BEYOND FREE BANANAS FEATURE
organisation that embraces employee wellbeing and reaps the performance improvements and one that does not. The privilege of taking research findings out
For the organisations who were doing little on
wellbeing, the main challenge seemed to be finding and investing the time required to think clearly about this issue. All of the following challenges stemmed from this.
It was not uncommon for managers to have a
limited overview of how many of their organisation’s existing activities related to wellbeing. They were sometimes surprised how much they were already doing when we talked. The trouble arose in scattergun approaches, which made the organisation seem busy on wellbeing, without any evidence of positive ongoing impact. Managers admitted looking for easy-to-deliver options, rather than activities they believed would make the most difference. They also questioned where to turn to get their ‘accidental’ managers (promoted on technical skills, rather than people skills) trained and ready for their management roles. In contrast, the organisations who were doing a lot on the basics of employee wellbeing – particularly around training managers and fostering good communication – focused on the importance of their organisational values in guiding their use of time and focus. They talked about fostering an ‘open door culture’. They described their attempts to experiment, try new things and learn. The pioneers in this area were no less busy, financially constrained or on average larger than those who were less active. But instead of focussing on lack of time, they started from ‘what does our organisation value?’ and allocated time on that basis. Perhaps one of the most convincing reasons
why some organisations find tackling employee wellbeing challenging is that being genuinely interested in the employee experience is a transformative process. It requires changes in culture and management style, sustained over time. Realising this and believing it to be important could be the key difference between an
into the community is the joy of gaining immediate feedback and comment. Two particular comments have stayed with me. One highlights the challenge to overcome, the other the simplest understanding of what needs to be done. “So, it’s just like with a boyfriend, then?” asked a workshop participant. I’d just finished running through the ways research suggests organisations can promote employee wellbeing, so I didn’t immediately see the connection. Luckily, she continued: “He can bring you roses and take you to Paris, but that doesn’t make a good relationship if he doesn’t respect you. Just like a business can put on a wellbeing day, but still treat you badly the rest of the year.” Workplace wellbeing relies on the fundamentals of communication, relationship- building and valuing people. While there are obvious differences between friendly, romantic and working relationships, her admirably succinct explanation summarised the point I’d just been making for 10 minutes. I asked if I could use it again. She agreed. The other comment was just as enlightening.
“We just want you to fire a magic bullet and make our lives better!” laughed one of my participants at the end of a frank group discussion about issues of workplace wellbeing in engineering and manufacturing. This was a joke – we all knew it. But there was also a hint of truth in the plea for an easy solution. Human interaction is messy and relationships
can be hard – whether between friends, partners, co-workers or a business and its employees. The organisations that are making progress on employee wellbeing recognise this complexity. They work incrementally and systematically on training managers and providing high-quality conditions and opportunities that value people and their contributions. Yet workplace wellbeing is not just down to pioneering businesses. Job quality depends on everything from national policy on workers’ rights and conditions, down to the attitude of each supervisor on the shop floor. So, let’s look beyond free bananas and work systematically on making our workplaces better for all. n
i
To download a copy of ‘Where are you on the workplace wellbeing journey?, a summary of the findings of this research, go to:
www.uea.ac.uk/esi/people and click on Dr Helen Fitzhugh’s profile to find a link to the PDF.
To download findings summaries on workplace wellbeing topics and the information sheet ‘Why invest in employee wellbeing?’, go to:
whatworkswellbeing.org/our-work/work Contact Dr Helen Fitzhugh, Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia Telephone 01603 593014 Email
h.fitzhugh@
uea.ac.uk
AUTUMN 2018 SOCIETY NOW 19
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