What do employees want most right now?

If you said wellbeing … ding, ding, ding! You are correct!

In our 2023 Candidate Motivators Report, balance and wellbeing were both in the top 5 attributes that employees consider when choosing an employer. So, if you’re looking for something that gives your business a serious and sustainable competitive advantage over your competition, it’s time to make sure wellbeing is showing up strong in your EVP.

If you need a few more stats to be convinced, consider this:

• Employees who feel their employer has their wellbeing top of mind are:
• 3x more likely to be more engaged in their work
• 69% less likely to go searching for a new job
• 5x more likely to be a positive advocate for their company and spread those good vibes.

Most businesses out there probably have some sort of wellbeing program already in place - but how effective and engaging is it really? It’s no longer enough to just have something put together that looks good on paper, it actually needs to give real value to your teams and that value needs to be measurable.

Why do you need to measure it?

If your wellbeing programs don’t deliver any value to your employees, then they can actually end up hurting your retention rates, as well as your employee engagement and attraction - which is the opposite of what we want. The only way to prevent that is to make sure it’s measured.

So let's talk about it.

Let’s start from scratch

Even if you have a wellbeing program in place, taking a moment to back it up to the beginning and re-evaluate the groundwork can be an extremely helpful exercise in improving your offering.

When you’re putting together a program, you want to be crystal clear on a few things. 

• Do you completely understand your organisation’s drivers, objectives and plans, especially as they relate to your people?
• Have you developed clear goals and objectives for your program (we’re talking SMART goals - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Based)?

From there, it’s time to look at your KPIs. Look at any data you have and get an understanding of where your teams are at and if there are any areas of immediate concern that you could address with this program.

With this solid foundation, it’s time to get that cash flowing - it’s no good planning all these wonderful things if you can’t actually secure any funding to get it off the ground. With the data behind you, you can start testing the waters to see what approvals you can.

Understanding the impact

As well as having some great groundwork in place, the second key element is actually having a REAL understanding of why all of this is so important. To have that real passion and push to make these programs work, there needs to be a true appreciation of the real difference it can make for your employees and your business.

The capacity and performance of your workers is affected by a variety of factors - physical, financial and social. Yet probably the most significant factor of them all is psychological. Research shows that when companies provide their employees with adequate wellbeing support, and therefore are adequately supporting their psychological needs, they see an increase in profitability. 

Who doesn’t like to see those numbers?

Don’t just set and forget

You’ve laid the groundwork, you’ve got a true understanding of what you need these programs for and you’ve put one in place. Amazing! But the work isn’t done.

These programs are not something to set and forget - they need to be monitored and measured, and here’s why.

By keeping tabs on how things are going, you’ll start to see the evidence on how the implementation of these programs is actually improving organisational performance. This evidence is key to keeping these programs, and that funding, running.

Measuring also ensures these programs are being used effectively and can alert you to whether or not they are aligning with the goals you set out at the start. Is it actually helping to reduce your absentee rate? Has it improved morale? Is there increasing employee engagement?

Whether it’s the C-level execs or team managers, having hard evidence can help everyone really understand why your people need this.

Time to crunch the numbers

Data-lovers rejoice, we have arrived at the point where we can start crunching the numbers on what these programs are actually doing for your company.

So what should you be measuring?

There are a few KPI’s you track (these are just some of our favourites): 

• Employee Satisfaction
• Employee Retention (you can find some great measurement options here)
• Employee Motivation (keep an eye on your employee productivity, absenteeism, work quality and turnover rates)
• Management Satisfaction (things like surveys and one-on-one meetings are great)
• Peer Satisfaction (how well do all your employees get on with each other - surveys, one-on-one meetings and focus groups can help gather this data)
• Culture (some great measurement options here).

Method to the madness

Ok, so you’ve got a few ideas on how you’re going to keep tabs on things, but what’s the best way to go about implementing all this to ensure you’re tracking and gathering data accurately?

For starters, having a good mix of qualitative and quantitative measurement frameworks is ideal. It’s also worth considering whether you can simply add-on to measuring strategies you already have to save the hassle of implementing a bunch of new systems. 

Here are a few of our suggestions:

• Including one-on-one meetings around wellbeing as part of your annual or bi-annual staff survey 
• Adding wellbeing questions to your quarterly Staff Pulse Surveys
• Initiating focus groups of employees with their leaders 
• Conducting regular interviews with Management 

As they say, ‘what gets measured gets managed’

It’s important to understand the metrics that matter when it comes to your people and your wellbeing program can have a significant impact on improving the key people metrics in your business. 

Without knowing what’s happening on the ground floor, without looking at the wellbeing of your employees, you can quickly run into some persistent problems.

Remember, just throwing a wellbeing program out there and hoping for the best won’t do the job - understanding the program’s impact is critical to success.