required? In most cases, yes. Yet there is another way of perceiving the opportunities of wellbeing, in the ways that it can improve executive performance – through the increased energy, creativity, resilience, and leadership it undoubtedly generates. If a more progressive definition of health exists beyond merely the absence of sickness, why does health and wellbeing management in the enterprise still suffer from a similarly negative approach? One answer could be that the narrow, risk-focused view of wellbeing at work is easier to measure. Some of the business leaders we have engaged with believe this to be part of the company journey – gaining the foothold of demonstrating impact on such measures before affecting the leadership culture.
Elsa Belugou has managed wellbeing at O2 in the UK for several years. She counts on board-level sponsorship helping immensely in gaining ‘airtime’ for a topic that can be difficult to maintain, especially in times of turbulence and transition – certainly true in the telecommunications sector. She feels businesses need to have wellbeing as part of their DNA and that this should be driven from the top down. She has also started asking people who have suffered from mental health issues to write a personal blog to ensure it becomes normal at the company to talk and ask about these issues, further promoting a healthy discussion culture. Key measures for her own ROI include engagement, absence (or lack of!), utilisation of services, and interaction at company events.
BeHealthy is the health and wellbeing brand at Banco Santander. Global head of HR, Roberto di Bernardini has an ambition to eventually track the financial impact of the programme, but takes a five-year view instead of the short-term, believing instead in the value of gaining visibility and participation around the world. He is convinced of the business benefits of health and wellbeing, highlighting the massive difference in managing people compared to 30 years ago. There is now, he believes, a greater consensus around the importance of taking a holistic approach and taking care of people, both professionally and personally: “It’s not just about their professional or skills development but making them better human beings, and this necessarily involves physical and mental health. We have a duty to look after our humans while the science also shows that this personal development has significant professional benefits.” Interestingly, much of the leadership development and performance management links to this development. Now 40% of the company’s approach to performance management looks at how they are perceived as a leader – through their daily behaviours – by their direct reports, peers, and superiors.
Our own experience goes beyond the narrow confines of a risk-focused wellbeing programme towards leadership development, which in turn affects organizational culture. The discrete behaviours of leaders influence the behaviours of the people they lead – indirectly through the example they show or directly through their people management – allowing a wellbeing culture to emerge that mirrors the thriving environment noted by the Ross School of Business. This also aligns with some of the recent work in organizational culture by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which advises that tackling the ‘critical few behaviours’ is a more feasible approach than trying to change culture directly.
The business impact of wellbeing
The financial benefits of wellbeing programmes is a matter of debate. The Rand Corporation found that although four-fifths of all US employers with more than 1,000 employees are estimated to offer such programmes, there are no cost-savings associated with the management of high-risk employees (those who smoke or are overweight). It contrasts its findings[6] with Johnson & Johnson, one of the longest-running programmes in the US, which finds return on investment ranges from $1.88 to $3.92 saved for every dollar spent, believing its own methodology to be more accurate. It also found participation in programmes to be low, in the range of 20-40% of the workforce.
In the Wellness Syndrome[7] the authors concluded that corporate wellness programmes not only provide low returns on investment but can actually backfire, making many employees less healthy and more anxious about their jobs. One reason is that they are aggressively marketed and often alienate those high-risk people they are trying to help out in the first place, such as people who are smokers or overweight. Attaining the publicized image of the ‘superfit’ employee is often so unlikely that people don’t bother trying, while the recent trend towards measurement through wearable devices forms part of the big-brother mentality that can alienate workers.
So the benefits of wellbeing at work are undoubted, yet wellbeing programmes don’t always capture that value. How then may we deliver the ROI of wellbeing? One area could be talent management. Attracting, developing, and retaining the best talent is a priority for many leading companies in today’s business environment. Today’s war on talent and the sometimes-flighty nature of the millennial generation means that companies need to look at any conceivable edge to maintain and nurture their most precious resource. Wellbeing has a potentially massive part to play. Santander’s Di Bernardini states that:
“We are no longer competing against Citi or Lloyds but also Facebook, Google, and the fintech start-up in someone’s backyard. We need to convince people that working with us, while of course involves making money, there is a responsible and sustainable purpose at the core of everything we do.”
As the case below demonstrates, established companies who used to count on their own brand lustre to ensure loyalty and engagement can no longer do so. The emerging liquid workforce will only increase such phenomena. Accenture predicts that 45% of the workforce will be based on a contractor model by the year 2025, and have three or four main employers.
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A case from Professor MacGregor It was the second morning of the annual graduate onboarding event when the chief human resources officer of one of the biggest technology companies in the world got the call. She sat wide-eyed as she was informed that 50 of the 300-strong group wanted to go home. The onboarding experience hadn’t met their expectations apparently. So she flew in a day earlier than planned to meet with her new, mutinous charges. They thrashed out a deal. The group of 50 had to design a new onboarding experience that would not only satisfy them, but also receive the buy-in of the other 250. “You better get a move on” she said, before leaving. “I’ll be back this time tomorrow.” |
The gig economy throws up a number of different dilemmas. Whose responsibility is wellbeing? The marketplace for talent will compete on the basis of the wellbeing offering they make available, including broad aspects like purpose. Today, people look beyond the pay packet to the wider conditions and the possibility of leaving a positive mark.
Current rapid development in people analytics ought to support the business case. Ralf Buechsenschuss, global manager in Nestlé’s People Analytics function, uses these rich data sets to inform better decision-making in the business. People management is one of the main areas of focus. It includes measuring the impact of diversity and the benefits of better people management skills in line managers – essentially measuring the positive business impact of leadership. The team works as a type of in-house consultancy, where data scientists are tasked with different projects based around a key question, such as the impact of training on business results or levels of customer satisfaction. He sees even greater potential of using data responsibility to look at organizational health and performance of people in the business. In general, he views the growing capability in people analytics as a means of differentiating the company in today’s marketplace for talent, while also giving the chief human resources officer the data to back up decisions and engage in more strategic-level discussions with the CFO and CEO in a company, referred to in some quarters as ‘the golden triangle’.
Getting to the critical few behaviours of wellbeing at work
What elements need to be considered for a culture that supports the Chief Wellbeing Officer? Much of our own work has centred on physical activity, sleep, mindfulness, and nutrition. Much of this development has taken place at Telefónica’s corporate university, Universitas, which we believe to be the best in the world. In many ways Universitas is about wellbeing rather than strategy, and content is designed according to the ROI of being rigorous, original, and impactful. The four areas of physical activity, sleep, mindfulness, and nutrition are introduced briefly below as a first reflection on business impact. We then detail the content in part two of the book, which follows.
Physical activity has been shown to support different business outcomes. Meetings are a large feature of business and changing the dynamic of meetings, from sitting to standing or even walking, can have a variety of positive business impacts. The business case is supported by our human biology. Movement creates energy in the oxygen-rich blood that is transported through the body and brain, activating neurons and releasing hormones conducive to better cognitive performance. The behaviours we demonstrate as leaders should show the right example for the rest of the organization. Simple things like getting away from your desk for more direct communication, and the accidental encounters that drive innovation may help create a thriving organizational culture based on wellbeing. Though spending time on dedicated physical exercise is often viewed as a luxury, it helps create the energy required for a demanding job, reduce stress, and improve self-efficacy that can be transferred to other areas of life.
Sleep has a key role in high performance, especially for the most senior people in an organization. Executive thinking, as we noted in chapter one, requires us to be flexible, agile, and innovative, responding to a changing environment. It is the type of thinking that suffers most with sleep deprivation – even a slight reduction on what you need as an individual (with most of us needing between seven and eight hours).
Mindfulness has enjoyed significant attention in business over recent years. Brain-imaging techniques show that it actually does change the brain. Human development specialist Christina Congleton and her colleagues, writing in the Harvard Business Review blog[8] highlight two of the eight affected areas of the brain most pertinent to the business context. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is associated with self-regulation, meaning the ability to direct attention and behaviour, suppressing inappropriate knee-jerk responses, and learning from past experiences. Meditators have been shown to have more activity in the ACC. The second area is the hippocampus, which is covered in receptors for the stress hormone cortisol. Studies have shown that this can be damaged by chronic stress, and the practice of mindfulness has shown development in this area, therefore supporting resilience.
Mindfulness is a very specific and valuable technique that addresses the dangers of busyness. Though excessive multitasking and a lack of focus aren’t exclusive to the current generation of mangers, such characteristics are certainly more prevalent in recent years as a result of technology. The distracted world in which we live was the focus of Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work, which shows how quality thinking, and the success that ensues, can be achieved in spite of the current environment. The modern take complements timeless wisdom such as Peter Drucker writing in The Effective Executive in 1966 that “if there is any one secret to effectiveness, it is concentration. Effective executives do first things first and they do one thing at a time.”
Nutrition has been shown to affect decision-making. Well-cited research by Professor Shai Danziger and colleagues[9] into the decision-making processes of a jury panel in Israel found that the chances of getting parole were 90% lower in the afternoon. They highlight the ‘decision fatigue’ of judges having to rule all day on cases without sufficient breaks. An important part of the subsequent redesign of the process was paying attention to the food intake of the judges, in order to sufficiently fuel their decisions. Decision fatigue can be traced to Roy Baumeister and colleagues, and their research on willpower as a muscle. They consider the energy requirements of the brain, which, like many muscles in the body, requires glucose to function. We have long believed that the best decision-makers are the ones who know when not to trust themselves, and part of that distrust can be related to nutrition. We have considered measures of food such as the glycemic index (GI), which can result in fluctuations of glucose in the body and corresponding energy fluctuations. Habitual consumption of high GI foods, of particular danger for the busy professional while travelling, can have negative effects on decisions as well as weight management.
It follows that physical activity, sleep, mindfulness, and nutrition should all be considered for wellbeing at work, not just for the benefits of health and wellbeing, but to support the business case and performance of the people who work there. With this clear business case in view, wellbeing should therefore be present beyond a narrow wellbeing programme, to leadership development in the enterprise. Such programmes, though potentially valuable in certain circumstances, will have a limited return on investment. Leadership development, focusing on a critical few behaviours based on wellbeing and performance, will create the necessary conditions for flow and a more balanced, positive, and thriving organizational culture.
There are signs of this happening. We have worked with many pioneering companies in this regard, through the coaching and customized training programmes for senior staff, yet it is far from being a normal part of leadership activity and the overall culture of work. Chief Wellbeing Officers are therefore required in all organizations, and at all levels of the organization, regardless of formal job title and responsibilities.
In a similar fashion to moving beyond the flawed measure of GDP to gauge national development and progress, we need to move beyond the flawed view that wellbeing only regards the absence of sickness and reduction of absenteeism. Instead, what is the positive business impact that can be achieved through wellbeing? This necessarily includes elements of engagement and experience. The next part of the book will begin to unpack the main components of wellbeing at work, which we view as healthy, happy and high-performing.
Our fervent wish is that wellbeing is used as the means to build value, not to fix something that is broken or patched on after other things have been sacrificed. We have often encountered people who have espoused a strong message of responsibility – perhaps CSR in business or environmental care. You then find out that their reinvention came after five years as an investment banker or some similarly ethically questionable industry. Come on! We applaud any attempt at reinvention but find it a bit rich coming from people who only turn to this direction once they have €5m in the bank. Let’s try and celebrate another way to success and merely tolerate this, not the other way round.
The 1992 Olympics put Barcelona on the world stage, where it has stayed ever since. The ROI of the massive infrastructure spend may be questionable if viewed only on narrow terms. It becomes more convincing when viewing how the city has become a truly global pull for tourism. Yet the biggest benefit may be in the deep cultural change of the Catalan people. The Olympics gave them confidence and belief, changing their daily behaviours forever to truly embrace wellbeing.