How will your organization bridge the gap in employee wellbeing?

As pandemic regulations and realities rapidly shift, and our doors begin to reopen, your employees need more support than ever. But even though it feels like we’re finally seeing the horizon and hearing answers to questions that have kept us awake for over a year, we’re all wounded by the impact of COVID, social injustice, and lingering uncertainty.

With no set protocol, organizations are faced with making decisions that will keep their people’s health and physical safety a priority. But what about their emotional and social needs? Our latest research reveals a staggering 1-in-3 employed Americans are struggling with Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) factors like food, housing, and/or financial security today. And when 70% of all physical and mental health outcomes are dependent on these factors, the role organizations play in helping their people achieve a healthy emotional and social bottom line is critical.

There were cracks between the wellbeing tools employers offered their people and what their people expected long before the pandemic threw us into turmoil. But like countless other things COVID accelerated in the last 15 months, the cracks widened into large gaps, and now organizations must reconcile this divide quickly to avoid becoming another statistic in the great resignation.

However, this gap isn’t one of apathy — it’s one of root-cause awareness. When 2-in-3 business leaders report their company’s wellbeing initiatives fall short in supporting their people’s needs, it’s obvious that a new approach is necessary to address the unique needs of your people. One that individualizes and destigmatizes the process while accounting for the personal and social determinants foundational to emotional wellbeing that have been overlooked by traditional employer offerings.

Organizations need to move their wellbeing strategy from a sideshow solely focused on broccoli and treadmills to something central to your core employee value proposition, focused on new wellbeing outcomes: meaning, purpose, connection, authenticity, inclusion, and growth.

How do you move from traditional wellbeing to one that truly meets your people’s unmet needs?

• Be aware of burnout drivers and address these drivers.
• See employees as individuals and help them address unmet, essential needs like food, housing, childcare, and eldercare.
• Cultivate and activate each person’s sense of purpose, connection, and ability to see work as a path to greater fulfillment.